NEW BRITAIN – The Democratic Town Committee’s meeting to decide on endorsements for the fall elections ended in violence on Thursday when the wife of incumbent Democratic Alderman Neil Connors was assaulted shortly after he was passed over for the nomination to his seat on the city’s north end.
Allison Cappuccio told CT Examiner that she was punched in the head by another woman shortly after meeting leaders announced that her husband, Democratic Alderman Neil Connors, would not receive his party’s nomination for a second term in office.
Cappuccio and Connors told CT Examiner they swore out a complaint at the New Britain Police Department and expect the arrest of the woman shortly.
CT Examiner is withholding the name of the alleged assailant pending an arrest.
“I did file charges,” Cappuccio said.
“I am utterly in shock. I cannot believe that it happened,” said Cappuccio by phone. She denied doing anything to provoke the assault. “That was the first time I have ever gone to City Hall for any Democratic Town Committee meeting.”
A video of the event provided to CT Examiner shows a woman approaching Cappuccio from behind at the close of the meeting, striking her, and retreating. The video ends at that point.
State Sen. Rick Lopes, who was standing nearby, jumped between the women and kept them apart, Connors and Cappuccio said.
Thursday’s incident apparently was in reaction to the nomination of Republican-turned-Democrat Luz Ortiz-Luna’s for Connors’ seat.
Connors said he had no doubt that his wife was targeted by a partisan of Ortiz Luna.
“My wife was kind of engaging in a silent protest, and the person they nominated used to be on Erin Stewart’s ticket. And she was holding up just like her prior campaign picture, sort of like showing, ‘Why did you replace my husband with someone who’s on the other side?’”
Committee Democrats have urged Connors, an attorney, to remain quiet after being passed over for the party’s nomination. They have promised him legal work after the election in exchange for his silence, his wife said.
Britain Democratic Town Committee Chairman Chris Anderson did not return a telephone message and text late Thursday. Nor did Francisco Santiago, the top Democrat on the council.
City politics have taken an ugly turn in recent months in part after Democratic Alderwoman Wilma Barbosa criticized the husband of Republican Alderwoman and mayoral candidate Sharon Beloin-Saavedra during a May 28 Common Council meeting.
“We have jobs and we have families to take care of. We don’t have a husband who sends us a paycheck from somewhere outside of the United States,” Barbosa said at the time in apparent reference to Beloin-Saavedra and her husband, Edgardo Saavedra, who works for AT&T in Puerto Rico.
Both Democratic and Republican parties seem to be fracturing along stresses created by competition for votes and party switching. Barbosa’s comments prompted New Britain Republican Town Committee Chair Tony Kane to issue a press release calling it a “personal attack and insult” to the city’s large Puerto Rican community. Kane also called on Barbosa to be censured, something Republican council leadership said they will not broach.
In a statement, Kane charged that Barbosa “abandoned the standards of respect and decorum expected of elected officials by issuing a personal tirade aimed at Mrs. Beloin-Saavedra, rather than engaging in constructive dialogue. Her remarks were not only unprofessional but crossed the line of decency and civility in public service.”
Neither Connors or Cappuccio were sure what their next move would be. They await an arrest, they told CT Examiner.