Politics & Government

Political Salvo: Taborsak versus Boughton

Lynn Taborsak, the Democratic Party's opponent in the November election for mayor, said Boughton is using the city's 311 system to campaign for another term.

Lynn Taborsak, Democratic Party candidate for mayor, said Boughton is making CL&P and the State of Connecticut out to be the bad guys, so he can look like the good guy after Hurricane Irene to help him win the November election.

Taborsak said Boughton was using the city's reverse 911 system for political purposes.

Boughton, now serving his fifth term, said he used the city's reverse 911 system during Hurricane Irene to tell city residents what they needed to know. It is a telephone system, sometimes used as a reverse 911 system, that does two things. It lets people report complaints or issues. It also lets the city warn residents about widespread problems, like hurricanes or blizzards.

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Boughton and Taborsak are both running for mayor of Danbury in the November election.

"He's blaming CL&P. He's blaming Malloy. What he's saying is, 'I'll fix everything. Rise up and praise my name,'" Taborsak said. "I don't need to know the mayor is frustrated. CL&P is facing a gargantaum task. They're working as fast as possible. It takes time to do it."

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Taborsak, a former state reprepresentative and the Danbury Democratic Party Chairman, said this is an election year. Boughton is making political hay.

"The city's 311 system is a convenient way to reach 80,000 residents. It's easy to tell people who is at fault and who are the good guys," Taborsak said.

Boughton defended his call, which told people he was frustrated with CL&P's response and he wanted more effort from the utility.

"It's my job to help get the power restored to Danbury residents. I'm doing that by putting as much pressure as possible on CL&P. I got a call from the president of CL&P today. We've been playing phone tag all day. Clearly the pressure is working. He knows I'm upset about restoring power in Danbury, and he wants to talk about it," Boughton said. "We were promised more crews an hour ago."

Boughton said if Taborsak wants to help instead of taking political shots at him, she should help clean up the flooded lawns at Jensen Mobile Home park or serve meals to the elderly.

This is the audio of the mayor's reverse 911 call, as provided by the HatCityBlog. You can decide for yourself.


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