Hartford is devoid of any real political leadership and here is just one more example. The Southend of Hartford is starting to boil over on the topic of the contested Democratic Town Committee race.
Why is a good question and allegations are being fired back and forth from both sides now, and in the end, it will probably be a Superior Court judge who will make the final ruling.
Now the challenge slate are claiming improprieties of their own against the endorsed slate. The so called "Peterson Slate" is claiming that petitions were obtained improperly by the endorsed slate and that false addresses were used by "petition collectors" when they certified the authenticity of the petitions.
One candidate prominently mentioned in the counterclaim is 6th District Town Committee member Jacqueline Nadal, wife of Hartford Councilman James Sanchez. As a side note, Sanchez is employed by the Metropolitan District Commission, also known as the "MDC". The MDC is Chaired by William DiBella, the father of Hartford's Democratic Town Chairman Marc DiBella.
In the petition certifications, Nadal claims her residence as 646 New Britain Avenue in Hartford, while her husband, Councilman Sanchez signed off on the petitions as 370 Freeman Street. Do they maintain separate residences since their marriage or is there more to the story?
The true story may lie in loan documents obtained by "We the People" In which Nadal obtained a loan from the City of Hartford for the property she claims as her residence. In agreeing to accept the loan from the City of Hartford, Nadal agreed to maintain the 646 New Britain address as her bona-fide place of residency
According to sources familiar with the original petitions, Nadal had originally listed her address lawfully on her petitions as 370 Freeman Street and then subsequently "whited out" the address and wrote over it the 646 New Britain address, allegedly to make it appear as thought the 646 New Britain Avenue was in compliance with the residency requirement of the loan.
Further documents obtained by "We the People" showed that the Quit Claim Deed for Nadal and Sanchez's purchase of the 370 Freeman Street residence were handled by Hartford attorney Kathleen "Kate" Kowalshyn. Kowalshyn is also the spokesperson, or "Chairperson" of the current 6th District Town Committee. The document was sworn to in front of her by Councilman Sanchez and in two locations it shows the "grantee's Address" (Sanchez) as 370 Freeman Street yet in various petitions Nadal swears that her address is 646 New Britain Avenue , the whited out/corrected address on the petitions. Interestingly , in addition to on the documents Kathleen signed off to as their authenticity, she notes at the top of the document "
After recording, please return to James and Jacqueline Nadal Sanchez at 370 Freeman Street..."
So which is it? Were the election petitions false and an attempt to game the system, or was it a temporary lapse of judgment for Nadal, forgetting where she resides with her husband, the Councilman and MDC employee James Sanchez?
I guess we will have to wait for Judge Shapiro to answer that question and shine some light on how dirty Hartford's politics really are.
And again, in the effort of full disclosure, I attempted to get a comment from Attorney John Kennelly on the matter but I was unable since his Office phone has a recording that "
The number you are calling is not in service, the number has been disconnected"
Only in Hartford.
At least one other source familiar with the 6th District incumbents petition process claims that she knew Nadal was not listing the proper address, and when that was questioned, apparently Nadal claimed that the Democratic Registrar of Voters had told her it was "OK" to list the incorrect residence .
Counterclaim by Defendants 2018-02-14 by
Kevin Brookman on Scribd
