After a distinguished 40-year career in public service, Eric Coleman is still not ready to retire.
Instead, he’s going in the opposite direction. At 72, he is battling for an often-thankless, seven-days-a-week job as Hartford’s mayor.
“I want to be the next mayor because I care about Hartford, and I believe I have what it takes to lead the city and the restoration, rebuilding, revitalization, and reinvigoration of the city of Hartford,” Coleman said, adding that he is looking forward to “recapturing the glory days of the city of Hartford.”
After 34 years in the state legislature that included representing part of the city in the state Senate, Coleman stepped down from his post so that he could serve in an influential position as a Superior Court judge with a salary of nearly $190,000 per year. He then left the court late last year to begin running for mayor.
Eric Coleman gets first endorsement in Hartford mayoral race
Coleman is facing in the Sept. 12 primary political newcomer Arunan Arulampalam, who won the Democratic Party’s convention endorsement, and state Sen. John Fonfara, a lifelong city resident. Coleman and Fonfara served together in the state House of Representatives and then later in the Senate. They are friends who sat next to each other for more than 20 years on the Senate floor and in the caucus room.
When asked by The Courant why Arulampalam was able to defeat two state senators who have served Hartford for more than 30 years each, Coleman laughed and said, “The long and short of it is Arunan is a friend of Marc DiBella. It’s that simple.”
DiBella chairs the Democratic town committee, where 46 members voted for Arulampalam at the convention, compared to 21 for Fonfara and 10 for Coleman. Arulampalam supporters noted that he has served on the town committee for eight years and spent more than a year personally talking to committee members at their homes, coffee shops or wherever they wanted to talk about his candidacy and vision for the city. Coleman and Fonfara do not serve on the town committee.
DiBella sharply rejected Coleman’s comments, saying that he could not direct the votes of 76 fellow town committee members because the era of all-powerful Democrats like John Bailey is long over.
“Arunan outworked Eric,” DiBella told The Courant. “I don’t think Eric worked very hard with the town committee. The majority of the people who voted there that night weren’t buying what Eric was selling. They just didn’t feel like Eric was the best candidate for the position. … Frankly, I think it’s a slap in the face to Arunan to say that the only reason why he got the endorsement is because he has a friendship with the town chairman. It’s just preposterous. It’s irresponsible. It denigrates the work that Arunan has put in and continues to put in.”
DiBella added, “Clearly, Eric is bitter and looking for scapegoats. It’s ridiculous, and it’s reckless. I don’t know what more to say to you.”
Despite losing the nomination, Coleman said he was not giving up the fight and has been campaigning ever since.
“I’ve been down this road before,” Coleman said. “Unfortunately, I think with this administration of the Democratic Party in Hartford, I will never be the darling. I’ll never be the favorite. I’ve actually run for election and re-election 18 times, and I’ve prevailed 18 times. I intend to make this the 19th time that I prevail.”
With the lowest fundraising total of the top three candidates, Coleman recently reached into his own pocket to give $80,000 to his campaign as a loan.
Asked why he is using his own money, Coleman responded, “I didn’t have any lobbyists to raise money. I didn’t have any corporate connections.”
That was a reference to Fonfara, who received contributions from more than 100 Capitol lobbyists, with many at the maximum of $1,000 each. Fonfara is the fundraising leader and is using some of the money to broadcast television commercials on CNN, MSNBC, Telemundo, Univision and others.
GOP, lobbyist donors emerge in Hartford’s tight, three-way Democratic race for mayor
With $418,000 raised, Fonfara has more than doubled Coleman’s total of $205,000, which includes the $80,000 loan. Arulampalam had raised $348,000 as of the last public filing that covered the period up to June 30.
In addition to his own money, Coleman has also received contributions from prominent attorneys and others. Compared to his two major rivals, Coleman has a higher percentage of small-dollar contributors and fewer of the maximum $1,000 contributions from well-heeled donors. Coleman is being supported by high-profile Democrats like former House Speaker Chris Donovan of Meriden and former Senate colleague Toni Harp of New Haven, along with former Rep. Reginald Beamon of Waterbury, former state Rep. Ken Green, former Sen. Gary LeBeau of South Glastonbury, and former Sen. Frank Barrows of Hartford, who once ran for mayor in 2007.
Arulampalam’s upset, which forced Fonfara and Coleman to gather signatures like rookie politicians in order to force the primary, was a surprise to some Democrats.
Gary Rose, an author and longtime political science professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, said politics has changed sharply in 2023.
“In this interesting era we’re in, a long political resume is not always to a candidate’s advantage,” Rose said in an interview.
