Leng Beats Kaye 60 – 40

Hamden has 18,662 registered Democrats and only 4,331 registered Republicans. Despite his victory, Hamden citizens have sent a third consecutive message to Leng. He narrowly won the nomination for his party, when nearly 50% of the Democratic Town Council voted against nominating him for another term. Then in the primary race, nearly 40% of Democratic voters submitted ballots to remove him from office. Today, in a town where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a magnitude greater than 4-to-1, Leng only manages to garner support from 60% of voters.

@Majorie Bonadies:

I would urge you not to make too much of the "tyranny of the majority." There are Democrats on the Legislative Council who have demonstrated themselves serious about tackling this town's financial challenges. Frankly, some of them did a better job of leading on this issue than the town's GOP contingent (in their support of a budget that you acknowledged was more honest and would do a better job of protecting taxpayers in the long-run than the Mayor's but nonetheless did not back).

Make common cause with the Democrats demanding more transparency and accountability on finances. The real divide I see in this town is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between an entrenched old guard strenuously defending a status quo that is manifestly not working and people from both sides of the political aisle who are saying enough is enough - we have to change how this town does business.

Even though this election is a half-hearted endorsement of the Mayor, what do you think the chances are of him gathering his staff or even the Legislative Council and saying, "we really need to get our act together" and seriously:
-Figure out how to develop a financial plan which addresses long-term debt by increasing revenues and decreasing expenses.
-Look at ways to streamline government and better use our resources by searching for best practices around the country in streamlining and re- engineering how our agencies ( such as police and fire operate); set specific targets for reduction in overtime and reorganize accordingly.

He is well-intentioned and so is his staff, but that is not enough. They need to invite critical assessment of what they do poorly or inefficiently and what they can do better AND bring in people who can make critical changes happen.

Christian McNamara,
I don't get your post. You're saying the real divide is between the entrenched old guard who is strenuously defending the status quo that is not working . . . and that we have to change how the town does business. You add that the Democrats are serious about tackling the financial issues and they have done a better job than the GOP contingent.

The results of the election were to just put the entrenched old guard back in office; the same old people with the same old ideas about tackling the financial issues that have put Hamden on the brink of State oversight. The GOP didn't give Hamden the budget it currently has, they only had 2 representatives to the 13 Democrats. They can't pass anything.

If Hamden really wanted change, the incumbents wouldn't have overwhelmingly won.

Didn't Bonidies support Leng's dishonest revenue in order to keep the mill rate down?
Did the, if not fiscally restrained, at least honest, Democrats lose their primaries on the grounds that they were disruptive?

@missthenighthawks

I didn't say that all Hamden Democrats are serious about tackling the town's financial issues and have been stronger than the GOP contingent on this topic - I said that a specific faction of them are/have been. Lauren Garrett challenged Leng in the Democratic primary based largely on criticizing his record of financial mismanagement. Kaye did the same as a Republican in the general. They each lost, but nonetheless attracted thousands of voters based on that message.

Democrats who supported Garrett because of her stand for more responsible financial management and Republicans who supported Kaye because of his stand for more responsible financial management have common cause in recognizing that this town is being mismanaged. The real divide is between them and those (primarily other Democrats) who believe that the town is not being mismanaged. And the fact that those who see nothing wrong with how the town is being managed won so comfortably points to the need for the rest of us to work together to push for better management of the town regardless of party affiliation.

This night was a tremendous victory for Jay Kaye and the Republicans. Kaye ran a clean, classy campaign with integrity and honesty. He connected with the thousands of people he met while canvassing and gained the trust & confidence of citizens from ALL political parties in town. He promoted the unity that is much needed in Hamden's council as his platform to empower folks, as well as provided information of the dangerous state the town's finances are in. It is unfortunate that some are still afraid of the honest and courageous conversations needed to solve the issues, but many citizens will now demand more transparency and action on the part of the mayor and council. Thank you to all of the open-minded people who supported Kaye's campaign and know we will continue to work towards better management of the finances and all town departments.

I am a registered democrat in Hamden. I wasn't excited about Leng because I'm tired of taxes going up. But in the Trump era I found it distasteful to vote for a republican. So I just didn't vote.

Mayor Curt.. Congrats on reelection, one Hamden problem that I hope will be checked soon is the often repeated issue of top Police or Fire officials, or their relatives putting, or at least claiming to be putting in enough hours to make outrageous amounts of pay all from us taxpayers.
The problem seems to exist heavily in Hamden as I do not believe I have seen that problem in any other area Town or City. This years problems I believe included a brother of the Fire Chief pulling down over $200,000 and another Fire Dept high officer being used as a public relations man instead of fire-fighting efforts and supposedly being allowed to take a quarter of a million $$$$ of our tax money for his efforts. If I have messed up these stories please correct me. Definitely should not be repeated, but I have read of no corrective actions being taken by the Chief, the commissioners, or you. Some action is definitely needed Similar problems seem to pop up very frequently in Hamden,sometimes, Fire officials, sometimes Cops. Someond needs to act, and soon.











































44