After Passing Over DeLandro, Republicans Prepare to Fill Council Seat

A month after pushing aside the widely supported appointment Democrat Veronica T. DeLandro to the City Council, the Republican-majority Council will take up appointing someone to the seat.

But the agenda for the January 13, 2021 Council meeting does not say who would be considered for the seat. The agenda reserves a spot for a resolution on the appointment, to be introduced by the Council’s Republican leader, Daniel Salerno (R-AL).

The issue concerns the at-large Council seat vacated by newly elected State Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24) before he took office in the state legislature. Because Sanchez was elected as a Democrat to the Council seat in 2019, the seat must be filled by someone who is registered to vote in Democratic Party primaries.

Rep. Sanchez, himself, supported DeLandro to be his successor in the seat. Democrats, from the other Democratic Council members, to Democratic state legislators, to the New Britain Democratic Party to others all agreed that DeLandro was their choice for the seat. DeLandro has been supported by Senator Rick Lopes (D-6), State Representative Peter Tercyak (D-26), State Representative Bobby Sanchez (D-25), Board of Education member Violet Jiménez Sims (D), Democratic City Treasurer Ron Jakubowski (D) and others.

Just two days before the Council was set to vote on DeLandro’s appointment, Republican Mayor Erin Stewart called for a “search” for the seat, setting off widespread speculation that Republicans planned to pass over DeLandro and name their own candidate for the seat. “Let the search commence!” said Stewart, calling attention to the earlier effort by Salerno, “searching for a vacancy candidate.” While the seat must be filled by someone who is registered to vote in Democratic Party primaries, Republicans, with the Council majority, have the power to overrule the Democratic Party’s own choice and name someone loyal to the Stewart Republican political machine, instead.

At the December 9, 2020 Council meeting, despite a two and a half hour long Council public participation session in which forty-five people gave resounding support in favor of DeLandro, Council Republicans tabled the resolution that had been introduced by Council Democrats to appoint her and, instead, continued their “search.”

While the January 13th Council agenda calls for a new resolution to appoint someone to succeed Rep. Sanchez, the Democrats’ resolution to appoint DeLandro is still also on the meeting’s agenda, as a tabled item. Since there has already been a resolution introduced on the vacancy in Rep. Sanchez’ former Council seat, it appears to raise the question of whether a second resolution on the same matter would be out of order in the Council’s proceedings.

DeLandro has served as District Director for Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D-5) and now provides consulting, training and coaching to nonprofit organizations at VTD Consulting Group, which she founded. She previously had a career at ESPN before she began working with organizations with a focus on philanthropy, college access and mentoring.

DeLandro ran for City Council in 2017, very nearly winning an upset victory in an uphill race in the City’s First Ward, where Republicans have historically had the advantage in city level elections, and then was selected as the City Council’s first woman and first African American Clerk of Committees. She has also previously served on the city’s Youth & Family Services Commission and the school system’s Graduation Odyssey Task Force.

A longtime community leader, DeLandro is on the Executive Board of the NAACP New Britain Branch and serves on the Board of the YWCA New Britain, co-chairing the YWCA’s Policy Committee. She is a founding member of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Black Giving Circle, and her biography notes her roles as, “Connecticut State Coordinator for the Eastern Region of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Recording Secretary for the North Atlantic Region of the National Hampton Alumni Association, Inc. and Technology Chair for the Greater Hartford Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.”

DeLandro was one of Connecticut Magazine‘s “40 under 40” of rising leaders, recognized for her leadership at the Inaugural MIP (Minority Inclusion Project) Honors Gala and was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Blacks by the New Britain NAACP.

DeLandro is married and has two children.

The January 13th Council meeting begins at 7:05pm, but the Council agenda says that,

Due to the current public health concerns, this meeting will not be open to the public. Members of the public may view a live broadcast via the live stream link: http://www.newbritainct.gov/meetings

Individuals seeking public participation may join the queue beginning at 6:45 pm by calling 1 (609) 663-5783.