BRANFORD, Conn. (AP) – Grady Keefe brought an impressive resume to the town election, starring in a Shakespeare play, leading a diversity club and winning election four times to the highest office.
But that was all at Branford High School, where the 18-year-old senior is class president.
Keefe won a seat this month on the powerful Representative Town Meeting in this quaint New England town of nearly 30,000, about eight miles east of New Haven. That means he’ll vote on a nearly $90 million budget for Branford.
The RTM serves as a legislative body that holds considerable influence over municipal matters.
Keefe, who came in second among eight candidates in his district with more than 900 votes, was the youngest official elected this year in Connecticut and may be the youngest ever in the state, according to the secretary of state.
“It’s like winning a championship game,” Keefe said Wednesday during a break at school. “The first time I ever got to vote, I got to vote for myself.”
Jim Walker, a Wall Street investment banker who lost as a Republican incumbent, said there was an anti-incumbent mood in town.
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” Walker said. “I think he had a lot of younger people turning out to vote who might not have voted otherwise. I hope he’s a good listener. I hope he doesn’t come in brash and thinking he knows it all.”
Selectman John Opie said some voters may not have realized Keefe’s age. He said some residents are worried he’s too young for the position.
“They’re probably afraid he might be too idealistic,” Opie said, adding that it’s important to be sensitive to taxpayers.
Keefe pulled off the victory with a 15-year-old campaign manager, Greg Nobile. Together, they drove around in his grandmother’s 10-year-old Cadillac, going door to door in the rain trying to convince skeptical residents that he was mature enough to handle the office.
“It became like an addiction,” Keefe said. “I was doing it every weekend, days after school.”
They registered about 100 voters at the high school, providing a teen base that has long eluded older politicians. They made up buttons, including “teens 4 Grady rock this town,” and campaigned at a supermarket, handing out apple cider as part of an autumn campaign theme dubbed “Cider for Change.”
“He’s certainly an energetic kid,” said First Selectman Anthony DaRos, who led Democrats to victory. “He isn’t doing it as a lark. He wants to be a public servant. He did it like you’re supposed to do it.”
Wendy Salmoiraghi, a restaurant owner who voted for Keefe, said she was active in politics at 18, working on the Senate campaign of Sen. Chris Dodd’s father, Thomas Dodd. She recalled how as a young woman she was not taken seriously enough.
“We could use some young thoughts in this town,” Salmoiraghi said. “We have a lot of people on the RTM forever.”
Keefe traces his interest in politics to his father, who owns a dental supply business and often talked with him during walks in the park about the Kennedys and Nixon when he was coming of age in the 1960s.
He reads political books of all persuasions and watches cable news shows ranging from Chris Matthews to Bill O’Reilly. Although he ran as a Democrat, Keefe says he also admires Republican presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani.
Keefe, who worked as a bus boy at a beach club over the summer, ran in an affluent waterfront district that has been hit hard by rising property taxes. The town also recently lost a costly eminent domain case.
Keefe emphasized education, arguing that longtime members of the RTM need to get back into the school to see how taxpayer money is spent, and said youth need a voice in town government. He says he tried to listen a lot, too, receiving plenty of parental advice on the campaign trail.
“Most people were very, very excited,” Keefe said, although he acknowledged some thought it was foolish.
Keefe says he decided to run to counter cynical notions about politicians and to fix problems that his generation will ultimately have to confront.
“I’m not going into the Representative Town Meeting trying to run the show or make any controversy,” Keefe said. “Everything I do in my life I do with a lot of thought.”
Keefe says he’s not worried about juggling school and late-night town meetings.
“I don’t have a curfew,” he says. “I’m a kid so I can go a while without sleep.”
Keefe plans to delay college by a year to work on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and to serve on the RTM.
“My dream is to one day run for president,” Keefe said. “I’m lucky because I know what I love. This is something I would definitely love to do for the rest of my life.”
AP-ES-11-22-07 1251EST
Send questions/comments to the editors.
