Parties Can Limit Time for Primary Challengers to Petition

When the Democratic Town Committee chooses to hold its endorsement meeting effects by a week how long challengers have to collect signatures, an especially important factor, with three Democrats candidates running for Mayor.

Under Connecticut law, candidates trying to collect enough signatures to qualify for the primary for their party’s nomination have until August 11, 2021 to submit the signatures they collect.

But, while the end date of the petitioning period is fixed, the start date is not, and depends entirely on when the party’s governing town committee chooses to hold its candidate endorsement meeting.

Nominations by the Democratic Party are a potentially two step process. The Democratic Party’s governing Town Committee makes endorsements of candidates for city offices. But, candidates not endorsed by the Town Committee can send the decision on the Democratic nomination to Democratic voters in a primary by collecting petition signatures from everyday Democrats. If no candidate challenging the Town Committee’s endorsed choice submits enough signatures to qualify for a primary by the deadline, the Town Committee’s choice becomes the nominee of the Democratic Party.

This year, since three Democrats are running for the Democratic nomination for the city’s top office, two or more candidates may be collecting signatures from right after the Town Committee endorsement meeting later in July. How long they have to collect those hundreds of signatures, between two weeks or three, is decided by when the Town Committee actually holds its endorsement meeting.

Under state law, town committees can hold their endorsement meetings between July 20th and 27th of this year. If the meeting is held on July 20th, challengers will have three weeks to collect signatures. But, if the meeting is held on the last day it can be, on July 27th, challengers will have two weeks.

The same process applies to the Republican Party as the Democratic Party, but most observers believe that Republican Mayor Erin Stewart will become the Republican nominee on August 11th, without a primary of Republican voters.

However, in the Democratic Party, there are three candidates for Mayor — community and Democratic leader Veronica T. DeLandro, Democratic state Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25) and political activist and Democratic candidate Alicia Hernandez Strong.

If one or more of those candidates collects enough petition signatures, the decision on the Democratic candidate for Mayor will be decided by Democratic Party voters at a Democratic Primary, to be held on September 14, 2021.