Danbury Democrats back Alves
Party endorsement comes 100 days early as other Dem mayoral candidates vow primary
DANBURY — Anxious to break Republicans’ 20-year lock on City Hall, Democratic leaders this week endorsed Roberto Alves for mayor 100 days before the party was scheduled to formally nominate its ticket for the November elections.
Democratic Party leader Andrea Gartner said endorsing the first-term city councilman early will energize the campaign and will make it easier for Alves to raise money while acknowledging that the party will likely face a primary in September from other Democrats who’ve declared their interest in
Danbury’s highest elected office.
“Primaries have positives as part of a healthy democratic process that can start to engage voters,” Gartner said on Tuesday, one day after the Danbury Democratic Town Committee endorsed Alves during its regular monthly meeting. “We have a mountain to climb as the Danbury Democrats, so this meeting seemed like the right time to make our endorsement.”
Recently announced Democratic mayoral candidate John Esposito III said nothing was right about the timing.
“We have three interested candidates running for mayor,” said Esposito, a City Councilman who announced he was running for mayor last week. “It’s not right to endorse somebody so soon.”
The third candidate, political newcomer Sedeaka Lawrence, announced he was running in February. He and Esposito each said they plan to challenge Alves in a Sept. 1 primary.
Previously, Gartner had said Democrat leadership would wait until its nominating meeting on July 20 to make its pick for mayor. On Tuesday, Gartner reasoned that in 2019 Democrat leadership endorsed Chris Setaro well before its summer meeting, and that Monday night’s endorsement of Alves was hardly a rash decision.
“It might have been different if Roberto Alves hadn’t already raised $75,000 and hadn’t already distributed literature to 2,000 doors and hadn’t already been endorsed by Danbury’s entire state delegation,” Gartner said.
“He has clearly been getting the work done.”
Danbury Republicans meanwhile have no declared mayoral candidate for the November elections. GOP Mayor Joe Cavo has yet to tell Republicans whether he wants to run for election in November.
Cavo — the longtime City Council president who was appointed a week before Christmas when 10-term Mayor Mark Boughton resigned to become the state tax czar — said in March that he hoped to decide about running as early as mid-April.
GOP Chairman Michael Safranek said he was not pressing Cavo to hurry his decision.
“He has been so focused on keeping the city moving forward because he is all about putting the city first,” Safranek said. “Our focus is on keeping Republicans in office so that Danbury keeps moving in the right direction by doing what is best for Danbury.”
Alves said he was encouraged to be endorsed by the Democratic Party.
“I’m honored to receive this vote of confidence to be the next mayor of Danbury, and I’m excited to continue making connections with our community,” Alves said in a statement on Tuesday.
A member of the Democratic Town Committee who supported
Alves’ endorsement called Alves “a man of his word.”
“I know (Alves) is going to support small businesses through COVID because he’s talked to business owners downtown about the support they need,” said Wilson Hernandez, a downtown restaurant owner, and former president of the Ecuadorian Civic Center. “I know he’s going to bring new business downtown because he’s met with prospective business owners.”
Esposito said it should be up to registered Democratic voters who gets the party’s mayoral nomination.
“I want to give the Danbury voters the opportunity to decide — not just 25 members of the Democratic Town Committee,” said Esposito.