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Sunday, September 25, 2011

KENNEDY REJECTS McGARRY ENDORSEMENT

Hartford City Council candidate Ken Kennedy has become the first to reject the "cross" endorsement supposedly struck between the Hartford Republicans and the Hartford Democrats. The deal has struck up controversy on both sides and has left many voters unhappy, from those I have spoke with.

Even among Republicans most have questioned McGarry's choice to endorse the Democrats. It raises some interesting issues for Republicans who typically believe in smaller government, reduced spending , lower taxes and small business support. The endorsements were given to individuals that have shown the extreme opposite in the way Hartford has been run for the last decade. Hartford's mill rate has doubled, city spending has increased over $150 million dollars and Hartford's small businesses are being taxed out of existence.

To read more about my thoughts on the McGarry endorsements, read this previous posting.

Here is Kennedy's e-mail rejecting the McGarry endorsement:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: FW: Republican Endorsement
From: "Kenneth Kennedy, Jr." >
To: Ramon Arroyo >,Adam Cloud >,"
Hon. Pedro E. Segarra" >," Hon. Alexander Aponte"
>, Kyle Anderson >
CC:

I have informed the republican party that I will not accept their endorsement in
the interest of Democratic Party unity. I hope this settles the issue as the
Council seems to be the real problem as we have 6 candidates and are not running
by ourseleves as the other offices.

11 comments:

Bruce Rubenstein said...

there is certainly logic to the belief that many of the liberals,unions,minorites and LBGT folks will not vote for those 3 that took the endorsement, even if they renounce it like Ken did.I suspect that those 3 will lose the support of the above anyway.

real democrat said...

what i want to know is if Ken will still support the Republican's by being on the literature,etc or support them underground...I believe that he will still support the republicans anyway unless and until he publically tells us of his intentions.

peter brush said...

The endorsements were given to individuals that have shown the extreme opposite in the way Hartford has been run for the last decade.
--------------------------------
I don't know the mechanics of this maneuver, and I don't know about the qualifications of the Republican-endorsed Dem candidates. (I can say that Kennedy's e'mail is about as clear as mud.) But, from a strategic point of view with the objective being to have our local muni guys providing less "services" with less revenue, such a deal can certainly make sense. There is no chance, zero probability, that we will have less than six Dems on Council. An endorsement of particular Dems, therefor, has no effect on the numerical balance. On the other hand, it is certainly thinkable that the Dem endorsement of particular Republicans might lend them an assist in replacing the two WFP guys, who are, theoretically/philosophically more left than our Dems.

Kevin:
As long as you refer back to your previous entry on the matter, what's up with the undocumented suggestion that Mike M. and/or the Republicans in general are hostile to particular races or sexual orientations? In the vein of "some of my best friends are black, etc.," I'd note that our most-recently-resigned councilman and her replacement are, and she is of a gender "minority." The fact of the matter is that Republicans don't so much exclude minorities as that minorities, particularly blacks, disdain the Republican platform, broadly speaking. Again, the reason we have few Republicans in town is not the putative incompetence of leadership to "reach out" but it's that there are few in town who buy into more limited, less expensive muni government. What's your evidence?

Anonymous said...

No Carbon Copy to the party chair?

Interesting void.

J. Stan McCauley said...

The awesome power of the endorsee to control the endorsed?

The Republican party in Hartford has gone out of it's way to endorse 5 Democratic candidates in the up coming Hartford municipal election.

McCauley for Mayor 2011 sought after and got only one endorsement. That being the Voices of Women of Color. There is a big difference between the Voices of Women of Color and the Republican Leadership that crafted this cross endorsement idea.

The Voices of Women of Color are a voice for countless hundreds of women, many of whom are single mothers struggling to make ends meet. And Hartford's Republican Leadership is a voice for the business as usual folks. The very folk that endorsed no women to run for the Court of Common Council.

A McCauley win would mean a Mayor that is accountable to a powerful group of women that speaks for the people. A Segarra win would mean a Mayor that is accountable to the Republican party, or is it the Democratic party, or the police union leadership, or is it downtown interest that want to repeal hard fought for ordinances? Who knows?

One thing we do know is that Republican party support was sought after and received. Now the Democratic party endorsed Mayoral candidate, three Council candidates, and a candidate for treasurer must considering that the Governor of the state of Connecticut left a special session of the state Legislature to personally endorse and support the current caretaker Mayor and Former Mayoral candidate Shawn Wooden in an effort to save the Democratic Party from implosion. What will be done now to save this failed group from themselves?

Hartford needs and deserved better. Hartford needs leadership that wants to be in service to the people that call Hartford home.

J. Stan McCauley

11.8.11

Hotsie Totsie said...

Ken Kennedy gets no credit from me over his rejecting the Republican enodrsement.

Kennedy was approached by Rich Wearing and Mike McGarry months ago over the endorsement and should have rejected it then.Moreover Kennedy went to his aide Jean Holloway,the chairwoman of the town committee, and got her to go around singing the praises of this stupid deal.Kennedy and Pedro were the PRIME ARCITECTS of this and even if they reject the endorsements, the progressives,labor,minorities,LBGT and feminists will not trust them and will punish them by voting elsewhere,presumably the WFP.

Greg said...

Peter - I believe what is being referred to is based on an assumption that the local GOP supports the policies of the national GOP, which traditionally are anti-gay, extremely strict when it comes to immigration, and certainly not known for benefitting African-Americans any. This may well be a fallacy, because there can be a vast gulf between the beliefs/actions of a national party and a local party, as people switch parties just to get a better shot of winning. Where I lived after college, the GOPers all acted like Dems and the Dems all acted like GOPers, so who can say?

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

Greg,

It is meant specifically as to the local Republican Town Committe Chairperson and his attitude towards minorities and the LGBT community, anyone familiar with the Chair is well aware of this. More will come out on this as the endorsement deal is fully exposed

Anonymous said...

In any other part of the state or country, the move of cross-endorsing would be hailed as the essence of bipartisanship, but not in Hartford. I give Ken an enormous amount of credit. He was the first to denounce it as I presume it became far to political. All Hartford Republicans are RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) anyway.

Bruce Rubenstein said...

Kevin...do you notice how those big reformers who were after Eddie are quiet as churchmice over this cross-endorsement issue.?

Jimmy Higgins said...

Memo to larry Deutsch....you were the main sponsor of Bob Painter, who I understand is in favor of the cross endorsements or at least has publically silent on the cross endorsements, while the man you oppossed,Sean Arena has been upfront and loud against them.Brilliant move Larry...