Democrat Bobby Berriault is running for City Council in New Britain’s Ward 4, hoping to win on his second attempt at being elected to the seat.
Berriault has been actively campaigning for one of the two Council seats representing his neighborhood, and says that forty volunteers have been volunteering for his campaign.
In 2017, Berriault and fellow Democratic candidate Ann Speyer ran but did not win in their challenge against incumbent Republicans, Ald. Don Naples (R-4) and Ald. Robert Smedley (R-4).
New Britain’s Ward 4 elects two members of the City Council. The ward includes Little Poland, the Belvedere neighborhood, the Little Warsaw neighborhood, the Stanley parks and golf course area and parts of the Farmingdale neighborhood. Voters in Ward 4, depending on where they live, vote at the St. John Paul II School at 221 Farmington Avenue, the Saint Francis Church Hall at 1755 Stanley Street or the Holmes School.
Thirty-year old Berriault holds a law degree from Western New England University and is currently enrolled in studies at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University.
Berriault has been active in local politics in New Britain, including serving as a member of the Democratic Town Committee representing Voting District 11, which votes at the Holmes School.
Serving as Treasurer of the Connecticut Youth Democrats, Berriault has also been an activist in state and national elections. He is President of the Central Connecticut Chapter of Our Revolution, the organization founded from the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders.
Berriault is a city justice of the peace and is a member of the city Commission on Persons with Disabilities.
Berriault says that he is campaigning on issues on property taxes, education and the environment. Property taxes, Berriault says, are too high. He says that, if elected, he plans to work on addressing this by diversifying the city’s revenue. He says that he is concerned about the quality of education in the city. Saying that it is important to reduce class sizes, he says that he plans to support increases in the city’s allocation for education.
An opponent of Republican Mayor Erin Stewart’s plan to allow strip mining of New Britain’s protected drinking watershed land, which Stewart now says that she has abandoned, Berriault says that he would be an advocate on the Council for protecting the environment. He says that he wants to address the riding of motorized recreational vehicles on city streets and that fixing city sidewalks is a priority.
Berriault also says that, as Council member, he is well positioned to serve as a bridge between the Central Connecticut State University community and city neighborhoods. He says that it is important to encourage students to use the CTFastrak line to socialize at local businesses instead of parties at neighborhood houses.
Berriault often discusses the struggles he has experienced and overcome in his personal history as part of a message about how he wants to advocate for the New Britain community to overcome its challenges. He has discussed the challenges that he faced as a person with Asperger’s Syndrome and through a childhood in which he faced abuse and abandonment.
The Democratic Town Committee members in Ward 4 will vote on which two candidates to endorse for the seats in July. Just as with the election for other city offices, candidates who are not endorsed also then have the right to challenge the endorsed candidates in a primary.
Candidates are able to qualify for a primary by a petition signed by five percent of the registered Democrats in the ward. If that occurs, it would set up a primary on September 10th. The same rules apply for Republicans.
A primary is an election in which the voters who are registered to vote as members of a major party, Democrats or Republicans, vote to make the final decision of who their parties’ nominees will be on the ballot of the November 5th general election.
Editor’s note: The New Britain Progressive will be continuing to provide coverage of various candidates running for key offices in the 2019 city elections, which will be framed increasingly by the choices before the voters, as the picture of who the candidates for different offices becomes clearer. As in the past, to contribute to this coverage, candidates of all parties and petitioning candidates are welcome to submit biographical information and issue positions to the New Britain Progressive at [email protected].
