Surrounded by about 60 supporters in his party's headquarters in a former bicycle store on Post Road East, Republican candidate for First Selectman R. Gavin S. Anderson said, "If we have done one thing in this campaign, I think we've set a standard on how a campaign should be run: decently, without rancor, without bitterness, without acrimony."

Losing to the incumbent first selectman, Democrat, Gordon F. Joseloff, by an unofficial 428 votes, Anderson said Westport is a "Democrat town," and the town's Republicans have got to find ways of getting their message across so voters understand the fundamental philosophical differences between the two parties.

Although defeated for the top position, Anderson will be joining Joseloff as a member of the three-person Board of Selectman, along with Joseloff's running mate, Shelly A. Kassen, who has served with him the last four years.

After saying he would be congratulating Joseloff on his win, Anderson said that what his opponent doesn't know about him is that he's a hard worker and tenacious, and as a selectman, "I intend to stand by the values I have espoused in this campaign and stand true and tall for those things that I believe in."

Republican Town Committee chairman Tom Wetmore told the crowd the one consolation is we'll have fine representation on the Board of Selectman going forward.

In an interview before the results were received, Wetmore said there had been a lot of energy in the Republican campaign.

Anderson said of Republicans, "We've got to get smarter, we've got to work harder, we've got to start earlier." But pointing to the closeness of the results, he said, in four years' time, the Democrats had better look out, because we're coming.

Running with Anderson was Kristin Testa LaFleur, a member of the Board of Education the last four years.

In her remarks to the supporters, LeFleur, 42, said that despite the results, we have so much to be proud of here as a party, adding, "I think that we have found some ways to reach voters that we haven't done before."