Ten years ago, Art Feltman left his job as councilman at Hartford City Hall to take up his new job as state representative at the State Capitol. Now Feltman wants to leave the Capitol and return to Hartford City Hall, this time as mayor.

 

Feltman announced his candidacy Wednesday Jan. 17 at Joe Black's Restaurant in Downtown Hartford.

While Feltman's announcement was expected, some of those who turn out to support him were a bit of a surprise, such as long-time Hartford politicians Eugenio Caro and John O'Connell. Both men served with Feltman on Hartford City Council. State Senators Eric Coleman and John Fonfara were also among the nearly 200 people who attended Feltman's announcement.

 

In a lengthy speech, Feltman criticized the Mayor's current style of government, saying, "We must bring the curtain down on the solo act long playing at 550 Main [City Hall]. It is time, no, it is past time, for seismic, but practical change."

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Frank Barrows is often described as a "blue collar kind of guy" and he's proud of the label.

In fact, Barrows, who announced he is running for mayor of Hartford last December, feels Hartford would be better off if more of its youth were encouraged to attend trade schools and learn how to be carpenters, electricians and machinists.

 

Barrows himself worked as a machinist at Pratt & Whitney for 27 years after serving in Vietnam with the U.S. Marines.

 

"One of the things I feel is not emphasized enough is trade schools. Everything is college, college, college these days," said Barrows. "College is great for some people but not for all...whenever I talk to youngsters I tell them how much they could make as a plumber or as an electrician. And they're always surprised."

 

Barrows said increased technical training would lower the unemployment rate among city youths and thereby reduce crime.

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When Raul De Jesus was 18, he walked into the office of a local realtor and said he wanted to buy a house. The realtor laughed and said he was too young.

 

About a year later, De Jesus became the proud owner of a two-family home on Carpenter Street in Hartford's Parkville neighborhood.

 

When De Jesus said he was serious about running for Mayor of Hartford, many people laughed and said he was too young. But De Jesus, now 20, is hoping to prove those people wrong, just as he did the doubting realtor.

 

He doesn't have far to go to find a role model. Republican Ryan Bingham was elected Mayor of Torrington last year at the ripe old age of 22.

 

De Jesus announced his candidacy Wednesday, March 14, at 6:30 pm in the Gershon Fox Room at 960 Main Street in Downtown Hartford.

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State Representative Minnie Gonzalez has officially entered what is shaping up to be the most fiercely contested race for mayor of Hartford in 14 years.

 

Way back then, in 1993, the Democratic Party split and Mike Peters used a coalition of Democrats and Republicans to unseat incumbent mayor Carrie Saxon Perry. Peters went on to serve five terms before endorsing current Mayor Eddie Perez as his successor.

 

Perez was first elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2003, the second time as "strong mayor" with a term of four years instead of two. Perez will formally announce on Monday, April 9 that he is seeking re-election.

 

All seven candidates are Democrats with the exception of Stan McCauley, who is a Republican. However, political insiders believe that several Democratic candidates may run in the general election even if they lose – but have a strong showing – in the primary.

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Reverend Patrice Smith is taking her anti-violence activism from the streets to the campaign trail and, she hopes, the mayor's office.

 

A life-long resident of Hartford and a minister at True Life Ministries on Wethersfield Avenue, Smith announced she was running for mayor in January of this year. She also ran for mayor in 2003.

 

Smith can often be seen at rallies calling for an end to the seemingly endless series of shootings which have plagued Hartford for the past few years. She is President of the group Saving Our Kids from the Streets and a member of Mothers United Against Violence.

 

Although her primary goal is reducing violent crime, especially among young people, Smith said that Hartford's problems don't stop there.

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In Hartford, with its overwhelming majority of Democratic voters, the Republican nomination for mayor is much like a ticket on the Titanic: fun while it lasts but eventually doomed to sink beneath waves of Democratic voters.

 

They thought the same way in New Britain – and Democratic inertia and internal bickering led to the election of Republican Tim Stewart in a city almost as overwhelmingly Democratic as Hartford.

 

Can the same thing happen in Hartford? Republican Stan McCauley thinks so. Back in February, McCauley formally announced he is seeking the Republican nomination for mayor.

 

When asked about his chances, McCauley said he is "In it to win...I'll play to the whole city. I want to win by a landslide."

 

He pointed out that Governor Jodi Rell pulled about 4,500 votes in Hartford in the last election even though she is a Republican.

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The whole town is talking. But Mayoral spokesperson Sarah Barr can't say a word.

 

"I can't confirm anything because I am not the contact for the campaign," Barr said Wednesday afternoon. The campaign contact will be made known at some point soon, she said.

