Copyright Hartford Courant
Two of the most dynamic races in central Connecticut involve one city that’s had the same mayor for 12 years and another where voters have repeatedly flipped control of local government back and forth. With Mayor Erin Stewart stepping down next month, New Britain voters will be choosing their first new mayor since 2013. In Bristol, two candidates with uncommonly widespread name recognition are vying for control of city hall. Stewart, a Republican, has kept blue-collar, heavily Democratic New Britain a stronghold for the GOP — at least in the mayor’s office. Some years voters gave her a Republican council and sometimes they went Democratic instead, but she’s never had a close race since first winning at age 26 and becoming the city’s youngest mayor. As she leaves to pursue a run for governor, New Britain voters will be choosing between Alderwoman Sharon Beloin-Saavedra, a close Stewart ally and a former school board chair, and state Rep. Bobby Sanchez, who has represented the 25th House district since 2011 — even longer than Stewart has been mayor. State leaders of both major parties are keeping an eye on New Britain this year as one of the races that will indicate what Connecticut voters are thinking politically. Democrats are hoping Stewart was just an uncommonly popular campaigner who won the longtime loyalty of independent and even some Democratic voters. With her name off the ballot, Democrats are eager for voters especially lower income people, minorities, women and union members — to turn the city blue again. Republicans are eager to win as a way to demonstrate that GOP values can resonate in a poor urban community even without Stewart as the party’s face. Both candidates campaign heavily on fiscal responsibility, insisting they want to keep taxes down but still do better by the city’s school system. At a recent debate, Sanchez hammered away at a popular Democratic point: The city has largely flat-funded its schools in most recent years. He emphasized that the General Assembly has steadily raised state aid to New Britain schools over the years, even while City Hall didn’t. Beloin-Saavedra insisted that’s “a false narrative,” arguing that the city pumps money into the school system in a different way: Providing services without charging. The municipal budget pays for the school resource officers, crossing guards, the public safety academy at the high school, on-site afterschool programming and more, she said. In Bristol, Republican Mayor Jeff Caggiano and former Democratic Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu are in a race that’s also drawing attention from political observers. In 2015, Zoppo-Sassu lost a mayoral bid to Republican Ken Cockayne, but two years later won a stunning victory by crushing his re-election bid and bringing Democrats to a near-sweep of the city council. Voters were clearly sick of Cockayne, who was embroiled in sexual harassment scandals that cost the city months of embarrassment and ultimately a $250,000 lawsuit settlement. They made her the city’s first female mayor, and she served through 2021. But that year, Caggiano pulled his own startling win: He defeated Zoppo-Sassu, and every one of his GOP council candidates won as well. That took the city from a powerful blue wave in 2017 to an equally devastating red wave four years later. Caggiano is now running for another term, and Zoppo-Sassu is back to challenge him. Caggiano is campaigning on business growth in the city and particularly in the turnaround downtown, where a long-planned but stalled revival has gone into overdrive with the addition of two large, modern apartment complexes fronting North Main Street. Caggiano notes the local real estate market is showing the vibrancy that people wanted ever since Bristol bought the former downtown mall in 2005 as a catalyst for growth. This week, he announced that 18 years after the Chic Miller car dealership closed, the vandalized and deteriorated building in the West End is finally being razed. His administration worked with the owner and work will begin soon, he said, with an eventual plan for new housing. “This will help revitalize the West End dramatically, just to take down this building,” Caggiano said. Zoppo-Sassu sees it very differently, arguing that Caggiano’s administration has failed. “These past four years have been unsettling to watch,” she said, “from the consecutive tax increases, reduced programs, flat Grand List growth, lurching priorities, no new economic development projects, and a fractured relationship with the Board of Education that has resulted in financial and political finger pointing, at the expense of our students and staff.”
