On Sept. 11, Hartford holds its primary for the Democrat party. Mayor Eddie Perez has already been endorsed by the party leadership. The question is whether there is any substantive support for his challengers — particularly for politicians I. Charles Matthews and Art Feltman. Just how endangered is the Insurance City’s own feisty Fiorello?
Eddie Perez is a complex man. A former gang member who turned his life around, he clearly hasn’t lost his pugnaciousness. There’s a lot in this city that’s better because of him. His predecessor, Mike Peters, was a fun guy, but in the end his legacy was one of making nice with the neighbors, not really advancing Hartford’s interests.
Perez has been a bull, charging into everything and scaring the heck out of anyone in his way. He rallied the electorate to change the city charter, finally making the mayor the chief executive he ought to be. Once he secured that power, he wielded it, crusading, bulking up and empowering his staff, and making himself chairman of the flailing Board of Education.
We’ll get to his negatives in a moment, but it has to be said: Hartford is a city desperately in need of a commander, a no-nonsense general that people want to follow. The cognoscenti of the capital don’t much like Perez’s swagger, but most of the electorate does. He’s one of them, and it feels like he’s looking out for them. His tenure so far as a strong leader shouldn’t be underrated or underestimated.
At a Web site called UrbanPlanet.org, people with strong interests in urban living and urban development come together to hash out the good and bad of their cities. The Hartford forums at the site are quite lively. One poster, identified only as “Hamlet,” wrote:
“The way to measure progress is in five year chunks. Look at [Hartford] in 2002 and now. There’s no comparison in terms of population moving downtown and amenities springing up. It’s cleaner, the park system along the river is expanding, the vibe is better…The real problem is the permanent damage that Perez is doing. WFSB and MetLife and ING [moving out of downtown], those are serious. The culture of corruption in city government continues… Hartford needs a mayor that understands the needs of businesses both large and small. So while I don’t blame Eddie for all the [city’s] ills, he is certain[ly] the biggest problem the city needs to fix.”
While the writer may mean that the way to “fix” the Eddie Perez problem is to remove Perez from office, the real answer is that Perez is likely to be re-elected. If he serves again, can Perez be “fixed” ?
It’s unlikely Hartford’s voters are going to see in Perez the shortcomings his detractors want. Big business distrusts Perez because of his unmitigated support of unions. But those unions mean jobs for local residents – who vote, unlike the big businesses. Hartford’s small business owners are also up in arms over big potential tax hikes. But while those people may own businesses in the city, most of them live in the suburbs, and thus have no vote here. Homeowners whose taxes are capped because of revenue from businesses do vote – and they like the system that Perez has in place.
Is Perez corrupt? He seems to have gotten a great deal on a new bathroom from a contractor who has done business with the city. But Hartford voters will see that Perez paid $20,000 for that job, and given their own income levels they won’t be swayed that there was much corruption there at all. And the lack of a building permit is a laughable charge. Giving favors to Abe Giles? He’s a Northend good-ole-boy and political fixer. A sweetheart deal with Giles isn’t going to hurt Perez with local voters.
Unless prosecutors manage to find something solid on Perez, he’s going to be the man in charge again after November. The question isn’t whether the mayor is making moral mistakes, it’s whether he’s learning from any of them. Does he really care about the city, or does he just care about Eddie Perez?
