Top 10 of 2021: #5 – Republicans Block DeLandro, Appoint Republican Loyalist

In January, Republicans blocked the appointment of Democrat Veronica T. DeLandro to the City Council, choosing a loyalist to Stewart-Republican political machine, instead.

At issue was the Council seat for which voters had chosen a Democrat in the 2019 election. That seat became vacant because Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24), then a Council member, was elected to the state legislature in the 2020 elections. The City Charter says that Council vacancies are filled by the Council, itself, and requires that, since voters elected a Democrat for this seat, a Democrat must be selected to fill out the term.

Democrats, including the Democratic Party, the other Democrats on the Council and Rep. Sanchez, himself, all favored DeLandro for the seat.

Republican Mayor Erin Stewart frequently calls herself bi-partisan in her political messaging, but what she passes for that bi-partisanship in practice is having people who swear fealty to the Stewart-Republican political machine and running as Republicans include some who happen to be registered to vote in Democratic primaries or no primaries at all.

With an 8-7 Republican majority on the Council at the time, the vacancy in Sanchez’ Democratic seat on the Council provided Stewart and other Republicans the opportunity to practice a little actual bi-partisanship by simply honoring the Democrats’ own choice for the seat.

But Stewart and other Republicans, instead, chose a very partisan opportunity to expand their Republican majority on the Council, passing over DeLandro and choosing a Republican partisan who happened to be registered to vote in the other party’s primaries. The Republicans’ claimed that their act in this matter was returning the favor of long-ago partisan acts of Democrats over Republicans, but that, too, only served as a demonstration that it is the Stewart-Republican political machine that most of all practices the crass politics that Stewart claims that she so abhors.

As in every year, there was so much news that the New Britain Progressive covered 2021 that choosing our traditional Top Ten stories of the year is difficult. But the gravity of this story in New Britain’s history will doubtless continue to only grow with time, and that makes this story #5 of the New Britain Progressive‘s Top Ten Stories of 2021.

Republicans Block DeLandro, Appoint Republican Loyalist

January 14, 2021

Republicans have blocked the appointment of Democrat Veronica T. DeLandro to the City Council, choosing a loyalist to Stewart-Republican political machine, instead.

In the vote, that is being slammed as both racist and sexist, Council Republicans effectively increased the number of Republican Council members from eight to nine by choosing a loyalist to Republican Mayor Erin Stewart, Paul Catanzaro, instead of DeLandro for the at-large Council seat vacated by newly elected State Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24) before he took office in the state legislature.

“Black women continue to be a strong and powerful voting block,” DeLandro said, “yet we still lack the representation in political spaces that affect and influence our community.”

“We are often told,” DeLandro said, “when we pursue opportunities in public service that we need to wait, that it’s not our time — or just, flat out ‘no.’”

“I look at it, there’s some elements of racism, here,” said Ronald P. Davis, Vice Chair of the New Britain Democratic Party, “there’s some elements of sexism, here, and there’s elements of ageism, here.”

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. And, for hours at the beginning of two Council meetings, DeLandro supporters rallied in support of the Democrat being appointed to the seat.

Since Rep. Sanchez was elected in 2019 to the Council seat as a Democrat, the person appointed to complete the remainder of the two-year At-Large Council term must be registered to vote in Democratic Party primaries. But with control of the New Britain Council, Republicans had the power to overrule the Democrats’ own choice and name someone, who, while registered to vote in Democratic Party primaries, is loyal to the Stewart Republican political machine.

Supporters of DeLandro have been organizing since December in the wake of a Republican decision to block her appointment. In December, Republicans tabled a resolution proposed by Council Democrats for her to succeed Rep. Sanchez. Many people have criticized the process city Republicans have claimed to be following. Just two days before the Council was set to vote on DeLandro’s appointment in December, Stewart called for a “search” for the seat, calling attention to the earlier effort by the Republican Council Leader, Ald. Daniel Salerno (R-AL), “searching for a vacancy candidate,” despite wide support DeLandro already had to succeed Sanchez.

Salerno has been a frequent focus of criticism and ire for interposing himself as a “gatekeeper” to the process of choosing the new Council member. Republicans have been quoted as explaining their justification for passing over DeLandro in favor of another choice as that, “it’s a numbers game.” On Wednesday, Salerno repeated that theme, stressing that the decision on the appointment is made by a majority vote of the Council.

Undeterred by the decision by the current Republican Council majority, supporters of DeLandro, and DeLandro, herself, have pointed to the upcoming 2021 city elections as the place where the real final decision on the matter will be settled. “Your seat is not safe,” has become a common refrain among DeLandro supporters.

Over the past weeks, DeLandro supporters have been increasingly encouraging the Democrat to set her sights higher than a Council seat — with many wanting her to run for mayor.

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.