Mayoral race sets the tone for heated political season

Earlier this month, Danbury's Republican and Democratic Town Committees announced their nominations for the upcoming mayoral election. The political ping-pong is now in full swing.

Republican incumbent Mayor Mark Boughton will run for his fifth term in office. Addressing his supporters at the Palace Theater, he discussed the economic fate of the city, citing its strong fiscal health under his leadership.

Democratic candidate and political newcomer, Gary Goncalves, challenged Boughton's assertions, calling upon voters to weigh the facts, which he believes tell a very different story. The campaign's press release tells a tale of tax increases, big-ticket bonding and shortchanging schools.

Goncalves says that his administration would be characterized by "Visibility, Approachability, and, Accountability!"

In response, Boughton told the NewsTimes, "Goncalves will need to do his homework if he wants to be taken seriously," to which Goncalves firmly

countered, "I have done my homework. The public is being intentionally misled… Between Hartford and Danbury, Republican fiscal mismanagement will be taking its toll soon…"Tribuna Newspaper asked Mayor Boughton for a rejoinder to Goncalves' comments.

"Mr. Goncalves is just trying to disparage the financial strength of our community for political gain. My administration has been prudent and conservative in our financial practices and given the challenges in the future, we will continue that practice," Boughton said.

"Since the Democrats have super majorities in both the [State] Senate and House, I agree that Hartford has made poor decisions. Just this past week, the legislative democrats proposed 1.6 billion dollars of new taxes."

In email response Goncalves fired back saying, "Having been in the business field for 35 years, and as a Vice President of Global Finance for a major U.S. Company, I deal in facts," adding, "My press release on the city's budget for this year says it all."

But recent news of Danbury's acceptance by the Department of Homeland Security to participate in the 287(g) program (*see cover story for full details) has brought another issue onto the campaign field - illegal immigration.

Both candidates agree that federal help will be welcome to address criminals residing in city illegally. "Undocumented immigrants are a byproduct of our broken immigration laws and our country's inability to control our borders - this is not a situation local government can solve," Goncalves said. "If the intention of this agreement is to better prepare our police force to deal with the criminal element in the undocumented community - fine. But if it is going to target people that are not breaking the law, whether documented or not, allowing racial profiling, than it can do more harm than good." He also believes Boughton is part of the problem, "[O]ur current mayor mishandled this situation and polarized our community, portraying Danbury in a national arena in a very negative light, tarnishing our long history as a welcoming community."

Boughton says he has been "painted with the wrong brush," ad-ding, "I am not racist. I appreciate and celebrate the diversity in our city - just this week I have an Indian flag raising, and an Ecuadorian, and the Brazilian one coming up in September."

"As partisan as people may want this to be, let me point out that the Obama administration decided to modify the program make it simpler, more effective, and expanded it to more communities. Democrats see the value to the program." said Boughton.