Rifkinson May Run > Ridgefield Press July 16, 2011

Rifkinson may run

Written by Macklin Reid
Saturday, 16 July 2011 12:00

Jan Rifkinson

Time to stop throwing tomatoes and take a turn in the stocks?

Outspoken town government critic Jan Rifkinson is considering a run this fall as an unaffiliated candidate for a seat on the Board of Selectmen.

“I’m still sort of betwixt and between, but I’m really seriously thinking about it,” Mr. Rifkinson said in an interview Tuesday.  “I’m considering running unaffiliated, just plain unaffiliated,” he said.

Mr. Rifkinson, a retired television news producer, said he wasn’t interested in running as a candidate of either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party.

He was skeptical but hadn’t closed the door on a nomination by Ridgefield’s Independent Party.

In writings on his blog Mr. Rifkinson traces his unease with party affiliations to his career in the news business, where reporters, editors and producers were eager to guard their independence of thought.

Mr. Rifkinson attends most selectmen’s and some meetings of other town agencies. He speaks out for taxpayers, and is skeptical of school spending. Two years ago he rose repeatedly to speak at the annual town meeting, on a mission to make First Selectman Rudy Marconi explain the use of and need for every pick-up and dump truck in the budget.

In his blog and on various online venues he contributes to, such as The Ridgefield Forum on The Press’s Web site, Mr. Rifkinson has been asking people what they think of him seeking office.

“I’ve just been talking to people, just individually,” he said, “...to get a sense of what they think, not so much to get a sense of my running as an unaffiliated, but my running at all, in terms of my usefulness.”

It’s something he wonders about.

“The question I’m trying to evolve for myself is whether I can do more good as part of a loyal opposition, or whether or not I can be of any use were I elected to the board,” he said.

In December, when the selectmen were appointing someone to the vacancy left by Joan Plock’s resignation from the board, Mr. Rifkinson joined Republicans Marty Heiser and Maureen Kozlark in interviewing for the seat.

“I thought I was treated pretty shabbily, not because they didn’t select me, just the way they went about business,” he said.

Mr. Rifkinson sat out the subsequent Heiser-Kozlark special election.

Many people who’ve read his blogs and periodic opinion pieces in The Press have suggested he run, Mr. Rifkinson said.

He believes the public has an appetite for candidates outside the two-party politics-as-usual mainstream, and says an unaffiliated candidacy shouldn’t be dismissed as a hopeless long shot.

“I’m just not interested in wasting my time,” he said. “If I run it’s not an exercise in freedom of speech, or to make a point, it’s to win.”