Since Bob Testa defeated Nick Mullane for the first selectman nomination at last Monday’s Republican caucus, rumors have been flying about who else will run, why Nick lost and what this means for the town.

One thing is certain: Mullane will seek a primary against Testa on Sept. 13.

Anything else is up in the air.

I’ve talked with quite a few people in town and read comments on the stories about the political race, so I’ll use this space to try and go through some of the issues.

Some people believe that Testa “stacked” the meeting by bringing in friends to vote for him, a political blindsiding. Testa won the endorsement, 17 votes to 14. The first thing Testa said to me, emphatically, on Tuesday is that this is false.

Testa challenged Mullane at the Republican caucus in July 2007 but lost, having garnered 52 votes to Mullane's 61. He pointed to those numbers as compared to this year’s caucus.

“I thought that was kind of funny,” Testa said. “If someone was going to stack a meeting, a lot more than 30 people would have showed up. I found that amusing. People don’t realize, if you were at that caucus, you would look around the room, it was mostly what I would perceive as Nick supporters by far but people swung my way.”

Other people have said that Testa is leaving town. He admitted that his home had been for sale, and his family did consider leaving the state, but Testa said the home is no longer on the market and he’s sticking around.

Testa said the first thing he said at the caucus was that “my wife and I were considering moving out of North Stonington. It was a family decision, not a negative against the people.”

The winner of the Sept. 13 primary will face Democrat Heather “Chris” Chrissos, but yet another rumor is that Chrissos is a placeholder for State Rep. Diana Urban. Chrissos, after all, served as Urban’s campaign manager during her first run in the state legislature 11 years ago.

Reached last week, Urban said that while she and Chrissos are close friends, Urban will not run for the first selectman position. She did say, though, that friends and members of the local Democratic party approached her recently about running for the spot.

“There have been lots of people asking me, and as much as I love North Stonington, it’s not something I can do at this stage of my life,” Urban said of running on the municipal level. “I’m enormously flattered. What’s more flattering than people asking you to come get your town back on the right track? It wasn’t that I just don’t feel like it, it’s that there’s too much on my plate. At a different point in my life, it’s a very real possibility.”

Other hot topics, which will remain in play until the election, are the Main Street bridge and lease negotiations with restaurateur Fotis Georgiadis.

Lease negotiations with Georgiadis, who opened Buon Appetito restaurant on Route 2, took months of legal wrangling between the town, which owns the land, and Georgiadis, who owns the business.

When I talked to Buon Appetito manager Petrit Marku about the caucus results, he said that he was sorry to hear Mullane had lost. Marku lives in Waterford, so he can’t vote in North Stonington.

“He’s a very hard working man,” Marku said. “I’ll support him in any way I can.”

Marku even visited Mullane in Town Hall last week to personally tell him that.

The Main Street Bridge was washed out in the March 2010 flood and has remained closed since then.

Incumbent Republican selectman Shawn P. Murphy will again run for a selectman spot, as will Mark Donahue.

Bill Briscoe, who has filed papers to petition as an independent candidate, said last week he had not decided if he would run. Briscoe said he was leaning towards not running, partially because of health problems.

This is shaping up to be an exciting political season in North Stonington.

What other rumors have you heard? Who has your vote?