Democratic Primary To Decide 3 Town Committee Seats

Democratic voters in the 9th Voting District, which mostly in the East Side, will decide their representatives in the party’s Town Committee in a primary vote in March.

Five candidates are competing for the three seats representing the voting district. The district includes the northern East Side and Jubilee Estates.

Eileen Ruiz, April Lewis and Board of Education Vice President Merrill Gay (D) are running together as a slate for the three seats on the party committee from the district.

Ald. Angela Segarra (D-2) and Chong Segarra are running as a two person slate, as well.

The Democratic voters in the 9th district will vote in a primary election, to be held on March 1, 2022. The polls are to be open from 6:00am to 8:00pm that day. All voters in the district vote at St. Jean Baptiste Société, located at 209 Smalley Street.

Each Democratic voter will be able to vote for up to three candidates. The three candidates with the most votes will be elected for a two-year term.

Segarra and Gay both hold governmental seats on the City Council and Board of Education, respectively, but the Democratic Party Town Committee they are running for is not a government office. Rather, Town Committees’ purpose is make endorsements in party nominations and elect local party leaders.

The New Britain Democratic Party uses an “open primary” format for its party committee selection, which means that all candidates for the committee must collect signatures from five percent of Democratic Party voters in each of their voting districts in order to qualify for a seat on the committee. If more people in a particular voting district qualify than there are seats, then the Democratic voters decide, in a primary election. which will take the seats. That is what is happening this year in the 9th voting district.

The New Britain Republican Party uses a different process in which its party holds a “caucus”, a meeting in which any Republican voter who attends can vote to endorse candidates for Republican Town Committee, who become their Town Committee unless challenged in the primary.

Under their party rules, the New Britain Democrats do not have hold an endorsement caucus.

A similar primary was held two years ago, when Democrats had a Town Committee primary in the city’s 11th voting district.

Editor’s note (1/28/2022): The article was corrected to note that Chong Segarra is running for Democratic Town Committee in the district. The article previously incorrectly reported that there were four candidates running.