The cliché that politics makes for strange bedfellows has taken a most peculiar twist in Groton City, CT. A special election for mayor is underway. The candidates are both democrats, while the republicans have decided to stay out of the race. It gets better. The two democrat candidates were both former republicans.
The candidates are Mayor Keith Hedrick, and a young challenger, Aundre Bumgardner. Mayor Hedrick’s campaign video and Mr. Bumgardner’s campaign video are very different, though they touch on some of the same issues such as community policing. The mayor’s message focuses on what he has already accomplished and plans to continue. Mr. Bumgardner’s is almost twice and long and promises five times as much. He doesn’t leave anything out in terms of city issues. It is fair to ask if he can really deliver on all those promises. It is a long list.
The republican chairman, Robert Zuliani, has been quoted as saying their decision to not field a candidate was due to a “hostile environment”. We are still waiting to hear back from him for an explanation. However, it seems that since the local paper, The Day, keeps referring to the events of January 6th in Washington as an “insurrection”, that would explain the problem. That the FBI’s case against those arrested continues to fall apart, it makes The Day look more and more like a basement dwelling conspiracy theorist wrapped in tin foil.
Diagnosed with Covid-19, Mr. Bumbardner is temporarily off the campaign trail. But he should be back just in time for the May 3rd special election.
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