From 1947 until 1969, rather than being individually elected, a mayor was chosen from among the members of Hartford's city council. Both prior and subsequent to this, partisan direct elections have been held to sleet the city's mayor.[1][2]
Elections were originally to two year terms. On November 5, 2002, residents of Hartford voted to make changes to the Hartford City Charter taking effect on January 1, 2004, including extending mayoral terms to four years.[3]
Mayor O'Connor was also endorsed by the Socialist Party ticket. He received 22,970 votes on the Democratic Party ballot line and 195 votes on the Socialist Party ballot line. In July 1943, O'Connor had replaced Mayor Thomas J. Spellacy, who had resigned.[11][12]
Turnout was approximately 59% of the 82,700 eligible voters.[13] Mayor Moylan died in office in late December 1946. By a 15-4 vote, the city council chose Edward N. Allen to finish Moylan's term in office.[14]
On November 4, 1947, the voters elected a nine-member city council in a non-partisan election. The council was tasked with selecting the mayor and city manager.[15]
The city's Democratic committee endorsed Carbone for election ahead of the primary.[17]
Anthanson won by a large margin. The slate for the Democratic nominations for city council he had backed, which was regarded as the "weaker" slate by political observers, also won election.[18]
Hartford's Republican Town Chairman Joseph P. Mozzicato attempted to make sure no Republican nominee would run for the mayoralty, seeing the mayoral election as a losing race, and preferring to spend the party's money focussing on the City Council election. Registered Republican voters comprised only 7,000 of Hartford's roughly 140,000 residents.[20] The Republican Party, however, ultimately nominated Michael T. McGarry.[16]
The 1981 Hartford mayoral election was held on November 3, 1981. It saw Thirman Milner win election. The election made Milner the first popularly electedblack mayor of a city in New England.[22][23] Black people made up one-third of the city's population at the time.[24] Milner defeated five-term incumbent mayor George A. Athanson in the Democratic primary.
Incumbent mayor George A. Athanson won the initial primary held on September 8, defeating runner-up Milner by a mere 94 votes.[25] This result would ultimately be nullified in court.
Heading into the election, Athanson was regarded to be a well-liked figure in the city.[26]
Milner's strong performance regarded as a surprise, outperforming polls and many expectations.[26] One Hartford Courant poll ahead of the primary had shown Athanson leading Milner by a much greater 14-point margin (35% to 21%).[27]
The result had largely corresponded to racial lines, with Milner performing well in the predominantly black North End (where he lived), and with Athanson and Ludgin splitting the predominantly white South End.[28][26] Murphy had performed her best in the liberal West End of the city (where she lived).[28][26] Athanson performed well in the South End of the city.[26] However, he underperformed on the North End, and lost the West End to Murray.[26] Milner performed strongly in the North End of the city, and had some strong performances in some parts of the West End.[26] In the Blue Hills portion of Hartford, Milner routed Athanson.[26]
Ludgin, elected in 1977 to The Hartford City Council as an outsider, had made many enemies and put-off many voters through his aggressive leadership style in his two years in office.[26] Murray, a community activist, was a first-time candidate for elected office.[26]
Unlike in 1979, the city's Democratic committee endorsed Athanson for reelection ahead of the primary.[17]
1981 Hartford September 8, 1981 mayoral Democratic primary results[28][26]–nullified
Voting irregularities in the September 8 Democratic primary led Connecticut Superior Court judge Douglass B. Wright to order a rerun of the Democratic primary to take place on October 13, after Milner brought a challenge to the court and city officials and Athanson agreed in court to allow a rerun.[29][25][28]
In the rerun of the primary, Milner defeated incumbent mayor George A. Athanson, in large part, due to a very strong showing in the city's North End.[23]
1981 Hartford October 13, 1981 mayoral Democratic primary rerun results[17]
Michael T. McGarry won the Republican primary. He defeated Donald B. LaCroix. LaCroix had been endorsed by the city's Republican Party organization ahead of the primary.[26] LaCroix had a record of running losing campaigns for elected office.[26] McGarry had been the more known figure of the two.[26]
The 1991 Hartford mayoral election was held on November 5, 1991. Incumbent Carrie Saxon Perry was reelected to a third consecutive term, defeating a challenger in the Democratic primary, and running unopposed in the general election.
