Sam Gurwitt photo
Lauren Garrett at her campaign kick off.
Mayoral challenger Lauren Garrett has qualified for the Democratic Primary ballot in her bid to unseat incumbent Hamden Mayor Curt Leng.
Garrett, who has served on Hamden’s Legislative Council since 2017, announced that she had made it onto the Sept. 10 ballot in an email press release sent out by her campaign on Tuesday afternoon.
Hamden Registrar of Voters Rose Mentone confirmed Wednesday morning that her office has verified 980 signatures that Garrett has collected from Hamden registered Democrats since losing the town party’s official endorsement to Leng on July 16.
Garrett only needed 835 verified signatures to qualify for the ballot, Mentone said. The total verified number will likely increase as the registrar’s office is still going through several more pages of signatures in support of Garrett, she added.
“Over the past two months, I have visited the homes of over 13,000 residents to talk to voters and listen to their concerns,” Garrett is quoted as saying in the press release, which describes her as a “frugal yet progressive Democrat.”
“I have found overwhelming support for a new approach to addressing our lack of investment, particularly in Southern Hamden, our high property taxes compared to neighboring towns and a lack of follow through on needed infrastructure repairs and services. Many seem to be struggling. Given the deficit from last year and the one we are running this year, our fiscal situation is only getting worse. Decades of underfunding the pension has gotten us into this mess, but that is exactly what the current administration is continuing to do. Current and past administrations have been borrowing to supplement the operating budget. This is increasing our debt and liabilities every year.”
Garrett’s campaign manager, Sean Grace, told the Independent that Garrett’s campaign submitted close to 1,200 names to the registrar’s office in her petition for the ballot.
“People were eager to sign the petition,” he said. “When we were going door to door, virtually everyone signed the petition. Folks are just eager for change. They’re eager for a new direction.”
The number one concern that he and Garrett heard from residents while doorknocking for signatures, he said, was about “our fiscal situation in town,” about the budget, and about high taxes.
hamden can have more infrastructure repairs and services, and fund it pensions, with higher taxes to fund them, or continue shortchanging the pensions and running deficits as Long is currently doing, or reduce spending to lower, or at least moderate to increases in taxes. Moreover, the school spending and re-alignment just appoved will put further downward pressure on property values, meaning a ever higher mill rate.