The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Mayoral races to watch in our cities
It may be March, but there’s already competition brewing for mayoral office in several Connecticut cities. Primary elections are in September so it’s not unusual for candidates to begin messaging and fundraising this time of year.
There’s an open mayoral office in Hartford and multiple mayoral candidates in New Haven and Bridgeport. And since these are Democratic Party strongholds, primary election turnout arguably matters more than November’s general election.
A few months ago, I responded to Dan Haar’s editorial about urban mayoral offices lacking diversity. He highlighted some dim statistics that few mayors are women and minorities. I stressed that local party committees often gatekeep candidates. Now is the time to see if there will be a noticeable change among local party committees and primary election turnout.
Bridgeport could be an interesting test case because their longtime Democratic Party chairman, Mario Testa, recently sold his Testo’s Restaurant where countless Democratic fundraisers and meetings take place. So there’s change in fundraising haunts and possibly party leadership.
Several candidates already announced their interest to run against longtime Mayor Joe Ganim. State Sen. Marilyn Moore, who narrowly lost the last mayoral election, filed to run again. She may even try for petitioning beyond the local party convention. Two former mayoral aides, John Gomes, who worked for Ganim and Lamond Daniels, who worked for former Mayor Bill Finch, also filed to run for mayor.
But it will take more than multiple candidates to win a Bridgeport mayoral race. In fact, it might be best that a couple of insurgents run in the primary because too many candidates could give a larger vote count to the incumbent. Besides, Bridgeport’s voter turnout is so lackluster that breaking a 25 percent threshold would be monumental.
Speaking of low primary results, New Haven’s anemic turnout remains a littleknown secret. Although the primary election a few years ago ousted Toni Harp from mayoral office, Democratic turnout was only 25 percent. If Justin Elicker is going to experience actual competition, there will have to be significant policy differences among the candidates. Business leader Tom Goldenberg announced in January that he’s running against Elicker as well as former Alder Shafiq Abdussabur. Attorney Liam Brennan recently announced, too.
Finally, Hartford will be the city to watch. Since Mayor Luke Bronin decided he’s not running again, it’s an open mayoral office. So far a half dozen candidates announced their interest, especially retired and current politicos. This includes former state Sen. Eric Coleman, state Rep. John Fonfara and Councilor Nick LeBron. There’s also Arunan Arulampalam, Renardo Dunn Jr. and Tray Funnue. It will be especially interesting to see political endorsements from unions to state officials. Would Bronin and Gov. Ned Lamont want to weigh in? See when they do so, because timing matters and can get voters to engage in the primary.
Among the three cities, I think the bigger turnout will be in Hartford. Certainly since it’s an open mayoral seat, but also because candidates are already debating in monthly forums.
I would like to see one of these cities get beyond a third of registered Democrats voting in primary elections. Maybe this year can finally awaken residents to engage in local elections and party officials would take note. This year could also lead to one, if not more, of Connecticut’s largest cities to elect a female and a minority candidate to mayoral office.
As a reminder, Connecticut is a closed primary election state. Unaffiliated voters — the majority of Connecticut residents — are not allowed to vote in primary elections. Your party officials prefer it this way so be sure to register to vote and register for a political party in advance of September’s primary.
I would like to see one of these cities get beyond a third of registered Democrats voting in primary elections.