Wait Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes…

Minnie Gonzalez has officially filed registration papers to run for Mayor of Hartford. This marks the beginning of an upcoming battle that dates back years. There has always been bad blood between the two camps, but it’s gotten worse since the Ramon Arroyo was let go at City Hall. Since then, Eddie’s administration, led by the wonderfully last named Matt Hennessey, and Minnie’s group, led by the aforementioned Arroyo, have exchanged numerous volley’s. Recent skirmishes include the Battle of Bull Run over Democratic Town Committee seats and The Battle of Shiloh where Minnie walloped Frank DeJesus in the 2006 primaries. The battle extended into statewide circles with Eddie’s Soldiers losing to Minnie’s in the State Gubanotorial primaries (Destefano over Malloy) and losing again in the Senate Primaries with Lamont defeating LIEberman.

One would think that this current battle is the final Gettysburg that breaks the camel’s back for our two general’s…not so for the Representative from Amity Street. Minnie will still be Representative and when she loses and will be able to park her nice SUV back on Capitol row, whereas El Alcalde will be the worse off after his loss, going back to his Bloomfield, uh..Hartford home.
What does this mean to us? Well…it doesn’t take a FoxNews election pundit to see that Minnie’s goal in entering the race is to dilute the Latino vote from Eddie. This will most assuredly happen. Eddie’s boy Kelvin Roldan is the new top dog in the 4th district…but let’s face it, the 4th district does not vote. 1,100 votes were split up by Kelvin and Angel Arce. Me thinks that those votes will be split evenly between the two Latino mayoral candidates. Also, Minnie has a solid lock on the 5th district voters, where she should gain a majority of the 1,300+ voted up for grab there. With Art Feltman locking down the 6th district, this leaves the North and West End of Hartford as the key holders to this upcoming election. Our unnamed political strategist says that the West End looks like a lock for I. Charles Matthew due to recent movements by the West End contingent of the Town Committee to endorse him.

Some say that this knowledge that the NorthEnd is now a player in who becomes the next big cheese is the reason that El Alcalde struck a deal with Abe Giles for a downtown parking lot for less than what many people pay for rent in this wonderfully gentrified city.

Whodathunk!? The area of the City that has been most ignored, and is suffering from the worse perception problems looks to be in control in 2007. This is the time for some community group to gather enough residents together and force candidates to listen to their demands. “you want my vote? give me some security in the streets! give me safe schools! show me the #$%@ money!”

Is the strong Mayor city style working? Me thinks not. Every candidate (sans Minnie, since she has not made a comment upon registering) has mentioned Perez’ apparent “disconnect” with the constituents and his abbrasive way of going about things. Some say that, in a City with so many issues, we should stop quibbling over how things get done, and worry more about getting things done. I’m still on the fence on this, but I will note that this new style of City Governing has increased voter apathy in Hartford. The November of 1993 elections, 3 people received more than 10,000 votes (Mayor Mike, Councilman Caro & Councilman Dipentima) 10 years later, Eddie wins with a total of 7,590 votes and no councilperson gets more than 7,000 votes. 2006 saw Ned Lamont barely crack the 10,000 vote total in a citywide Senate general election in his trouncing of LIEberman.

OK…enuff blah, blah, blah…talk to me. What do y’all think. It’s going to be a bumpy ride so put on your seatbelts.

peace!