Republicans’ Council Slate Very Different From Current Council

New Britain Republicans have endorsed a very different slate of candidate from their current Council members, with many incumbents out — and rumors circulating that some incumbents and other Republicans may challenge as independent candidates.

Only six of the twelve incumbent Republicans on the City Council were endorsed for re-election, out of a possible ten seats for which the Republicans could have run candidates.

Changes on Republican Slate

Part of the backdrop for the change is the new format for electing the Council. Republicans presently hold twelve of the fifteen Council seats, but five of those Republicans are in at-large seats. Under the new Council election system, there are no at-large seats. Each Council district is to elect three Council members, with each party permitted to run only two.

In three of the five Council districts, commonly called “Wards”, multiple incumbent Republicans, if they chose the run, would have had to compete against each other for their party’s two candidacies for their ward.

Current Ward 1 Council Republicans are Howard Dyson (R-1) and Peter Scirpo (R-1), while at-large Council member Alden Russell (R-AL) also resides in the new Ward 1. In Ward 4, Robert Smedley (R-4) and Michael Thompson (R-4) are the Ward Council members, while at-large Council member Luz Ortiz-Luna (R-AL) also resides Ward 4, by its new map. Finally, in Ward 5, Paul Catanzaro (R-5) and Kris Rutkowski (R-5) are the Ward Council members, and at-large members Wilfredo Pabon (R-AL) and Matthew Malinowski (R-AL) reside in the new Ward 5.

As the machinations in the Republican Party surrounding this bottleneck have progressed, rumors began to circulate that some incumbents, who were apparently not likely to end up on the Republican slate, were discussing possible petitioning candidacies.

At large Council Member Luz Ortiz Luna (R-AL) has confirmed that she will seek election to represent Ward 4 as an Independent candidate. She was not endorsed by the Republican Party. “I have the opportunity to primary in Ward 4,” she said. “However, I decided to run on the independent line because I was treated poorly.”

Ward 5 Council member Paul Catanzaro has also frequently been mentioned as a possible independent candidate for Ward 5..

Someone who has been more direct about a possible independent candidacy this year is longtime Republican activist James Sanders, Jr. Sanders has been in a very public dispute with Republican Mayor Erin Stewart. While there have been rumors that he would consider running for mayor, recent rumors posit him running for Council. Sanders is a resident of Ward 1.

Amid the action surrounding the Council, Board of Education President Gayle Sanders-Connolly (R) was also not endorsed for re-election by her party. There have been persistent rumors of a political falling-out between Sanders-Connolly and Stewart, reminiscent the 2021 election. In that election, incumbent former Board of Education President Nicholas Mercier (R), who had been at odds with Stewart, was pushed off the Republican slate and ran unsuccessfully for re-election as a petitioning candidate.

Editor’s note (7/28/2023): The article was updated to include that Ald. Ortiz Luna plans to seek re-election as an Independent.

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