“So many voters today are down on government and politicians. When you come in as a state senator, I’m not sure that is a calling card that really attracts a lot of people because people don’t feel government is functioning for them,” Rose said. “When you come in like Coleman and Fonfara as state senators and you wave that in front of them, it doesn’t really create a lot of positive feelings these days. Sometimes the less you have in American politics today, the less government experience, believe it or not, is sometimes a plus.”
Long career
After growing up in New Haven, Coleman won a scholarship to the private Pomfret School in the state’s northeastern corner. From there, he attended Columbia University in New York City and later graduated from the University of Connecticut’s law school.
Known for his low-key, thoughtful demeanor and even-handed manner, Coleman rose in the legislature to become the first African American to serve as co-chairman of the powerful judiciary committee.
First elected to the state House of Representatives in November 1982, Coleman began serving in 1983, making him the third-longest-serving lawmaker when he stepped down. He ranked behind two lawmakers who are still serving: the dean of the House, state Rep. Mary Mushinsky of Wallingford, and Senate President Pro Tem Marty Looney of New Haven.
Some of Coleman’s detractors note that he lived in Bloomfield for decades and only recently moved to Hartford in order to run for mayor. His supporters, though, note that Coleman represented about 40% of the city for many years in the state Senate while Fonfara has represented about 60%.
November
Even if he loses the Sept. 12 primary, Coleman has filed the necessary petitions to guarantee a spot on the ballot in November. Fonfara has not done that.
Some insiders believe that strategy could backfire on Coleman because some liberal Democratic activists and hard-core party loyalists will vote against him as they believe candidates should not break away from the party in the way the U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman did in a third-party run in 2006.
The November race is already growing as city council member Nick Lebron, longtime candidate J. Stan McCauley, and U.S. Army veteran Giselle Jacobs have all qualified for the ballot.
Coleman declined to provide details on his get-out-the-vote plans for strategic reasons. But he said he would not follow the path of his two opponents by running television commercials.
“I’ve never had a TV ad,” Coleman told The Courant. “I’ve never thought about a TV ad. In my opinion, it’s not a good use” of money.
Instead, Coleman is doing direct mail and commercials on Spanish-language radio, as well as “all the neighborhood newspapers.”
Expand police force
A long-running issue that has faced the city for decades is crime. Hartford has suffered from a rash of killings recently, including eight homicides in a span of 10 days.
Coleman has taken a bold approach by calling for increasing the police force to as high as 500 to 600 officers. While some believe the optimum total is 420 officers, Coleman said the additional officers could serve in nontraditional ways in the schools and as truancy officers in an intelligence capacity to know what is happening in the neighborhoods.
He called for renewed community policing, along with restoring foot patrols in commercial corridors such as downtown, Franklin Avenue, Wethersfield Avenue, Albany Avenue, Park Street, and Blue Hills Avenue, among others. He also called for de-escalation training to cool down disputes before they erupt into violence. The city, he said, should work with federal gun and drug authorities to stop the flow of illegal contraband into the city.
“When I talk to people across the city, they want to live in a city that is safe,” Coleman said. “We don’t have to see the kind of senseless violence that we see. I believe that guns and drugs are at the root of many of the violence problems that are occurring. … I believe there’s got to be more interaction between the residents and the police department.”
Affordable housing
The city, Coleman said, needs to be more directly involved in generating affordable housing for residents.
“If developers are unwilling to invest money, saying they cannot make the return that they would like to make if they construct affordable housing, I think the city should take the initiative and develop those units themselves,” Coleman said. “If we can bond in order to build a baseball stadium [for the Hartford Yard Goats], we can bond and acquire money in order to construct multi-unit rental properties and opportunities.”
In recent years, the primary focus on increased housing has been concentrated downtown, including a high-rise tower near the XL Center and other buildings being renovated nearby. Those downtown apartments are “purposely luxury units — meaning that very few people in this room could afford to rent those units,” Coleman told a crowd of more than 50 listeners during a forum at The Lyceum on Lawrence Street.
Citywide, 76% of residents are renting, while only 24% own a home, the lowest rate of homeownership in Connecticut.
Ever since the campaign started, Coleman has been preaching the same message.
“At my stage of the game, I have no aspirations for any other office,” Coleman said. “The mayor of Hartford is not a steppingstone for me. I have no interest in being a congressperson. I do not want to go to the U.S. Senate. And I’m sure there are plenty of others who may want to be governor, but not me. I just want to be the mayor of Hartford, Connecticut.”
This is the last in a series of profiles of the Hartford mayoral primary candidates. Previous stories have been published on Arunan Arulampalam and John Fonfara.
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com