Cope said she looked “very silly.” Office of Elizabeth Esty U.S. But he didn’t rule out lending his voice to Wolfgang’s cause or accepting an endorsement, if one is offered. “We win by creating jobs, by creating efficiencies in government.”Ĭope has taken half of Boughton’s warning to heart: He has a natural reticence to talk about abortion, same-sex marriage, Wolfgang’s courtship or anything else that distracts from his message of security and fiscal conservatism. “Republicans have got to learn to speak to the people of the 21 st Century, and we don’t win elections when we spend our time telling people what to do in the bedroom or what to do with their bodies,” Boughton said. The ACLU says FADA would undermine a wide range of federal laws that protect against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.īoughton, one of three officials from nearby municipalities whom Cope says played an important role in coaxing him into the congressional race, fervently hopes Cope will not join Trump, Cruz, Rubio and the others as soldiers in the culture wars. The American Civil Liberties Union and others counter that the measure would do nothing less than codify a right to discriminate against anyone in an LGBT relationship, married or not, or any straight person in an intimate relationship outside marriage. He has the potential to bridge the chasm,” said Wolfgang, who has met with Cope. “As a gay man himself he has the potential of a Nixon-goes-to-China by supporting the religious liberty of dissenters on an issue that has so polarized politics. On the matter of contracting with a dog service to chase away the ducks from Town Beach, he was agnostic, if not amused. He prefers an education campaign to encourage residents to regularly pump out their septic tanks, minimizing the flow of nutrients into Candlewood Lake.īefore fines are imposed for failing to pick up after dogs, he would prefer to see the town promote voluntary compliance by providing plastic-bag dispensers and more trash cans at the parks. “It’s a big problem for me, this poop,” Cope said wryly, a faint Texas twang still discernible after 15 years as a year-round resident of Sherman, the last five as its chief elected official supervising a municipal workforce of two dozen.Ĭope is opposed to an ordinance that would allow inspections of septic systems, saying it already failed at referendum and would be intrusive in a town where many residents live on multi-acre properties and prize their privacy. More ominously, the lake so central to quality of life and property values is threatened by failing septic systems and the dreaded blue-green algae. Ducks are fouling Town Beach on Candlewood, forcing periodic beach closures. But the most urgent issues revolved around unleashed dogs, nuisance ducks and the return of toxic blue-green algae to Candlewood Lake.ĭog lovers who don’t pick up after their animals in Volunteer, Colonial and Veterans parks are a problem.
The town needs a new John Deere tractor, dump truck and lawn mower, things he says Sherman can afford to buy without borrowing, thanks to his insistence on building capital reserves. He was fatigued from a Board of Selectmen’s meeting that ran long. Trump, about the danger posed by accepting Syrian refugees, though he pointedly mentions that the need for a wall on the border with Mexico is one of his disagreements with Trump. He agrees with his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald J. mark pazniokas / Clay Cope as the selectmen’s meeting winds down. Clay Cope as the selectmen’s meeting winds down.