Letter: Wesleyan Dems Pres Says Candidate's Statements are Inaccurate

Editor's note: This is in response to statements made in Republican candidate for Middletown Planning & Zoning Molly Salafia's published Oct. 27 on Middletown Patch.

To the Editor:

First of all, no candidate or party is lining up shuttles. Transportation to the polls is arranged annually by the Wesleyan University Center for Community Partnership and the Wesleyan Student Assembly, both nonpartisan organizations. The Wesleyan Democrats have been working with Mr. [Dan] Drew's campaign, but we reached out to him (rather than the other way around), and in no way claim to speak for all students on campus nor those who utilize the university-sponsored transportation to the polling place. 

It is also inaccurate that students have not been educated about the residency implications of choosing to register to vote; those students who are employed by the university or at local businesses are made aware by those employers of the applicability of the state income tax to Connecticut residents. Additionally, car taxes only apply to that small minority of Connecticut-registered vehicles at Wesleyan that are in the name of the student (as opposed to their parents), itself a small minority of people at Wesleyan, period, the vast majority of whom do not have cars. Students will not be randomly taxed for registering to vote.

Ms. Salafia's platitudes, i.e. "participation in government is good and encouraged" and "be kind and keep citizens at the front of your mind rather than party affiliation" are laudable sentiments outside of the context in which she presents them, but in context, her message is clear: Wesleyan students, unlike me and my fellow Republicans, have no idea what they are talking about and are incapable of making informed decisions about the city in which they live.

This sentiment is representative of the attitude and actions that the Middletown Republicans have displayed toward the large segment of their constituents who are affiliated with the university in the last few weeks.

Mayor Giuliano stood on our campus at last week's debate and spoke about the importance Wesleyan has had in his life and in the life of the community, then turned around to organize (with Ms. Salafia) an on-campus event mocking the student body and the campus group Democracy Matters. Their actions and the viewpoints behind them are derisive, disrespectful and desperate. 

Especially telling — and to me, offensive — is Ms. Salafia's quip that, "There are real families attached to every decision you make." What she fails to realize is that we as students are citizens and residents like anyone else, even if many of us call Middletown home only temporarily.

The condescending notion that our issues, our concerns, and our votes are ill-considered and not "real" is not representative of a candidate or a party with a positive message for Wesleyan students or other Middletown residents, and it will be repudiated on Election Day by members of both groups — groups between which there is less of a distinction than Ms. Salafia and her fellow Republican office-seekers seem to know.

Ben Florsheim, Wesleyan University 2014, President Wesleyan Democrats