Election 2023 turned out to be the year of familiarity as Wilton voters stuck by the candidates they knew well. With more than 41% of the voters casting ballots in this year’s municipal elections, Wilton returned incumbents and familiar names to the Boards of Education and Selectmen; and for the Board of Finance, they went with the more conservative choices.
Politically, results were roughly split between the two major parties, with each side having both a reason to celebrate and an opportunity to do some soul searching.
Board of Selectmen
Running unopposed for First Selectman, Toni Boucher (R) will lead the town for the next four years, representing Wilton voters once again as she had before in town on the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen, and in Hartford as State Representative and State Senator.
Though unopposed, Boucher had a total number of 3,413 votes.
“I was incredibly honored and touched by so many Wilton people that greeted me and thanked me for running,” she said, noting that the support inspired her.
“I hope I can live up to their expectations,” she said, noting that she will be enlisting the help of “the vast intellectual resources of our town” to help solve some of the big issues in the term ahead.
The Board of Selectmen will see the return of incumbents Ross Tartell (D) and Josh Cole (R) over newcomer Farah Masani (D), who generated a lot of support in letters to the editor during election season but did not win a term on the board. Her loss means Republicans still retain a 3-2 majority on the BOS.
Democratic Board of Ed candidate Pat Pearson at District 3. Credit: Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton 
District 2, a.k.a. Cider Mill School, on Election Day. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Republican from left, including Board of Finance candidate Rudy Escalante, imbumbent Second Selectman Joshua Cole, and current First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice, who is not running again. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Heather Priest, left, unaffiliated candidate running on the Republican line for BOE, and Annie Chochos, GOP candidate for BOE, outside of District 1 voting location. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Hayley Axelrod of Wilton represents her friend Sara Sclafani outside of District 2. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Voters line up to check in to vote by street address. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Farah Masani, at right, candidate for the Board of Selectmen, chats with a fellow Democrat outside of District 2. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Candidates Heather Priest, left, and Annie Chochos greet a voter outside District 1. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Signs to vote at District 3, Middlebrook School. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice, who is not seeking reelection, helps campaign for the GOP outside District 2 at Cider Mill School. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Resident Michael Jones of Wilton checks in to vote in District 1. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Eva Clements, head ballot clerk at District 1, welcomes voters. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Selectman Ross Tartell, a Democratic candidate for re-election, chats with someone outside at District 3. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton. 
Republican Toni Boucher, Wilton next first selectperson, campaigns at District 3, Middlebrook School. Credit Jarret Liotta / Good Morning Wilton.
Tartell had the most votes with 2,824, Cole had 2,672, and Masani had 2,560.
“I’m happy,” said Cole. “I’m proud that I ran a positive campaign focusing on the issues … and didn’t engage in negative attacks,” he said, joining his fellow Republicans for a celebration Tuesday night after polls closed at the Red Rooster Pub.
“I’m looking forward to working with Toni and continuing the great work we’ve done,” he said.
Masani, who was with her fellow Democrats at the Grange Hall, expressed positivity at coming close in her race against Cole, with a 112-vote difference.
“I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve accomplished,” she said. “Losing by (112) votes to a person who has been on the Board of Selectpeople for four-and-a-half years is a huge accomplishment.”
“That tells me there’s gonna be a next time for sure, but in the meantime there is so much other work that I can continue to do in the ways that I already serve our community,” she said, noting that having had to miss both candidate debates due to a death in her family may have made the difference in the end.
Board of Education
While Lori Bufano (R) will be a newcomer to the Board of Education (four-year term), she’s no newbie in town government; previously Bufano has served on the Board of Selectmen as second selectman and on the Planning and Zoning Commission. She also grew up in Wilton, graduating from Wilton High School, and now sitting on the board that oversees the schools.
Voters also returned incumbent Board of Education Chair Ruth DeLuca (D), who at 2,724 votes was handily re-elected with just three fewer than Bufano at 2,727.
Bufano expressed her appreciation to voters. “I’m very happy to be part of the Board of Education,” she said, adding, “I’d like to thank all the folks in Wilton who voted for me and I’m looking forward to being part of this collaborative board.”
DeLuca shared her gratitude to Wilton voters as well. “Thank you Wilton for your trust and support. Serving our kids and town for the last four years has been an honor and privilege. I look forward to continuing the board’s work,” she said.
