The most divisive primary in Bloomfield’s recent history left Mayor Anthony Harrington and most of his incumbent Democratic council on track to stay in office, while turning back a challenge slate heavy with former mayors and council members who wanted to get back in office.
Unofficial results show the party-endorsed slate won all but one town council race, and swept the school board, library board and planning and zoning commission contests.
Former Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown was the only Row B candidate to win a place on the Democratic ticket in November. Assuming Democrats continue their pattern of dominating the Bloomfield’s general elections, she would serve with five party-endorsed Democrats from the Row A slate along with three Republicans.
Despite the unusually rancorous primary campaigns, both sides on Tuesday night agreed the town needs the tone of municipal government and its critics to become more civil.
“I think Bloomfield has to take a deep breath from here. We’re going to have to live with the consequences of tonight,” DeBeatham-Brown said after vote results were announced. “I’m hoping we can level set and work in the best interest of Bloomfield.
“We have to have something like a saging, let’s clean some stuff away,” she said. “For the last two years it’s been ‘go along to get along.’ I’m hoping we will take a step back and realize we are hurting our town and try to do better.”
Deputy Mayor Cindi Lloyd at the post-election gathering Tuesday night of Row A candidates in the Bloomfield Democratic primary. She and four running mates won slots on the Democratic line in the November election. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
Deputy Mayor Cindi Lloyd, the second highest vote-getter among the 12 council candidates, said it’s vital to do away with the bitter tone of political debate.
“It’s time to cut the vitriol. Criticism is OK if it’s constructive, you don’t grow without it,” Lloyd said. “But the name-calling, the low blows — we have to stop that because we’re not productive when we do that.”
“We get distracted from the issues when we do that, we make it personal. Bloomfield is tired of that,” Lloyd said. “I’m hoping to be a bridge to anyone who wants to work collaboratively. You have to open the lines of communication to everybody. We’re looking for diversity of thought to help move the town forward.”
State Rep. Bobby Gibson agreed. Gibson spent most of the evening at the Row B post-election gathering, but stopped by the Row A celebration to offer congratulations.
The town’s political atmosphere is “toxic” and must change, he said.
“I went through a primary last year, it was awful,” he said. “But I’ve learned to forvgive and forget. We have to do this for the seniors in Bloomfield and for the kids.”
Unofficial results indicated voter turnout was about 20% lower than in the 2023 primary, and the challenge candidates led by DeBeatham-Brown and former Deputy Mayor Rickford Kirton came much closer to winning this time.
But the night was an undeniable victory for the Row A slate. Harrington was the top vote-getter with a roughly 130-vote margin over Lloyd.
On Tuesday night, it was unclear whether there will be a recount for one seat with just a 15-vote margin between the winner and loser. Incumbent Todd Cooper of the Row A ticket polled 1,127 votes, while former Mayor Sydney Schulman on Row B finished with 1,112.
And theoretically members of the Row B team could still get into the November race by petitioning for ballot places as unaffiliated candidates, but Harrington’s team now has the Democratic nomination that is so powerful in this heavily Blue city.
Row A campaigned on a theme of “One Bloomfield Moving Forward, Together” with a lineup of incumbents Harrington, Cooper, Lloyd and Michael Oliver along with newcomers Ola Aina and Darrell Goodwin. All were endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee in the summer.
Many Bloomfield streets had homes with signs advocating for Row A or Row B in the Democratic primary. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
Opposing them was a coalition of former town officials and newcomers on Row B, which ran on a theme of “Better for Bloomfield.” The ticket was put together by former Kirton and included Debeatham-Brown and Schulman along with Mark Sanderson, Joseph Washington and Stephan Richmond.
The campaign has been brutal following many months of open hostility on the town council. Occasionally the bad will flared over even routine municipal business; the decision about what to name the new library turned into a political firestorm last winter.
The incumbent team has steadily maintained that Bloomfield has succeeded under the leadership of former Mayor Danielle Wong, who resigned last month, and now Harrington. They argue the council has been fiscally prudent and has overseen construction of a new library, established a master plan for the town center and retained a long-term town manager after years of turnover in that office.
Many Bloomfield streets had homes with signs advocating for Row A or Row B in the Democratic primary. (Don Stacom/The Hartford Courant)
They’ve also contended that the challenge slate is largely motivated by animosity and hunger for political power.
The challengers have complained that town decisions have been made in secret, that town hall is being mismanaged, and that the endorsed Democratic councilors were too all prone to voting for whatever Wong wanted.
The primary had its roots in 2023, when Wong was leading the city with a divided Democratic caucus on the town council. Kirton and Debeatham-Brown were notable dissidents in office, and the Democratic Town Committee didn’t endorse them for re-election that year. Instead, it chose a slate led by Wong and political ally Kenneth McClary and Oliver, Cooper, Lloyd and Harrington.
Kirton and Debeatham-Brown formed a challenge slate that year and took them to a primary, but lost by roughly 2-to-1 ratios.
On Tuesday night, Kirton he’ll watch to see how the Row A slate runs government if it’s elected in November.
“We’ll have to see how they conduct business. In politics and government it’s all about a majority vote,” he said. “If it’s the same status quo where they force through anything they want because they have the majority, we’re going to be in the same place. That’s what we saw for the last two years.”
https://www.courant.com/2025/09/10/incumbents-win-big-in-bloomfields-democratic-primary/
