If the Courant could have written more glowing articles today approving Perez’s primary win, I am not sure how they’d have gone about it. With all the talk about ease, they seem to not realize that about 50% of the vote is not the same as 95%, and afterall, only 25% of registered Democrats bothered to fill out their bubble sheets yesterday. So, I think it’s a little soon to be acting like Eddie Perez can do some kind of victory dance.
Of the three Democrat challengers, only one seems to have had his act together enough to be taken seriously. Barrows’ literature, which I only saw one piece of in recent weeks, was riddled with spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors. That’s not something I’d hold against someone, except that he’s applying for a job and his cover letter that went to registered Hartford Democrats was disgraceful. Feltman, while more together on that front, and more prepared with statistics and financial information, had a couple strikes against him. Twice I’ve tried arranging an interview with him. The first time, he agreed but never responded. The second time, he actually sought me out, but never followed through. I’m also not about to hold grudges, but making that same error twice is kind of annoying. Why would he have more follow-through once in office.
The actual election, if you couldn’t tell from all the hoopla in the media, is not until November. There will be at least one candidate from outside of the Democratic party, and as a registered Democrat, I’ll say that he seems to be the most qualified, personable, and humble of the selection so far. Hartford has many registered Democrats, but a sizable number of unaffiliated, Independent, Republican, and third party voters who may also be wanting something different from the cronyism that’s thriving here.