Republican Beloin-Saavedra Reportedly Announces Candidacy for Mayor
Republican City Council Assistant Leader, Ald Sharon Beloin-Saavedra (R-1) has reportedly announced that she is planning to run for Mayor, according to reporting by WTNH Channel 8.
Editor’s note: The cover photo for this article is by Dr Frank Gerratana.
WTNH quoted Beloin-Saavedra as saying in a statement that, “It is with great humility, commitment, and a deep sense of dedication to my hometown and her people that I announce my candidacy for Mayor of the City of New Britain,” and adding that she believes she is prepared, “to serve this community well and deliver results for the people of our City.”
Beloin-Saavedra joins a race in which New Britain Democratic State Rep Bobby Sanchez (D-25) has already announced that he is running to be Mayor. Sanchez, a Democrat, and Beloin-Saavedra, a Republican, are seeking the office soon to be vacated by Mayor Erin Stewart (R).
Beloin-Saavedra has served on a number of elected and appointed roles in the city over the years, including the Council and the Board of Education.
As President of the Board of Education, Beloin-Saavedra supported the appointment of controversial Superintendent of Schools Kelt Cooper, despite serious questions about his candidacy prior to his appointment. Beloin-Saavedra also presided over Cooper’s controversial reorganization to “neighborhood schools”, a policy that appears to have left the city’s schools with a notable difference in the ethnicity and income between schools.
The Council’s Assistant Majority Leader, Ald Iris Sanchez (D-3) and Ald Wilma Barbosa (D-2) recently criticized the 2012 decision by the Board of Education led by Beloin-Saavedra to end the dual language magnet school program at the DiLoreto School, with Barbosa calling it a, “despicable act”.
Ald Barbosa had leveled that criticism while speaking on a proposal Ald Beloin-Saavedra had introduced to give the Council control over the naming of schools, along with city buildings. In speaking against the proposal, Barbosa asked, about Beloin-Saavedra, “wasn’t her name in the running for the renaming of the Brookside,” school? Earlier last year, the current Board of Education named the Brookside Extension school after popular former Slade Middle School Principal Geraldine Brown-Springer. Beloin-Saavedra’s building-naming proposal was voted down in a Council committee.
Nominations by the Republican and Democratic parties for mayor, Council, Board of Education and other city offices to be this summer, with the general election in November.
