There’s an old joke that ends with the punch line: “No matter how far you get in life, the number of people who show up at your funeral still depends a lot on the weather.”
But even the bitter cold and freezing rain couldn’t keep hundreds of people from turning out to pay their respects to former Hartford Mayor Mike Peters. In fact, many of them couldn’t wait until the funeral and showed up the day after he died at his downtown restaurant, called radio talk shows and posted messages on Web sites recalling fond memories and offering condolences to his family and his city.
Despite a city charter that gave him very limited power, Peters was a successful mayor. There is no doubt the city was in better shape when he left office as compared to when he took over. His personality was perfect for the job and its limitations.
One of his obvious strategies was to ask for outside help, mostly from state government. If you are going to beg for help, it’s better to be entertaining than annoying. It’s also better if there is a sense the person making the request has no motive other than the advancement of the cause in question. Peters’ message was refreshing beyond the humor that carried it.
Peters properly gets credit for much of the economic development progress made in the city over the last 15 years. From day one, he set a new tone that was important to keeping some of the state’s largest employers in Hartford. He is also the mayor who was not afraid to publicly admit where Hartford was falling short and to ask for help.
Political Courage
Under Gov. Lowell Weicker, Peters first sought state assistance in controlling street gangs that were running out of control. Under Gov. John Rowland, he sought a state takeover of the school system and a partnership that ended a 20-year drought of new construction.
At the time, the news media and many in state government viewed Hartford as hapless. What is often overlooked is the political courage it took for the mayor to agree to give up local control and to convince state political leaders that it was in their interest to step in.
This was not the work of a hard-drinking wise guy; it was the work of a man using his unique social and political skills to get others to do what he couldn’t do on his own. Don’t discount the social side of political deal making. More often than not, big issues are resolved on the basis of good relationships. Great political stories end with irony and a punch line, not a bill number.
Go Jets
The day Robert Kraft called Gov. Rowland to tell him he was pulling out of the deal to bring the Patriots to Hartford, Rowland sat alone in his office writing the statement he would make to the news media. The first politician to drop in to offer support was Mayor Mike.
He came bounding through the door with a big smile, stopped in the middle of the room, raised his fist in the air and yelled, “Go Jets.” Rowland began to laugh, they hugged and Rowland showed him the opening line of the statement he had just written: “Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at Connecticut’s No. 1 Jet’s fan.”
In that moment, it was clear Peters was going to get what he wanted. Even today, the work Peters began, just by asking for help, continues. That’s why a little freezing rain couldn’t keep us from goodbye. Go Jets. Go Hartford.
Dean Pagani is a former gubernatorial advisor. He is V.P. of Public Affairs for Cashman and Katz Integrated Communications in Glastonbury.
