This is a unique Election post on my blog, because while all of my previous posts on this topic have focused on foreign Countries, this election is being held here in the U.S.A, precisely in Hartford Connecticut, where I live.  It is the primary to be the Democratic candidate for Mayor of Hartford.  Since Hartford is heavily Democratic, the primary on September 12th is tantamount to the General Election in November¹.  

The incumbent Mayor, Luke Bronin announced last year that he would not run for a third term last year, setting up the primary.  In July, the city Democratic Town Committee (DTC) held a convention where delegates voted to endorse a Mayoral candidate.  Two others who didn’t get the endorsement got enough signatures from registered voters and are competing in the Primary.  The three candidates competing in the primary are:

Arun Arulampalam: The DTC endorsed candidate, he was born in Zimbabwe to Sri Lankan parents and emigrated to the United States as a child. He has lived in Hartford for the past 10 years, working as a lawyer in private practice before being appointed as deputy commissioner of consumer protection in Governor Ned Lamont’s administration.  For the past few years, he has been the CEO of Hartford Land Bank, which purchases and fixes dilapidated properties.  

Arulampalam has never held elected office, but has a passion for Hartford, and often thought about how Hartford could be improved as he went to work each day.  Part of his motivation to run for Mayor stemmed from his anger at distant landlords from New York mistreating their tenants in his neighborhood.  As a candidate,  Arulampalam wants to stem the high crime rates by establishing a youth violence prevention council, believing that young people in the city should have a say in how violence should be eradicated.  He has also vowed to crack down on absentee landlords.

John Fonfara:  A state senator representing Hartford for 36 years in both houses of the State Legislature, he has decided to run for the “toughest job in his life”.  A lifelong Hartford resident, he is someone who prides himself as someone who works diligently out of the spotlight to deliver for the State and his district.  He is best known for negotiating a cap on the amount of money the state can spend on taxes raised from capital dividends during a budget fight in 2017.  That cap has helped Connecticut achieve and maintain a budget surplus the past few years. 

Senator Fonfara has received a number of donations from Hartford lobbyists, which his opponents have criticized him for.  He has spent the most money on T.V ads, running commercials since July.  He has raised some eyebrows for the breadth of his T.V advertisement reach, because many of the people seeing the ads live in the surrounding suburbs where they can’t vote for him.  Fonfara is campaigning on raising the salary of police officers in the city to help retain them and fight crime.  He also says that the main driver of violence in Hartford is poverty, and that as mayor, he would focus on workforce development and early childhood education in order to tackle poverty

Eric Coleman:  He is a former state representative, state senator, and superior court judge who was the first African American to chair the Judiciary committee.  He has been criticized for living in neighboring Bloomfield Connecticut most of his life, which he defends by pointing out that he represented portions of Hartford throughout his legislative career.  He has attacked Arulampalam for selling some properties to non Hartford residents during his time as Hartford Land Bank CEO, and dinged Arulampalam for holding a fancy fundraiser in Torrington, Connecticut, a 40 minute drive away from Hartford.

Coleman is campaigning on increasing the number of police officers to combat crime, advocating for the return of walking beats of officers in busy Hartford corridors.  He wants to utilize resources from the state and from the federal government to help crack down on drugs.  Coleman also wants the city to be more involved in building affordable housing, saying that if developers are unwilling to build affordable housing, then the city should step in. 

I will let everyone know the results of the primary once returns come in tonight.

Update: Arun Arulampalam won the primary with 40% of the vote, with Eric Coleman winning 31% of the vote, and John Fonfara winning 30% of the vote.

1. There is a Republican, Mike McGarry, and petitioning candidates Nick Lebron, J. Stan McCauley, and Giselle Jacobs that will appear on the November Ballot. But like I said before, the Democratic nominee will have a huge advantage going into November. ↩︎