Valentine will focus on real change
I just read the story in Sunday’s (Sept. 26) Advocate that opened with “STAMFORD — The city has never seen a mayoral race quite like this.”
My fellow Stamfordites: Are you, like me, lifelong residents of Stamford? If yes, be honest; are you really going to decide the choice of Stamford’s next mayor on a politician’s rhetorical statements? Just in the Sunday paper alone, we read these catchphrases by Stamford mayoral candidate and fourterm State Rep. Caroline Simmons: “I think this is a critically important mayor’s race. The future of our city is at stake”; “We have an opportune moment to capture federal and state funding to support people and help take our city to the next level”; “Our campaign is focused on the people and helping people who are struggling and being a voice for all people.”
My immediate response: I have always considered every election, local, state, and federal, a “critically important ... race (with) the future of our city ... at stake.” If you are representing me and my family’s interests, as well as all the good people of Stamford, then it is reasonable to expect you would continually work “to capture federal and state funding to support people and help take our city to the next level.”
Simmons has had nearly seven years in the Democrat-controlled legislature to influence decisions that would “take our city to the next level.” My parents and I have great difficulty traveling the streets, me with my wheelchair and my elderly parents with walking, due to the conditions of Stamford roads and sidewalks. These severe street conditions encompass our neighborhood, which is part of the state district Simmons represents.
Simmons stated in the Sept. 21 Advocate that “the goal of their outing (she and Gov. Ned Lamont’s stroll through downtown Stamford) was to hear from businesses about what kind of support they need as they try to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.” Pardon me, but Simmons expects me to consider her as a Stamford mayoral candidate “focused on the people and helping people who are struggling and being a voice for all the people,” when we are nearing 19 months into the pandemic and now she decides to go door-to-door to Stamford’s small businesses, asking what they need? I’m sure those businesses already shuttered, bankrupted or in bankruptcy are scratching their heads over that statement.
Campaign rhetoric and party politics has all too sadly contributed to diminishing voter turnout. People have lost their confidence in the political system and have shown that loss of trust by not voting. Election cycle after election cycle many turn a deaf ear or become indifferent to the candidates’ campaigns and simply sit the bench on Election Day.
I would like to ask my fellow Stamfordites who may be reluctant to participate in this year’s mayoral election to consider this. We have a candidate, Bobby Valentine, who from the moment he decided to run for mayor made it clear he was running as an unaffiliated candidate. I frankly did not think it a wise choice until I watched Bobby’s YouTube video talking about the embarrassment of the West Main Street Bridge. Bobby said, “It’s disgusting and there is no reason that this should be part of our community. There is no reason that this should have taken so long to figure out what to do and how to do it.”
There is an old adage, “All politics is local.” My dad is 93, my mom 90 and I am 62. The West Main Street Bridge, the state of my neighborhood’s streets and sidewalks, and other anomalies in town are “disgusting” and have been so for way too many years. “The future stake of our city” is here and now, Representative Simmons, and couldn’t be any more critical!
We need a mayor whose focus is not rhetorical speech but real change for Stamford. We most certainly do not need a mayor who is thinking shortterm, Stamford for today with set aspirations for somewhere or something else tomorrow. Bobby Valentine’s resolve to stay party-neutral assures me he is all-in on serving Stamford, working to do what is needed and best for our community, and he will not be swayed by party politics. I am asking you, my fellow Stamford voters, to get out to vote Nov. 2 or request an absentee ballot. We deserve a mayor who will always look at what is truly impacting our everyday lives in Stamford. We need Bobby Valentine as our next mayor!