ROLDAN SHUT OUT BY HARTFORD DEMOCRATIC TOWN COMMITTEE, BUT DID IT EVEN MATTER ?

Hartford's 4th District State Representative Kelvin Roldan today ended his exploratory flip flop adventure and announced that he has finally decided what he wants to be when he grows up....Hartford's City Treasurer.

Apparently that decision, or the delay in arriving at it, didn't sit well with the Hartford Democratic Town Committee. Roldan made his announcement just hours before the HDTC was scheduled to interview the announced candidates for Treasurer and Mayor. Roldan did show up at Bulkeley High School loaded with his literature handouts ready to finally jump into the process, but he was not allowed to participate.

According to HDTC Chairperson Jean Holloway, their was a process and a schedule for submitting resumes and being invited for interviews. Roldan chose not to follow the process .

Roldan didn't miss much though since only a handfull of HDTC members even bothered to show up to hear the Treasurer or Mayoral candidates speak. Tonights interviews were even more poorly attended than the Council candidates interviews last night. Wednesday about 25 HDTC members were in and out throughout the night, tonight maybe about a doze n showed up.

It was far from any show of courtesy to the candidates that took the time to show up or even to members of the public that attended. It is a tribute to old-style Hartford politics where it is not about evaluating the candidates and making the best choice. If it was, all 64 HDTC members would have made it a point to be there and do what they were elected to do. Instead it showed that they have either made up their minds without evaluating the possibilities or, worse yet, they just don't care.

With a system as flawed as this one and so loaded with political patronage, it might just make sense to skip the endorsements and let everyone go to a primary and see who survives. It would be interesting to see all of the candidates have to work to gain their offices