Bufano and DeLuca will be joined by Patrick Pearson (D), who is not only new to municipal government but a relative newcomer to Wilton after moving here two years ago.
“I’m really excited to be able to give a voice to all the young families in Wilton on our number-one asset — our school system,” he said.
“I look forward to working with the Board of Education and especially the Board of Finance to make sure that our schools are put in a position to succeed,” he said.
Voters did not seat two other first-time candidates Mark Shaner (U/R endorsed) — who had to answer questions about conflict of interest throughout the campaign — or Annie Chochos (R). The BOE will also keep a 4-2 Democratic majority.
Shaner said he hoped those elected to the board would stand by promises to be transparent and inclusive.
“The thing I heard consistently in the race is that the board needs to be nonpartisan,” he said, “and I think we in the town need to hold [it] accountable to that.”
Another candidate also faced conflict of interest questions during the campaign, but her history with residents was favorably strong enough to win her the two-year Board of Education term: former Middlebrook School teacher Heather Priest (U/R endorsed) soundly defeated Sara Sclafani (U/petition).
“I feel great,” Priest said. “I’m sad that I won’t have the whole ticket with me, but I’m really excited to see what work I can get done in the next two years.”
Republican Board of Finance candidate Prasad Iyer waits for results to come in. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Democrats congregate at the Grange Hall. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Republican BOE candidate Annie Chochos gets news from Republican Town Committee member Bill Lalor. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Democrats Pat Pearson and Farah Masani. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Incumbent Republican Melissa-Jean Rotini, vice chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission, was unopposed for reelection. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Incumbent Republican Richard Tomasetti, who ran unopposed, will continue serving as chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Mark Shaner, an unaffiliated candidate for BOE who ran on the Republican ticket, fell short in the total vote. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton. 
Democrat Tim Birch won a seat on the Board of Finance Tuesday night. Credit Jarret Liotta / GOOD Morning Wilton.
“It’s an amazing town and I can’t wait to keep making education a priority, putting the resources toward the students, and making this an amazing place to raise a family,” she said.
Sclafani might have been better known by younger families from her time as Miller-Driscoll School PTA co-president, but not well enough by other residents. What’s more, running as an unaffiliated candidate apart from the political town committees is always an uphill battle, one that Sclafani couldn’t conquer in this election.
UPDATE: Sclafani sent a comment Wednesday morning, congratulating Priest on her win.
“I’m very proud of my campaign and grateful for all of the support I received, especially in light of the incredible challenges of running as an independent petitioning candidate. I’m disappointed in the results; however, I remain committed to supporting our schools in any way I can. Public education is the most important investment we can make in our children. All my best to the new board,” she wrote.
Board of Finance
None of the candidates for Board of Finance were incumbents seeking re-election. However, candidates Rudy Escalante (R) and Prasad Iyer (R) promised residents to use a critical eye when it came to school spending and were awarded with two of the three open BOF seats. They’ll be joined by the top-vote-getter Tim Birch (D) who was less vocal about defending the Board of Education budget against overzealous BOF cuts than his fellow Democrats David Tatkow (D) and Slava Servello (D). However, with only a six-point difference between Tatkow and the next highest vote-getter Iyer, that race will likely go to a recount. Unless that recount changes things, the Republicans will have a 4-2 majority on BOF.
The races for Planning and Zoning Commission, Board of Assessment Appeals, and Zoning Board of Appeals were all uncontested, so all the candidates in those races have won their seats.
Finally, with five seats open and six candidates, it looks like the one candidate who will not be named a constable is Peter Wrampe (R). The other five — Jane Rinard (D), Ernie Ricco (D), Bo Mitchell (D), Maggie Bittner (R) and Angie Bertolino (Independent/R endorsed) — will be.
Reactions from Political Party Leadership
Peter Wrampe, chair of the Republican Town Committee, expressed unhappiness with the tone of the elections, simultaneously noting that there was no one to blame for what he said were some races the GOP should have won.
“I’m not gonna go and point fingers,” he said. “I was taught when you have a loss, to look in the mirror and the answer to that loss is looking at you.”
