Roiled: Fonfara moves closer to entering Hartford race for mayor, upending others’ calculations.

State Senator John Fonfara is close to entering the Democratic race for mayor of Hartford, Daily Ructions has learned. The veteran state legislator has been making calls to city Democrats and members of the Capitol village.

Fonfara has represented Hartford’s South End neighborhoods and part of Wethersfield in the Senate since 1996. He served in the House for 10 years before succeeding William DiBella. The Hartford native serves as co-chair of the legislature’s finance committee.

Fonfara, 67, would join his former colleague in the House and Senate, Eric Coleman, in the race to replace Luke Bronin, who announced on November 29th, first reported by Daily Ructions, that he will not seek a third term as mayor. City Council member Nicholas Lebron, also a Democrat, announced his candidacy for the job this week.

State campaign finance laws could provide a significant boost to Fonfara in the early going. Legislators are banned from soliciting lobbyists for contributions for campaigns for state office during the legislative session–which this year will run until early June. The law, does not, however, prohibit legislators from soliciting lobbyists and their clients for contributions for their municipal campaigns during the legislative session. Fonfara knows how to insert himself as facilitator or obstacle in the legislative process. That talent could help him raise a significant amount of money in the first two quarters of the year. Concern that an unhappy Fonfara might lose the September Democratic primary and remain in the Senate would also spur donors.

Decades ago Fonfara enjoyed a reputation as one of the legislature’s most energetic on-the-ground campaigner. He built a loyal personal organization that he could deploy in his own races and also in frequent skirmishes that characterize Hartford Democratic politics.

If Fonfara won next year’s election, Hartford Democratic party committee chairman and Fonfara ally Mark DiBella would lose unhampered access to a key player at the Capitol, potentially diminishing DiBella’s luster as a registered lobbyist. A Fonfara candidacy comes as a tricky time for another Fonfara ally, William DiBella, whose hold on the chairmanship of regional water and sewer authority MDC may be in jeopardy.

Fonfara, who often appears to brood in public, is no stranger to the gaffe. In 2018 he made a well-publized comment about needing an “I stand with White Men pin.” Fonfara pledged to hold a community forum to discuss his comment in April 2018. Three months later, he had not scheduled it and there is no record of it ever taking place.

Published December 16, 2022.