News Analysis
Top 10 of 2022: #5: Hayes, Other Democrats Win Big in New Britain
What Republicans sought and Democrats feared never happened. The anticipated 2022 Republican wave victory fizzled out and Democrats rolled to big wins in New Britain. Republicans had high hopes nationwide. Buoyed by predictions of the “red wave”, they were blaming President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats for the runaway inflation that was much more caused […]
Top 10 of 2022: #6: More City Debt To Pay For Stewart Annual Budgets
On topic, again, of a newspaper’s role as the first draft of history is what is probably the most historically enduring legacy of Republican Mayor Erin Stewart — annual budgets being floated by debt to be paid for by taxpayers long after she is no longer Mayor. It has been called formal-sounding terms, like, “debt […]
Mill Rate Cut Is Expected To Offset Big Jump In Property Tax Values
Post-Pandemic Revaluation Brings Hikes Of 50% Or More To Single And Multi Family Homes By John McNamara New Britain’s turn for a revaluation of real property came this year in the regressive property tax system that mandates every city and town set new values for tax purposes every five years. Unlike the last revaluation in […]
Attorney Bill Rivera Is First Hispanic Elected To Probate Court
Democrat Reverses 2021 Special Election Loss To Republican Mike Carrier By John McNamara NEW BRITAIN – Attorney Bill Rivera, a Common Council Majority Leader in the 1990s, won a close race for Judge of Probate in the November 8th state election and is believed to be the first person of Hispanic heritage elected to office […]
Hayes’ Ground Game Came Late To A CT-5 Democratic Stronghold
New Britain Had 2.6K Fewer Voters Than ’18 Gubernatorial Election By John McNamara Urban votes in state and federal elections are the firewalls for Democratic candidates to win competitive races in Connecticut. New Britain, the most reliable Democratic town in non-municipal years in the 5th Congressional District (CT-5), joined other cities in a lower turnout […]
In Lieu of Early Voting CT Has AB Voting Option
The land of “steady habits” is one of four states without early voting but fear of COVID gives residents another way to vote without going to the polls in 2022 By John McNamara A pandemic-inspired change in CT’s Absentee Voting Law will be the closest residents will come to early voting in the November 8th […]
Does New Britain need a chief operating officer and a full time mayor?
Misleading Referendum Proposes High Level Patronage Job To Manage Municipal Government by John McNamara NEW BRITAIN – Creating a new chief operating officer to manage the municipality and making town clerk and tax collector jobs appointed instead of elected offices are big and very different questions for a referendum vote in November.Voters, however, won’t have […]
COO Patronage Job, End To Elections Of Clerk and Tax Collector Are On The Nov. 8 Ballot
Fuzzy Charter Question Will Keep Many Voters in the Dark by John McNamara New Britain voters will be deciding much more than who should be the Governor and making their picks for other elective offices on November 8th. City charter revisions will, if approved, make the biggest changes in a generation as to how Connecticut’s […]
Another Restructuring Adds Millions In Debt To New Britain’s Finances
Fitch “does not consider this to be a prudent management practice during a period of recovery.” By John McNamara In a perfunctory special meeting on June 1st the Common Council unanimously adopted a municipal budget for the year that starts July 1st. The $251,046,177 million budget for the new fiscal year is “controlled, calculated and […]
Probate Judge Contest Is A Rematch Of 2021 Special Election: Republican Carrier vs. Democrat Rivera
By John McNamara Attorney and former Common Council Leader William Rivera won the Democratic Party’s endorsement for Judge of Probate last week setting up a rematch of last year’s special election won by Attorney Michael Carrier. Convention delegates from Berlin and New Britain nominated Rivera without opposition. In accepting the endorsement Rivera acknowledged Carrier, who […]
Campaign cash soared in ’21 municipal election but voter turnout declined
By John McNamara “Money is the mother’s milk of politics” goes the observation first coined in the 1960s that applies to almost every state and federal election cycle as all kinds of committees and special interests raise billions in reported and anonymous donations. That old saying about money in politics applies less frequently to local elections where […]
Stewart Apparently Proposes Borrowing To Cover City Spending Again
Republican Mayor Erin Stewart is proposing $49.5 million in taxpayer borrowing to refinance existing city debt…
Campaign 2022: Fictional Bob On TV Is Same Bob Who Ran For Governor in 2018
by John McNamara Bob Stefanowski’s story is the stuff of hardscrabble immigrants making it to America in the 20th century to raise their families and realize the American Dream. That is the narrative in Republican Stefanowski’s re-branding to voters in his first television commercial for Connecticut’s GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2022. No doubt that Mr. Stefanowski’s parents […]
Top 10 of 2021: #3 – Stewart vs. Education?
Republican Mayor Erin Stewart has developed a reputation of antagonism toward both school funding and those who run the city’s schools.
Top 10 of 2021: #6 – Landlord Group’s “cage fight between Lamont & Zherka” remark stumps the press, brings apology to Governor
A May scandal occurred that may have been a statewide story, but there’s no mystery about who Sam Zherka is in New Britain.
Top 10 of 2021: #6 – Landlord Group’s “cage fight between Lamont & Zherka” remark stumps the press, brings apology to Governor
A May scandal occurred that may have been a statewide story, but there’s no mystery about who Sam Zherka is in New Britain.
Behind Mayor Stewart’s War On Supt. Sarra and the BOE
The vandalism and trouble that occurred at New Britain High School in September needlessly escalated the rift between Mayor Erin Stewart and New Britain School District leaders.
The Return of Tim Stewart: Ex-Mayor Chairs SBC As $50M School Project Begins
By John McNamara Former Mayor Tim Stewart is the new Chairperson of the School Building Committee, gaining reappointment by his daughter, Mayor Erin Stewart, just as the seven-member committee moves forward with expenditures on the $50 million major renovation at the Chamberlain Elementary School on the city’s East Side. The former four-term Mayor resigned from the […]
Landlord Group’s “cage fight between Lamont & Zherka” remark stumps the press, brings apology to Governor
There’s No Mystery About Who Sam Zherka Is In New Britain By John McNamara West Hartford-based Connecticut Coalition of Property Owners (CCOPO) had to issue a quick apology on May 19th over its first version of a press release opposing an eviction moratorium and use of $400 million in federal pandemic aid to landlords and […]
School Building Committee Resolution Curtails Checks and Balances On Construction Projects
“A consequence of the new SBC resolution is that it contributes to a bigger divide between City Hall and the BOE. New Britain’s close to last ranking in how much the municipal government contributes to public schools is a perennial and contentious issue at budget time every year and this year is no exception.” By […]