NEW BRITAIN – The last time the city had such a wide-open mayoral race was when 26-year-old neophyte Erin Stewart became the nation’s youngest mayor in 2013.
And in the first debate between candidates Democrat Bobby Sanchez and Republican Sharon Beloin-Saavedra for Stewart’s seat on Thursday, the sometimes barbed comments in the debate reflected how much both wanted to win that seat.
When event moderator and CT Examiner reporter Robert Storace put it to the debaters to pose a question for their opponent, Beloin-Saavedra made the point that there is a difference between experience in Hartford and on the local level.
“You say you’re going to cut taxes. How do you calculate the mill rate?” Beloin-Saavedra challenged her opponent, a longtime state representative.
Sanchez conceded, eventually, that it was something he’d learn in office.
But not to be outdone, in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1, Sanchez challenged his opponent to explain how she could have switched parties from Democrat to the party of President Donald Trump.
“You came in as a progressive Democrat. You were the education president,” Sanchez asked his opponent. “You were on the council of progressive Democrats. Just before the election in 2024, you switched over to the Republican Party. My question to you is, do you support Donald Trump’s policies?”
“That is a very good question,” Beloin-Saavedra said before drawing the only boos heard from the audience when she added, “although that has absolutely nothing to do with local government.”
“Here’s the answer that all you current DTC members are waiting for,” she said. “I disagreed with Donald Trump’s policies in the past, and I will continue to be critical of his policies in the future if it hurts the residents of New Britain.”
About 200 people packed into the New Britain Public Library and the overflow seating in separate room to watch Beloin-Saavedra and Sanchez debate an array of topics in a 75-minute debate over the challenges of affordable housing, cleaning up neighborhoods, homelessness, crime, the city’s fiscal health, downtown and neighborhood development. Many more watched the debate streaming online.
Sanchez, a 14-year member of the State Legislature, touted the state’s aid to the city and Beloin-Saavedra, a New Britain Board of Education member from 2005-2017 and more recently a Stewart confidant as the assistant Common Council minority leader, defended the mayor’s record and city’s performance.
Beloin-Saavedra pitched herself as a worthy successor to Stewart, and one who would continue the 6-term mayor’s approach to running the city, which she said had earned New Britain an A bond rating, a healthy budget surplus “and actually no chances of even needing to raise any taxes.”
“I think the next mayor needs to be able to pick up on day one and take us to the next level,” said Beloin-Saavedra. “I am the only individual standing before you this evening who is ready on day one to take the mantle of leadership, understanding how municipal government works, how the municipal financing works, having current relationships with the people who work in City Hall, and to be able to not miss a beat in moving the city to the next level.”
Sanchez counted out his accomplishments in the legislature bringing state aid to New Britain with childcare tax cuts and income-tax credits for working families, $35 million in additional funding for schools and near 100% reimbursement on several New Britain school construction projects during his time at the Capitol.
Sanchez promised to improve the city’s finances, prevent tax increases, cap water and sewer taxes and bring state dollars to the city’s schools, which he said had been underfunded while Stewart was in office.
Several times, Sanchez, the director of a Meriden homeless shelter, spoke of an increase in city homelessness and the need to build more affordable housing in New Britain.
“People cannot afford $1,400 a month rent when they’re living on a social security income or SSI income. We have to do more to help these individuals get a house so they’re not spending time out in the streets and living under the bridges,” Sanchez said.
“As mayor, I will be talking with the governor, talking with the town leadership, trying to get resources back into the city so that we can help the homeless,” he said.
Beloin-Saavedra underscored what she said was the success of the Stewart administration in meeting the state’s goals for affordable housing — one of the few places in the state to do so.
“Right now the state of Connecticut requires 10% of all municipality’s [housing stock] to be affordable housing,” she said. “New Britain’s at 19% affordable housing, so we’re well above the state mandate. And by the way, there’s 169 towns in the State of Connecticut and only 29 of us meet the 10% threshold of affordable housing. So we’re already there.”
And she countered that the fiscal numbers on school construction were misleading, because for the all state funding New Britain had received, the city still had to front the money itself through borrowing.
Beloin-Saavedra also promised to follow Stewart in being a mayor who “knows how to work with Democratic leadership at the Capitol to bring money into town for affordable housing. I will be that exact same type of mayor, working in a bipartisan fashion to bring what we need to New Britain.”
Sanchez said that, if elected, he would spend more time and resources on the city’s struggling neighborhoods, which he said had been neglected with Stewart’s emphasis on the city’s downtown. Fixing sidewalks, neighborhood watches, speed bumps were among the small-bore policies Sanchez pitched with an aim at improving residents’ quality of life.
Both candidates agreed that they wanted to see policing improve at the CTfastrak Downtown New Britain Station, which is state property and the responsibility of Connecticut State Police.
“From day one, I will not be sending letters to the state asking them to help with CTfastrak. I will do whatever I can to get our police involved, to get our community and non-profits involved so that we can remedy the problem [with homelessness] that’s going on there,” Sanchez said.
Beloin-Saavedra put more of the blame on the state — given that it was their property to maintain — and recounted her involvement in the last months prodding the state to do more, even as local law enforcement had stepped in.
Residents who attended the debate said they found it informative.
“I thought we had two strong and varied candidates here,” said MaryAnn Varga of New Britain. “I thought they both did great. The mayor’s race is going to be big this year [with Stewart gone]. And I think they engaged with each other very well.”
“They had some things that they agreed upon,” resident Ron Brown said. “I thought that was really good. And they both had different approaches.”