IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT....COME ON DOWN

I'm not sure about you, but I am getting quite tired of the headlines.

"Segarra Raises $100,000" , "Wooden Raises More than $100,000 in Second Quarter"....blah, blah blah blah blah. But does anyone know what are they about and what they bring to the table ? Is the Mayor's Office really for sale?

Segarra claims he will make changes in City Hall if he is re-elected. Why not start now? Wooden claims his experience in the Perry Administration as a benefit to the people of Hartford. People in Hartford that lived through the Perry years might disagree.

And Kelvin Roldan, oh Kelvin, Kelvin, Kelvin what more can we say. Roldan, who has apparently had his moral compass adjusted to point in the right direction in the last couple weeks now will lead us out of the land of corruption. I think Roldan would actually take a pay cut if he became Mayor, and he would also have to start doing some work. And if anyone knows, Kelvin surely knows, that the side deals cut in the Mayor's office definitely aren't worth it.

It is still early, but I'm not hearing much substance. The conversations of substance seem to be coming from the candidates that apparently have already been written off because they are out in the community having real conversations rather than talking to the moviemaker donors in Beverly Hills, CA or wealthy attorneys in Washington D.C. who can write out a $1,000 check and think nothing of it.

News flash...many Hartford residents can hardly even afford a $10.00 contribution because of the mess our politicians have put us into. Our politicians seem to understand fundraising and arm twisting better than they do public policy and what is needed in our community.

I'd much rather see a headline that the candidates are putting forth ideas and showing some vision as to how they are going to turn things around from our previous professional fundraisers able to get elected and satisfy the donors who put them there.

Does anyone else have a problem with the campaign filings that show Shawn Wooden's donors are from outside Hartford by a margin of almost 5 to 1 ? They show only 46 donors from Hartford as opposed to 269 from outside Hartford.

And Mayor Segarra isn't much different. He's a little more balanced than Wooden with 124 donations from within Hartford, but the majority came from outside the city, 176.

And while I'm at it lets not forget Kelvin Roldan's fundraising efforts so he can pay off his buddies, over $15,000 to Matt Hennessy and $5,500 to his FOI scribe Derek Donnelley. Any bets as to whether or not we will see Eddie Perez as a "consultant" on his next filing? Nothing would surprise me.

We all will know how much money they can raise, but unfortunately little will most likely be revealed about what they stand for. What about jobs? What about supporting Hartford's small businesses? What about health care? What about reducing motor vehicle insurance rates equal to our suburban neighbors? What about the looming tax disaster threatening to double every property and vehicle owners tax bill?

Too bad that the only other candidates are actually focusing on the issues and talking to people and answering their questions when they probably should be ignoring the problems and raising money instead if they really want to be taken seriously. Do we really want the issues and some vision to interfere with selecting our next Mayor?

In the meantime, if you want to talk to candidates without writing a check, you just might want to find Stan McCauley riding a city bus with the people who can't write the $1,000 checks, or walk a few blocks with Ed Vargas and listen to what he has to say as they both talk to the real people of Hartford.

And by the way,to the other "professional fundraising" candidates, the real people on the bus and walking to work actually vote in Hartford, the Beverly Hills donors don't.And if you recall, Eddie Perez raised almost $750,000.00 in 2007, look where that got him.

Wooden campaign filing provided by Wooden Campaign

Wooden for Mayor - April 10 Report