Ahead of the Democratic primary, the city's Democratic Party organization endorsed Robert J. Jackson over the incumbent mayor Carrie Saxon Perry.[30] Perry had gone against the city's Democratic machine and ran her own slate of candidates for City Council in the coinciding city council primaries, which ultimately prevailed over all of the incumbents they were challenging.[30]
Incumbent mayor Carrie Saxon Perry won renomination, carrying a plurality, with 35% of the vote, defeating three opponents. She carried 10 of the 27 precincts for the election.[34] Her margin of victory over runner-up Peters was roughly 700 votes. Turnout comprised roughly 35% of the city's registered Democrats.[35]
Peters was a firefighter who had previously considered an independent run for mayor in the 1991 mayoral general election, but was dissuaded that year after Perry won that year's Democratic primary by a significant margin.[36]
Facing the strong prospect of a loss to Peters, a white candidate, the black Perry brought in several notable black national political figures, such as Carol Moseley Braun and Jesse Jackson, to endorse her. Perry's supporters, at a rally featuring Jackson, distributed flyers which implied that Peters would undo the last decade of progress for the city's black populace.[38]
Perry also received endorsements from mayors of other Connecticut municipalities, such as Bridgeport's Joseph Ganim, New Haven's John C. Daniels and West Haven's Richard Borer.[39] She also received the endorsement of John DeStefano Jr., the Democratic nominee in the coinciding New Haven mayoral election.[39]
While Perry and her supporters adopted the tactic of attacking Peters, Peters largely went without even mentioning Perry, instead focusing on promoting his proposals for the city.[40]
Peters unseated Perry, becoming the first independent to become mayor of Hartford since at least 1953.[41]
Peters benefited from strong support and turnout among the city's white electorate. Turnout in the city's white South End wards averaged 60%, while the citywide turnout only averaged 45%. In the three most predominantly white precincts on the city's South End, Peters won 90% of the vote.[38] Peters also received more support in precincts located in the predominantly black North End than most white candidates had managed to receive there in election over the previous decade, receiving roughly 20% of the vote in those precincts.[38]
Peters carried 19 districts. Perry carried 8 voting districts, most of them being in the North Side.[41]
For only the second time in two decades, Hartford did not have a competitive Democratic primary. Activist Kenneth Mink, who had been an announced challenger of incumbent Mike Peters, failed to file on time the proper forms to run against him in the Democratic primary. The last two times that there had been no competitive primary for the Democratic mayoral nomination were 1989 and 1977.[46]
Incumbent Michael P. Peters defeated Juan Morales in the Democratic primary.[51] Morales was a tax and banking consultant who worked with insurance companies.[49] Morales was a relative political newcomer, whose previous political experience included running unsuccessfully for Hartford City Council in 1995.[49]
The 2001 Hartford mayoral election was held on November 6, 2001. Democrat Eddie Perez won election. Perez became the city's first hispanic mayor.[53] Hartford was, as of the 2000 United States census, 40.52% Hispanic.[54]
The 2003 Hartford mayoral election was held on November 4, 2003. Incumbent Democrat Eddie Perez won reelection.
The election was to a two-year term. However, in 2004, Hartford residents extended their mayoral terms, which extended Perez's second term through 2008.
A large focus of the primary campaign was how Perez had become so dominant in the city's politics.[60]
One of the concerns of the primary campaign was that Perez was facing a criminal investigation relating to the remodeling of his home by a city contractor and deals involving city parking lots.[60] Perez apologized for the home-improvement arrangement, and placed one of the parking lot deals back out to bid.[60] In August, criminal investigators raided Perez's house.[63]
Winning the Democratic primary in Hartford is generally considered tantamount to election.[60] However, fourteen years earlier, independentMichael P. Peters, who served as mayor from 1993 through 2001, had first won election as a petitioning candidate in the general election, after having failed to win the Democratic primary over then-incumbent Carrie Saxon Perry.[60][63] Registered Democrats in Hartford numbered 30,039, unaffiliated voters numbered 10,454, and Republicans numbered 1,932.[60]
Former mayor Michael P. Peters endorsed the candidacy of I. Charles Matthews.[61]
Since launching his candidacy in January 2007, Perez had vastly out fundraised and outspent his opponents, raising $593,000 by the end of October.[66] He spent most of the money raised, with only $54,500 of it remaining unspent by the end of October.[66] He spent on consultants, mailers, and in excess of $150,000 in television advertisements.[66] I. Charles Matthews had raised $131,00 by the end of October, though $88,000 of it was self-funding.[66] Minnie Gonzalez raised $56,000 by the end of October.[66] By the end of October, Rual De Jesus had raised $8,000, Thurman Milner had raised $7,000, and J. Stan McCauley had raised $3,000.[66]
The 2011 Hartford mayoral election was held on November 8, 2011. The election saw incumbent Democrat Pedro Segarra win a first full term. He became the first openly-gay individual elected Mayor of Hartford,[69] making Hartford the second U.S. state capital to elect an openly gay mayor (Providence, Rhode Island was the first when they elected David Cicilline).[citation needed] Segarra also became the second hispanic individual to be elected mayor of Hartford, after Perez.[70] As of the 2010 United States census, 43.43% of Hartford's populace was hispanic, which was the largest percentage of any city in the northeastern United States.[54][24]
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