Talking about politics the other day, Mayor William Stortz pointed out that for the past half century, and perhaps longer, Bristol hasn't elected a single mayor who didn't serve a stint on the City Council beforehand.
He said that he figures that outsiders have a hard road to haul if they haven't been on the council because it's not easy to build a political base. Councilors obviously already have one, of some sort.
Clearly, if voters are mad enough, they might look for someone untainted by politics to take the city's top job. But if they haven't been that angry in the past 50+ years, they probably aren't going to change their ways now.
What does it mean for this year's race? Maybe nothing.
At this point, the only declared candidate is Art Ward, a longtime Democratic councilor. Others who may run include Storz, a Republican, and Councilor Ellen Zoppo, a Democrat.
One other possible contender is former state Rep. Roger Michele, who dodged a couple of opportunities this year to deny his interest. Michele never served on the council, but he put in 12 years in Hartford before losing last year's campaign to Ron Burns, a Republican who had plenty of behind-the-scenes help from Democrats disenchanted by Michele.
1 comment:
Obviously, this post takes on a whole new look with the revelation today that Ken Johnson is running for the Republican mayoral nomination. Johnson has never served on the council.
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