Mayoral hopefuls vow to press on

Despite loss of party support, petitioning candidates to take on endorsed Land Bank CEO in September

After the Hartford Democratic town committee and Mayor Luke Bronin both endorsed Hartford Land Bank CEO Arunan Arulampalam to be the city’s next mayor, other contenders vying for the job have vowed to continue pursuing the party nomination.

The city’s primary, scheduled for Sept. 12, will see several mayoral candidates, including former state senator and judge Eric Coleman, state Sen. John Fonfara, and councilman Nick

Lebron, square off for the nomination to be the city’s next mayor. All three candidates have said they either meet or are expected to meet the signature requirement to petition their way onto the ballot and force a primary contest against Arulampalam. All petitioning candidates need 1,820 signatures by Wednesday to meet the requirement, according to the city clerk’s office.

J. Stan McCauley is the only candidate running for mayor to announce that he will not participate in the September primary and proceed directly to the

November general election as a petitioning candidate. McCauley’s wife, Nyesha, his campaign manager, said that she is confident his campaign will receive the necessary signatures to get on the ballot in November.

“After hearing from supporters to keep going, the team made the decision to pivot to the general election as the threshold to gain ballot access is more readily obtainable. We asked ourselves if being the endorsed Democrat was more important than fighting to work for Hartford residents. The answer became clear,” she said. “We would much rather put our energy and resources toward the

actual election on Nov. 7, than contend within what some believe is a broken system.”

McCauley, well known as a perennial candidate for Hartford mayor, has called this election different from the others because incumbent Bronin is not seeking re-election. However, after being out-fundraised by the other candidates, he said that the election for mayor has historically gone to the highest bidder.

“We’re not naïve to the political process and understand the importance of the primary but that only means we’ll have to work harder, smarter, and creatively to get out the vote in November,” McCauley said in a release.

Other than Arulampalam, the two highest fundraising candidates, Fonfara and Coleman, both longtime elected officials, have said they intend to stay in the race through the primary contest. Fonfara raised $78,000 in the second-quarter and Coleman raised $23,615 from April to July. Fonfara still leads in overall donations with $418,000 total after a strong first-quarter raising $340,223, according to campaign finance forms. Arulampalam raised $123,568 in the second-quarter for a total of $348,393.

“I plan on being on the ballot for the September primary,” Coleman said. “My team and I are using the vote at the convention as motivation for gathering the requisite number of signatures, winning the primary and demonstrating to the town committee how much at odds their convention decision is with the will of the people. As a long-time public servant, I will do whatever is necessary in order to serve Hartford well.”

Coleman said that he was disappointed with the town committee’s decision to nominate Arulampalam, as he felt the process was done largely without his input. But the former judge said he remains focused on the primary and general election.

“That process was frustrating for me because despite my multiple attempts to have discussions with town committee members, those members made their decision without such discussions because most members purposefully evaded and eluded me,” Coleman said in a statement. “The process was orchestrated in favor of the now endorsed candidate. With any luck, the voters will not be swayed by the shortsightedness of the mayor and the democratic town committee, but rather will make their collective decision at the polls based upon far more relevant considerations than those relied upon by Bronin and the committee,” Coleman said.

Fonfara, the longtime state senator who co-chairs the state’s powerful finance committee, said that the importance of the September primary cannot be underestimated and that he intends to garner enough support to win the nomination, despite not having the endorsement of the democratic leaders in the city.

“In all likelihood, the winner of the Sept. 12 primary will be the next mayor of Hartford,” Fonfara said. “I was born and have lived all my life in Hartford and have the experience and accomplishments as a state senator that prepares me for the job of mayor of the city I love.”

Political newcomer Nick Lebron, a two-term councilman first elected to office in 2019, said he plans on also contesting the primary and that his campaign has already met the required signatures to be on the ballot. Lebron, a lifelong Hartford resident, raised $25,536 in the second-quarter for a total of $87,290, according to campaign finance filings.

“We’re super excited and highly confident, our whole campaign has been about friend-raising more than fund-raising,” Lebron said. “I’ve been doing that my entire career in the city of Hartford. It’s definitely non-traditional in a sense since mayoral campaigns are used to raising a lot of money. But we are raising some money and making a lot more friends. We’re highly confident, I wouldn’t have put my name in the arena if I didn’t think I had the support behind me.”