IonHartford

Kick @$$ photo of Hartford City Hall compliments of Heather Brandon @ urbancompass

Who woulda thought I’d be happy to stay late at City Hall this evening. Hanging out with Dr. Larry Deutsch when random people start congregating on the second floor, I initially thought there was some committee meeting that had an important agenda item. Then someone told me that this evening was the 2008 Hartford Democratic Town Committee Convention. Apparently this was a big one because this evening was the one that each district would choose their endorsed candidates for the upcoming elections.

Now if you’re wondering what the heck is the democratic town committee, join 90% of the city. These are an incestuous group of about 70 people that decide which democrat will help Hartford keep the following enviable distinctions:

• being the poorest city in the richest state
• having one of the top rates of asthma amongst it’s youth in the nation
• where 24% of its families are living below the poverty line

You name any negative social ill present in the city, these are the wonderful people responsible for electing the majority party that tolerates those conditions.

Tonight, these people and a few hanger on’s would sit in City Hall council chambers and choose their nominees for the upcoming state representative elections in November along with their combined selection for City Registrar of Voters, a nice $85,000/yr position currently held by Shirley Surgeon.

The Drama Begins

The early buzz was about two specific races: The 5th District’s Marie Kirkley Bey-Lopez, Deputy Speaker of the House from Hartford’s 5th District was being challenged by old guard Abraham “Abe” Giles and City Registrar of Voters Shirley Surgeon was challenged by past registrar Olga Aviles. Also, with Art Feltman not running for re-election the door is open for someone new to represent the 6th District.

Newly crowned chair of the Democratic Town Committee, Sean Arena, commanded everyone to their respective corners in order for mini-caucusing to take place. After about 10 minutes, everyone re-convened to announce their selections, with the nominee asked to give a 90 second acceptance speech. Winners were:

• 1st District - Kenneth Green - no brainer…decided even before Thursday nights meeting
• 3rd District - Minnie Gonzalez - same…practically everyone in the 3rd district is either related to Minnie or an old friend.
• 4th District - Kelvin Roldan - another no brainer…interesting note is that former Mayoral candidate J. Stan McCauley will run for this seat as a Republican. J. Stan lost to Kelvin’s mentor, so I guess he’s making his way down the line.
• 5th District {drumroll} - by a margin of 8 votes to 5, Abe Giles won the nomination for the upcoming elections. He gave a somewhat forgettable speech but the memorable moment came when madam deputy speaker rose and said “Everyone get ready to pull up your sleeves…I’m not planning on giving up my seat.” The battle has begun. Sources told me that her fall from grace was inevitable when she backed I. Charles Matthews for city Mayor against El Alcalde this past year. This is soooooo Hartford. Let’s wait til one of our elected officials gets a position of leadership where Hartford can just maybe be best served and then kick them out.
• 6th District - Hector Robles - Another lifer politico wannabee, Mr. Robles is a former police officer who seems to run every election for something…and loses. Me thinks he breaks that jinx this year with a run for Art Feltman’s old seat. Sources tell me that Wethersfield will run a white woman for this same seat so it’ll come down to whether the Democrats will or won’t get out the Hartford vote because it is guaranteed that Wethersfield will vote.
• 7th District - Doug McCrory - another no brainer.

By the way…In this year of rising Mil rates in the city…can someone please tell me what kinda monies our delegation got us this year? In the name of the immortal Ms. Jackson (cuz I’m nasty) “what have you done for me lately?”

Now for the real fun…

With the room buzzing over the re-emergence of Abe Giles into the elected arena, all eyes turned the upcoming vote for Registrar of Voters when chairman Arena cut the tension with a gay blade by announcing that……….food had just arrived in the form of sheet pizzas!!! (HUH?!!) My sentiments exactly. The newly crowned chair was quickly reprimanded by almost everyone in the gallery and continued with the vote…I, however, did manage to go outside and snag some democratic pizza….tastes the same as Working Families pizza if you ask me.

The Vote 4 Reg. of Voters

It’s interesting watching these full committee elections work. One would think that in a city such as Hartford with such overwhelming contrasts between northend and southend and Puerto Ricans and African Americans the vote would fall along ethnic lines…wrong!! In this day and age of El Alcalde and his enemies, that dichotomy dictated the course of the vote. The big names were aligning themselves with the different candidates with “Minnie’s peeps” going for Olga Aviles and “Eddie’s People” staying with Shirley. From the outset one could see the alliances being drawn up and people walking around trying to get another vote. Minnie worked the room trying to get whomever to walk outside with her. The whole scene was reminiscent of wildebeest being stalked by hyenas…if you strayed too far from the pack…watch out!! The veterans felt safe enough to walk amongst the group, but a number of first timers to this coalition of the bullied and bought stayed in their chairs near the respective pack.

Abe Giles was about the 5th name called and he voted for Olga…Marie Kirkley Bey, who was another five names after him passed. The roll was called and it seemed that everyone had a pencil in hand keeping tally. Olga would get 10 in a row, and Shirley would follow with 10 in a row. With the score 33 to 31 for Olga, the passes came back with people wanting to know what the score was. A couple more and a couple abstentions (most notably pass was by Jean Holloway who lost the town chair election to Arena) and finally Marie Kirkley Bey, who had originally passed came to vote. Shirley was behind by one vote.

Madam Deputy Speaker stands up and, staring at Abe Giles, announces ….”Shirley”. The room was silent. No one knew what to do…the count was over…with Ralph Arena and the entire Gallery trying to figure out who won, a voice rang out…..Prenzina Holloway, the hummer driving, Obama pin wearing, voter ethics dodging, political grandma stands up and yells “I want to change my Vote.”

To be concluded…..