Stratford Mayoral Race Gets Another Democrat

This fall’s election for Stratford mayor recently got another potential candidate.

Democrat Beth Daponte has thrown her hat into the ring and formed an exploratory committee to challenge Republican incumbent Mayor John A. Harkins, the Stratford Star first reported last week.

Daponte is the second Democrat to announce her intent to run after Joe Paul did so in March.

Daponte told the newspaper it befits Stratford to elect a Democrat as its next mayor.

“It’s important to be in synch with the rest of the state’s leaders,” she told The Star.

Daponte has been an active voice on Stratford Patch.

In April, the Democratic Town Committee vice chair wrote a blog post titled, “I was left speechless,”which railed Stratford State Rep. Laura Hoydick, a Republican, for her "no" vote on proposed gun legislation.

In February, Daponte penned a letter to the editor that criticized town officials for plowing the Shakespeare Theatre parking lot before many town roads were cleared following a massive blizzard that dropped upwards of three feet of snow on the area.

“Snowstorms have a way of showing how well prepared municipalities actually are for emergencies,” she began the letter.

Daponte also served as a source for a Stratford Patch article, published in November 2011, about a controversial school program called “Make Your Day.”

The mother of three told Patch she pulled her son out of the public school system because of the literacy and behavior program. “The whole focus of the day became this punitive program,” she said at the time.

Daponte has a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago, is a former teacher at Yale’s School of Management and a former chief of section at the United Nations in New York City, according to The Star.

Daponte's campaign has a fundraiser scheduled for Thursday, May 16, at Knapp's Landing. Click here for details.

The Democratic Town Committee is expected to nominate its candidate in July, The Star reports.