I don't think I have ever had such a powerful desire to see local politicians turned out of office as I do now, in contemplating the upcoming elections for the Groton Town Council.

With one notable exception — Councilor Portia Bordelon, a biracial woman punished by her party for speaking her mind and standing up for constituents — the all-Democratic Town Council has committed unpardonable municipal malfeasance.

I am hoping that this fall's general election will be as transformative as the one in 2017, in which Democrats swept the Town Council. It's their time to be swept out of office.

If there is any justice in our political system, the long, unresolved saga in which the town rolled out the red carpet for a developer with a history of bribing public officials will be the undoing of these politicians.

Even if voters succeed in clearing the decks and resetting the town's political leadership, this council's colossal mistakes and attempts to cover them up are going to haunt the town in expensive lawsuits for years to come.

I can almost get over the original sin of the Democrats controlling the council, who enthusiastically signed on for an overwrought, out-of-scale development for the state-owned former Mystic Oral School property against the clear wishes of so many people in that part of town. The councilors took the bait, fell for the false promise of a big tax payoff.

It's hard, though, to excuse the extraordinary bad judgment of two councilors who sat on the selection committee and chose a developer with a project in Connecticut that has remained unfinished for more than a decade.

One of them, Conrad Heede, also the Democratic town chairman, finally admitted in an email that it was time to abandon the developer he had championed, not because of disclosures about his criminal past, but because they were losing the public relations battle.

"Opposition is too loud, too mean-spirited and too well organized. Better to walk away if possible than spend more political capital to make it happen," Heede wrote in an email to the town manager.

What a cynical point of view. And how contemptuous of residents who were simply horrified that a major piece of property was being given to an admitted crook who wanted to overdevelop it.

But it gets worse.

Councilor Lian Obrey, after learning what her selection committee should have figured out a long time ago, that the developer was prosecuted for serious crimes by the New York attorney general's organized crime task force, said: "I don't want to be swayed by someone digging into somebody's past."

Please, please, vote these councilors out of office. Save us all.

You would think that the hero in all this — and she is for me — would be Councilor Bordelon, who made it a point to split from her fellow councilors as the debacle unfolded, and asked tough questions of the paid town staff who had facilitated the whole mess in the first place. (The council, with Bordelon abstaining, has since extended Town Manager John Burt's contract, committing the town to keep him an extra year, long after their own terms have expired.)

But no, the Democrats' nominating committee, breaking with tradition, did not offer the incumbent a place on the fall ticket. Bordelon collected enough signatures to force a primary on Sept. 14, though.

Groton Democrats: Mark it on your calendar. For you unaffiliated Groton voters, there is still time to register as a Democrat and vote against the scoundrels who went after Bordelon.

I am impressed by Bordelon not just for her timely opposition to the Mystic Oral School proposal, but for her forthright commitment to transparency, accountability and good government.

Of the Democratic incumbents seeking reelection, she was the second-highest vote-getter in the last election. She successfully campaigned for the seat while still sick from her recovery from breast cancer. She never missed a meeting or a vote.

The secretary of the Democratic Town Committee, Dane Stevenson, a young man with a keen interest in politics, resigned from the party after Bordelon did not get the nomination. He was outraged by the betrayal of her loyal service.

In a letter to the editor, he blamed the power in the party being "maintained behind the scenes by old, privileged white racists," who he said called out a passionate biracial woman expressing her opinion as "rude" and "loud."

I have to admit I have cringed at times at the shabby and rude way Bordelon was treated during council meetings, when she was simply asking tough questions. She obviously believes that's what her constituents want.

But you don't need to conclude that she is a victim of racism to know that she deserves the right to return to the council and continue to ask hard questions. She is the only one who is.

And those who have come after her, for whatever misguided reason, should be replaced. Please help.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com