Convention dates unveiled for 5th Senate District race
Beth Bye’s resignation from her senate seat created a vacancy in the 5th Senate District — comprised of voters from Burlington and West Hartford, as well as portions of Bloomfield and Farmington — and a number of Republicans and Democrats are seeking party endorsement ahead of the Feb. 26 election.
On Wednesday, Republicans will host a convention to select a candidate. Three have announced their interest: former state Rep. Bill Wadsworth of Farmington, Phil Chabot of Farmington and registered Democrat and unsuccessful governor candidate Mark Greenstein from West Hartford, who is seeking endorsement of either party. The convention will take place at 6:30 p.m. at West Hartford Town Hall, 50 South Main St., according to West Hartford Republican town committee chair Dennis Swanton.
Wadsworth, 66, represented the 21st House district from 2010 to 2012 and ran an unsuccessful campaign against Bye in 2014 for the 5th District Senate seat.
Chabot, 35, has lived in Farmington since 2009 but grew up in Litchfield county. He is president of the Farmington Chamber of Commerce and the Exchange Club of Farmington and is the past president of the Farmington rotary. He owns Farmington Gardens, a wedding and banquet venue, and The North House restaurant in Avon. As a local business owner planning to stay in the state he said he considers himself “fiscally conservative and socially moderate.”
Chabot said he is against tolls, supportive of recreational marijuana, support paid family and medical leave “in theory” but said current proposals are “burdensome on small business owners.”
On Saturday, Democrats will host a convention to select a candidate. Five have announced their candidacy: State Rep. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford; West Hartford Deputy Mayor Beth Kerrigan, Farmington Democratic town committee chair Michael Daly, Janée Woods-Weber, an attorney from West Hartford who is the director of organizational culture at the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Foundation, and Greenstein.
Third party candidates, like Libertarian candidate Jeff Przech of the Unionville section of Farmington, have until Jan. 22 to submit 472 signatures to petition onto the ballot.
Przech, 43, of the Unionville section of Farmington is an English teacher at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford. He said he wants to be “a viable alternative to the two-party system.” He said he is against tolls, supports legal recreational marijuana, sports betting and said he needs to look into paid family and medical leave proposals, though said he is supportive of businesses creating sick time banks for those who may need time off.
“I would like people to view my lack of political experience as a positive rather than as a detriment,” Przech said. “I’m not beholden to any party lines or anything like that. ... I’ve lived in the state all of my life, save four years of college, and I have a very good idea of what’s going on in this state, where the problems originated from and I believe I can bring some ideas to the table that can help fix those problems in a sensible way.”