Mayor Luke Bronin of Hartford will be facing six Democrat
mayoralty opponents, nearly all of whom insist that the bonds of affection that
tie former Governor Dannel Malloy’s chief counsel to the city of Hartford are
not, shall we say, fierce.
The lede in a Hartford Courant story ominously titled “Luke
Bronin has again promised to serve a full four years as Hartford mayor. Will
voters believe him this time?” pretty much sums up the general discontent: “Mayor Luke Bronin
said this week it’s his intention, if re-elected, to spend all four years in
office, and to support Gov. Ned Lamont in his own potential bid for a second
term. But the familiar pledge, given during an interview with The Courant,
carries less weight than it did four years ago when the 38-year-old, then a
candidate heading into the mayoral primary, made what turned out to be an empty
promise.”
Bronin had promised
to serve a full four year term as mayor. After he had been elected, Bronin
announced his bid for governor. Like a worm penetrating an apple, doubt began
to course in the brains of future Democrat mayoralty opponents.
Author, ghostwriter
and mayoralty hopeful Aaron Lewis is quoted in the story: “In a city that was really
going through some tremendous difficulties — economic difficulties, our
education system was at an all-time low, we were going through a lot of stuff —
there were a lot of people who believed he was going to bring us proverbially
to the Promised Land. But he didn’t take that seriously. I think his actions
have proven more about what his heart is saying more than anything else.
Actions speak louder than words, and his actions really proved to us what he
thinks about the city.”
Democrat primary
opponent Brandon McGee said, “We all have to remember Hartford is full of
people whose deficits and determinants have been used to advance personal
agendas. That’s been happening for a long while. The people may not remember
all the details of what happened, but I’m sure they’ll definitely remember how
it felt to have somebody try to bail out after selling them a campaign full of
promises.”
J. Stan McCauley,
another challenger, has said that Bronin, “grossly underestimated the gift he
was given.” Influential supporters had showered Bronin with support and, more
importantly, with political contributions. They were left at the altar by the deceitful
mayor. He pointed to attorney John Gale, who had raised more than $100,000 for
his own mayoral campaign before dropping out to back Bronin.
“For (Bronin) to run
for governor in light of that sacrifice was just a slap in the face, because he
said he would never do anything like that," McCauley is quoted in the
Courant story. “It’s not just a political move, it’s an insult to the sacrifice
those people made.”
Speaking of insults,
former Hartford mayor Eddie Perez, who is running for his old seat after having
been dispossessed in a corruption scandal, wondered whether Bronin, if
re-elected, would be able to resist certain political temptations: If Democrats were to seize the White House in
2020, and if one of Connecticut’s two most prominent national Democrat
political stars, U.S. Senators Dick Blumenthal or Chris Murphy, were to accept a
proffered position within the new Democrat national administration, would
Bronin’s ambitions flair up again? “Ambition is not a bad thing, but in
Bronin’s case,” cautioned Perez, “ambition is causing serious harm. As soon as
he gets sworn in, depending what happens nationally, he’s gonna be thinking
about his next potential office nationally, and that’s problematic.”
While politics is
the art of the possible, not everything is possible in politics. There is
little doubt that suffering cities will continue to be the private political
preserve of Democrat politicians for some time to come. The last Republican
mayor of Hartford was Ann Uccello way back in 1971, nearly four decades past.
Ambition overtook the first female mayor of a state capitol and she moved
upwards to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Uccello was preceded by no
fewer than eight Democrat mayors.
On the plus side,
Bronin wangled half a billion dollars from his former boss Malloy, which
prevented Hartford from declaring bankruptcy. And he has no felony record, as
do two prominent Democrat politicians in Corrupticut now serving in office,
Mayor of Bridgeport Joe Ganim and former state senator Ernie Newton, a Bridgeport
city councilman.
Bronin’s defense
against his likely primary opponents is spare and simple. He announced his bid for
governor at a time when current Governor Ned Lamont had not yet thrown his hat
in the ring; since becoming mayor, he has worked tirelessly on behalf of
Harford residents; and, as an attorney considerably more cautious than Ganim, he
is unlikely to stumble into prison. Also – need it be mentioned? – Bronin has curried
favor with the current governor by withdrawing his candidacy soon after Lamont
had raised his gubernatorial campaign flag. And please don’t forget that
half-billion bailout Bronin was able to procure from Malloy. In city politics,
it’s still who you know that counts.
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