DARIEN, Conn. – The follow letter was submitted by Ronnie Carey of 207 Leroy Ave.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As a former member of the Darien Republican Town Committee, I am concerned that we are seeing it happen again in my own political party in Darien.

In the Jan. 5 issue of the Darien Times, a legal notice reads that, in addition to voting for Republican Town Committee members to serve for a new term, the Jan. 17 caucus is being held "for the purpose of ... voting on amendment of rules of the Darien RTC."

The text of the amendment to be voted upon is missing. In fact, I could not find the text of the proposed amendment to the rules anywhere in this paper of anywhere else. This is outrageous! Why the secrecy? This sounds like a rollback to the darkest days of our local party. Over the years, many of us worked hard to bring transparency to the RTC. We know that in organizations where there is no openness, "he who controls the rules, controls the outcome." What are the current Republican leaders keeping secret — and why?

I urge all Republicans to push back. Under the current local party rules (rewritten by an earlier RTC just two years ago "so that Darien's RTC had the best practices' across the state") any new amendment must be published 10 days in advance as part of the caucus call. This was to allow ALL Darien Republicans the opportunity to decide whether to attend on caucus night and vote yea or nay on the amendment/amendments. Without timely publishing of the proposed amendment, no vote should be allowed!

Send your letters to cdonahue@thedailydarien.com.