But Wrampe did say the tone took a toll on the RTC candidates’ prospects. “The next election in town needs to be a lot less uncivilized, or contentious, or antagonistic,” he said.
Asked about specifics, he said, “Take a look at GOOD Morning Wilton. Take a look at what was published … There was stuff published that shouldn’t have been published, and ads that shouldn’t have been run, and I made that quite clear to the DTC, but the voters have spoken.”
For his part, Democratic Town Committee Chair Tom Dubin stayed focused more on the positive outcomes, even if his comment was less off-the-cuff.
“Both parties nominated strong candidates, and we congratulate RTC Chair Peter Wrampe and the Republicans for well-run races. It’s interesting that at the end of the day both parties retained their effective going-in board controls. We were hoping for more than a status-quo election, but are pleased that Ross Tartell and Tim Birch received the most votes for Selectman and Board of Finance, respectively, and that Ruth DeLuca will return to the Board of Ed along with Patrick Pearson to maintain a Democratic majority,” Dubin said.*
Boucher too sought to set a positive tone.
“I’m very proud of the hard work all of the other candidates put into this race,” she said, “and I look forward to working with all the candidates.”
*CLARIFICATION: Republican BOF Clerk Matt Raimondi reached out to GMW saying that Dubin’s quote was ‘factually incorrect’ by saying that both parties retained control of their pre-election boards. He noted that the Board of Finance has had an even split of three Republican members and three Democratic members (including Chris Stroup, an unaffiliated member who was elected on a Democratic slate, Sandy Arkell, and BOF Chair Michael Kaelin). As we noted above in our article, the 2023 election gave the Republicans a 4-2 majority on the Board of Finance. When we reached out to Dubin about Raimondi’s point, Dubin said he had been specific with his quote, noting his use of the word ‘effective’. “Chris is unaffiliated, and [BOF Chair] Mike [Kaelin] wasn’t aligning as a Dem. The Rs had effective control over the BoF more so than the Dems going into the race, and they retained that.”
Correction: A previous article identified Matt Raimondi as the vice chair of the Board of Finance. He is the clerk. The story has been updated to reflect this. Also, the political affiliation of Angie Bertolino has been updated to reflect that she is a registered Independent endorsed by the RTC. She previously was identified as a Republican.
So as in 2021, the election where Democrats ran the most confrontational race was also the one where they did the best; there’s probably a lesson there, both in how Democrats run their races and in how Republicans’ indignant responses fail to resonate with voters. But I don’t know how Wrampe gets to blame negativity for Republican losses when – even as they ran some pretty negative articles themselves – they were also trying really, really, hard to score political points off of *not* being negative, to the point of actually drawing attention to the Democrats’ criticisms. Once you lean into the other party’s negativity as an election tactic, I think you lose the right to blame it for your defeat.
Heather Priest will effectively be running against two other Republicans in two years to keep her seat, so she may have an uphill battle, particularly if she gets sloppy about recusals; in any event, she’s in a 4-2 minority, so whatever programs are cut in the next 2 rounds of BOF budget-slashing will not be up to her.
The BOF is a real heartbreaker, but actually an extremely encouraging margin compared to 2 years ago, and it’s worth remembering that before 2021 Democrats had won election majorities on exactly zero Wilton boards (at least in recent history). Though I’m sure that the newly elected Republicans will be eager to claim that between their magical survey and whatever handful of votes give them their margin they win by after the recount there’s a strong mandate for budget cuts. It’s no worse than the current BOF anyway, and in 2025 we get to run against two BOF Republicans with actual records to criticize; between this and the overall much improved numbers versus last time I’m hoping the next two “lean budgets” will be our last two.
Farah’s loss is a real heartbreaker but I hope she runs again. Sarah too, maybe with a D endorsement next time. I daresay that the two of them and the two losing BOF nominees would all have an excellent shot in 2025, as Wilton continues to get bluer every year.
But clearly row C is a bridge too far, even with an awesome candidate and a flawed opponent – it was a valiant effort, and undoubtedly helped the Democrats secure victory for the 4-year BOE seats, but the fact that Priest’s total was within a few dozen votes of her compatriots while Sclafani’s dropped by almost 700 suggests that no amount of advertising is enough to persuade every straight-ticket row-A-filler to pause on one of the blank spots and fill in row C.