Groton — The biennial municipal election in Groton City is Monday, but the campaigns have been quiet — all of those running are Democrats and all seats are unopposed.

Incumbent Mayor Marian Galbraith, Deputy Mayor William E. Jervis and councilors Stephen Sheffield, Andrew Ilvento, Lawrence W. Gerrish and Keith Hedrick are seeking re-election without challenge. The sole Republican on the council, Jay Dempsey, is not seeking re-election.

Conrad Heede, a member of Representative Town Meeting and a Democrat, is running for Dempsey's seat unopposed.

"I believe we've always had at least one seat that was being opposed. I don't remember in my 16 years that it's been this way," City Clerk Deb Patrick said.

Dempsey, a former Democrat who switched parties to Republican before the 2013 election, said he initially ran on the failed Thames Valley Communications venture, which lost millions.

"For me it was about transparency and accountability and trying to get to the bottom of what happened with TVC," he said. "And we got transparency from Groton Utilities. They actually provide the councilors with all the checks they write in a month. The only thing we don't see is payroll. But we see everything else."

"For the most part, I think the city's run well," Dempsey said. "I think TVC kind of put a dark cloud over us for a while, but I think that we've done a lot of good things." He said he plans to stay involved, even though he is not running again.

The only thing that disappoints him is the fighting between the city and town over the budget, he said. Dempsey said the two public works departments could work together to find efficiencies and share services or equipment.

Kristen Venditti, Republican registrar for Groton, said city Republicans couldn't find any interested candidates for City Council so they chose not to run a slate.

"We need to get more Republicans active so there's a more active Democratic system," she said.

Robert Zuliani, acting chairman of the Republican City Committee, tried to get candidates to run but was unsuccessful, she said.

Zuliani, reached by phone Friday, declined comment.

Venditti said she's been involved in elections since the 1980s and can't recall a city election in which there were no challengers.

She's heard various reasons as to why — the Democrats "always win" so why bother, or council positions are volunteer, time-consuming and people are busy — but she said she's not sure what the reason is this time.

Groton City had 4,473 registered voters as of Friday. During the 2013 election, 1,455 of the 4,051 registered voters cast ballots, or 35.9 percent.

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim

Polling Places

Polls in the Groton City Municipal election will be open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Monday in the Municipal Building for voters in District 3, and at West Side Middle School for voters in District 2.