In the recent mayoral debate sponsored by The Day, the candidates for mayor in Montville, incumbent Ron McDaniel and Town Council Chairman Tom McNally, demonstrated for the benefit of the town's voters that they pretty much agree on the issues and even many of the strategies for dealing with them.

Both are fiscal conservatives who cite economic development as key to the town's future, and both answered a question from a student panelist about the top possible reasons for moving to Montville with "the schools" as their number one answer. Both have records to defend: McDaniel has four terms in the mayor's office and McNally, who has served on a number of town boards, is finishing off a two-year term as chairman on the Town Council.

In this rematch of their 2015 race, both men also point out that local politics and local government work with the practical matters — roads, utilities, property taxes, zoning, school infrastructure — and that after Election Day, party labels fade in the conducting of the town's business.

Maybe so, and we hope so, but Montville has had its fair share of nastiness in partisan politics over the years. Candidate McNally has been a pugnacious participant, including when he filed a 2012 lawsuit against McDaniel, fellow workers and the town after being fired as assistant superintendent of the Water Pollution Control Authority. In the suit he claimed political motivation for the firing. The case was settled out of court, thus keeping the cost to the town, if any, undisclosed.

Still, McNally takes pride in the way he and the Republican-led council fulfilled their 2017 campaign pledges to control taxes, aggressively go after unpaid taxes, and upgrade and address abuses at the transfer station. The latter included a small increase in fees to more fully support the operation. He believes that working with the Economic Development Commission and marketing the town to developers in a video would spur business interest in Montville.

McDaniel's eight years in office began in the period when most of the country was coming out of the Great Recession, with Connecticut among the last to emerge. His strategy has included being part of regional cooperative efforts such as the Joint Land Use Study currently underway through the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments and the Naval Submarine Base. The mayor is a member of the team leading the project, which aims to equip towns with information on the expected impact of more Navy families and Electric Boat employees looking for places to live and send children to schools.

McDaniel also points to a developing project that would put a multi-billion dollar data center off Route 32 and the developer's recent acquisition of property that would provide access to the land from the road. In both the land use study and the effort to attract the data center to southeastern Connecticut, he has shown that he sees the wisdom of cooperating on projects that are larger than any one town's interests but will benefit Montville all the more because of the coordinated effort.

As mayor, either candidate would find himself dealing with the long-simmering questions of ending the Resident State Trooper program and establishing an independent police department; lobbying for more state aid because of casino impact on the town budget; and when and where to develop utilities infrastructure for economic growth.

Unique to Montville among the debates sponsored by The Day this year was the panel of three Montville High School students who questioned the two candidates. Their astute questions and poised delivery added to the gravitas of this civic moment and underscored what both candidates had to say about the schools being Montville's great asset.

It won't be many years before those students and their classmates are the electorate and the taxpayers of the town. Although both candidates can rightfully claim leadership roles in Montville's economic stability and homegrown issues, the incumbent has steadily demonstrated a realistic approach to growth and regionalization. His involvement in large-scale planning and development is the best way to ready the town for the next generation. The Day endorses Mayor Ronald McDaniel for re-election.

The Day editorial board meets with political, business and community leaders to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Timothy Dwyer, Executive Editor Izaskun E. Larraneta, Owen Poole, copy editor, and Lisa McGinley, retired deputy managing editor. The board operates independently from The Day newsroom.