 

Mayor Perez was out of the office and couldn't comment, and Superintendent Steven Adamowski was unavailable as well, but reliable sources say that Mayor Eddie Perez will officially announce his bid for re-election Monday, April 9 at 5 pm at Rawson Elementary School at 260 Holcomb Street in Hartford's Blue Hills neighborhood.

 

Perez is joining a crowded Democratic field that includes former Deputy Mayor I. Charles Mathews, state representatives Minnie Gonzalez and Art Feltman, former state senator Frank Barrows, and more.

 

The use of a public school facility for electoral purposes is not prohibited by law, according to Attorney Joan Andrews at the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission.

 

The commission has little to no regulatory authority over municipal elections, except until about three months before the election day, Andrews said, and it doesn't include use of facilities.

 

The law covering municipal referenda is very clear, Andrews said. It prohibits the use of children, school facilities, or sending flyers home, or any other municipal resources to pass referenda, but SEEC lacks jurisdiction over it, she said.

 

The SEEC receives many calls about things like Perez's announcement, where an elected official or a party utilizes public facilities for campaign purposes, but can do little about it, Andrews said.

 

"As a matter of policy you would think it would be wrong," she said. "But we have to dismiss cases like it time and time again. We have to say we don't have jurisdiction, and we get a lot of cases."

 

There currently is no legislation that Andrews knows of that would prohibit what Perez plans on doing.

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There is no coincidence, according to the hero V in the great Alan Moore graphic novel "V for Vendetta."

With that in mind, what should we make of the turn of events on Thursday, March 29 at VibzUptown, 3155 Main Street, Hartford?

A city health inspector showed up for an inspection at the club less than two hours before mayoral candidate I. Charles Mathews expected about 100 people for a campaign fundraiser.

It was odd, Mathews said Tuesday, April 3.

"At the end of the day, it may be just a tempest in a teapot," Mathews said. "But we were all set up and getting ready to have our fundraiser, at around 3:30, a health inspector waked in and indicated she had a responsibility to inspect the place."

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Here's a bunch of links I've been sitting on about the never-ending InauguRellgate story.

 

Some people - like the blogger at John Burke's Society - think what happened to me signals more ominous times ahead for the elite power structure.

 

Others think I'm a car on the liberal express trying to derail America. Mr. X weighs in on dirty hippies like me and Mike Lawlor here. I wish that Mr. X was this Mr. X.

 

Manchester Journal-Inquirer managing editor Chris Powell opines about my situation here. Powell, a good libertarian who wants to see an end to the war on drugs, still thinks I stepped in front of the Governor in the parade. Not a chance. But the media writes what it chooses.

 

Click here to listen to Colin McEnroe interview me the day the charges were dropped, March 21. It's a worthwhile eight minutes. Colin also had something funny here from a long time ago, that I never put up.

 

Click here for the text of a presser held by Hartford mayoral candidate and state Rep. Art Feltman.

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If just 5,000 committed people in each one of the 535 Congressional districts nationwide mobilized behind universal health care, America could have a single payer system, consumer advocate Ralph Nader said Friday night.

 

Nader appeared at Real Art Ways Friday night, March 30, in support of the Connecticut Premiere of An Unreasonable Man, the new documentary about his life. (Disclosure - the Nader folks paid me to promote the movie.) Click here to hear Colin McEnroe interview Ralph Thursday, which has similar talking points to what he said Friday night.

 

About 400 people showed up at Real Art Ways to see the movie - from former gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry to CCAG executive director Tom Swann to Manchester Journal-Inquirer managing editor Chris Powell.

 

It was a record-breaking crowd according to RAW staff, as no film in RAW history had ever drawn that many people for an opening.

 

The RAW theatre only seats 153 people (not including standing room). So while 50 people went away, 175 stayed in the main gallery to listen to Nader speak while the two hour, two minute long documentary rolled. An Unreasonable Man shows at RAW through April 5.

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Nothing like a solid P&Z meeting to get your blood flowing. Or at least a healthy dose of city Planning Director Roger O'Brien.

 

Normally, local Planning and Zoning meeting are snoozers, where volunteer citizen commissioners plow through the minutia of land use policy and application. But like all flawed human institutions, occasionally, a controversy arises.

 

The bi-weekly Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission's get-together Tuesday, March 27 at the conference center at 260 Constitution Plaza was one of those thrilling democratic dust-ups, worth as much play-by-play as I'm about to do.

 

First off, there weren't enough agendas to go around. I showed up for the zoning change at 1400 Main Street (from Firestone to McDonald's? - more on that in the future), but that was postponed. I quickly realized the main event on the evening's scorecard was the approval of city's 10-year Capital Improvement Plan.

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