August 17, 2010
BY SHAWN BOBURG
The Record
STAFF WRITER
RIDGEFIELD — Voters on Tuesday declined by a narrow margin to remove Mayor Anthony Suarez from office as he faces federal prosecution on corruption charges.
Ridgefield residents voted in the special election to keep Suarez as their mayor by 1,023 votes to 985, according to unofficial results.
“People who know me in this town know I’d never do anything wrong, and that’s why I was not recalled tonight,” an emotional Suarez said Tuesday evening while surrounded by about three dozen friends and relatives celebrating at a Ridgefield restaurant. “It wasn’t right to try to undo a duly elected official.”
Suarez, a Democrat, called on the Republican group that spearheaded the recall effort to reimburse the town for the cost of the balloting, estimated at $16,000.
A defiant Suarez had resisted calls to resign since his arrest more than a year ago for allegedly agreeing to accept $10,000 in bribes from an FBI informant posing as a developer. He stands indicted on charges of conspiring to extort a cooperating witness, but has maintained he is innocent and says he should be given a chance to prove it at his trial, scheduled to begin in early October.
“People here showed they believe in me,” Suarez said, standing next to his wife.
His critics said they were disappointed in the result and blamed it partly on the timing of the election.
“Ridgefield has failed its collective intelligence test,” said Robert Avery, a Republican who spearheaded the recall effort. “Beyond that, it’s the summer, when so many of our residents are on vacation and not able to vote. This is not representative of our entire electorate.”
Of Ridgefield’s 5,668 registered voters, 2,008, or 35 percent, turned out for the recall election.
Avery said Suarez should reimburse the town for the cost of the election because “none of this would have happened if he wasn’t charged with corruption.”
At certain points in the early evening, campaigners outnumbered voters at the polls, as both sides mounted a furious effort to get last-minute votes. Residents showing up at the polls heard contrasting arguments that Suarez was innocent until proved guilty or that he was casting a long shadow over the town.
Vicky Vanacore was swayed by the latter.
“The guy was indicted,” said Vanacore, a Republican who has lived in the borough four years. “I trust our criminal justice system enough that I believe it’s our duty as citizens to come out here and do something about it.”
On the other side were voters like Othmar Metzler, an independent and 32-year borough resident.
“I think this whole election is a waste of time and money,” he said. “If he’s guilty, he’ll get voted out anyway.”
Suarez is up for reelection next year.
Voters also were asked which of three candidates should replace Suarez if he was recalled. The candidates — councilmen Warren Vincentz and Javier Acosta and former zoning board member Al Gil — -toured polling sites during the day. Of the three, Vincentz, a Republican, tallied the most votes in the moot election with 939 votes, compared with 705 for Acosta and 95 for Gil.
Both sides in the recall election said throughout the day that they expected the race to be close. But the razor-thin victory was a pleasant surprise to Stephen Pellino, a Suarez ally.
“Removing him from office before he has a chance to defend himself just wouldn’t be the American Way,” he said.
