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A Chicken in Every Pot

Steve Goode

March 10, 2010

Or continued funding for someone's non-profit. Or continued employment with the city of Hartford. The latter two are among the carrots - or sticks depending on your vantage point - rumored to be at play in the run-up to Thursday night's election for town committee chairman. A not insignificant number of the 66 members of the town committee who will be choosing between incumbent chairman - and Mayor Eddie A. Perez protégé - Sean Arena are said to have some sort of financial connection to city hall's bountiful purse strings.

So it will be interesting to see if those folks do as they are asked - or told - and vote for the mayor's man, or cast their lot with self-described Shiner of the Light Bruce Rubenstein, who has promised to lead like-minded reformers in putting an end to political patronage associated with the town committee and corruption associated with city government.

Some strange things have happened lately in American politics - see Republican Scott Brown's stunner in the Bay State senate election for late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy's seat - but this is Hartford, where back room deals rule and people do or say whatever is necessary to keep, or take, power.

Of course a third candidate could jump into the mix and really gum up the works. We'll be there tomorrow night and have the skinny on line and in the paper on Friday.