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Former Hartford Official Challenges Perez
POSTED: 1:32 pm EST January 10,
2007
UPDATED: 8:44 pm EST January 10,
2007
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Another candidate has announced intent to run for mayor of Hartford against incumbent Eddie Perez.Former Deputy Mayor I. Charles Mathews announced his candidacy late Wednesday morning. He said the current administration does not allow for diverse opinions.Former Harford Official Announces Bid For MayorThe Democrat said he plans to focus on relationship building, downtown development and jobs.Mathews, who grew up in Hartford, said he grew up in a poor family and dropped out of high school. He said he then turned his life around, serving with the Marines in Vietnam and then later graduating Wesleyan and Cornell Law School."I've been fighting uphill all my life and I welcome an uphill fight," Mathews told Eyewitness News.Mathews then went on to become a corporate lawyer for United Technologies Corporation before becoming a Hartford councilman and then deputy mayor. Mathews worked in city government from 1985 to 1995.Mathews said he wants to woo business to the capital city."You have to sit down with labor and business and be an honest broker. You can't be so heavy handed one way that businesses will think there is no reason to come to the city," he said.Mathews said Hartford's biggest problem in the city is Perez."Right now the mayor's style is my way or the highway. … You cannot have out of the box thinking when people are afraid to tell you the truth," Mathews said.Mathews joins former Democratic state Sen. Frank Barrows, who declared his candidacy last December, and Hartford state Rep. Art Feltman, D-District 6, who is scheduled to announce his candidacy next week.
Former Harford Official Announces Bid For MayorThe Democrat said he plans to focus on relationship building, downtown development and jobs.Mathews, who grew up in Hartford, said he grew up in a poor family and dropped out of high school. He said he then turned his life around, serving with the Marines in Vietnam and then later graduating Wesleyan and Cornell Law School."I've been fighting uphill all my life and I welcome an uphill fight," Mathews told Eyewitness News.Mathews then went on to become a corporate lawyer for United Technologies Corporation before becoming a Hartford councilman and then deputy mayor. Mathews worked in city government from 1985 to 1995.Mathews said he wants to woo business to the capital city."You have to sit down with labor and business and be an honest broker. You can't be so heavy handed one way that businesses will think there is no reason to come to the city," he said.Mathews said Hartford's biggest problem in the city is Perez."Right now the mayor's style is my way or the highway. … You cannot have out of the box thinking when people are afraid to tell you the truth," Mathews said.Mathews joins former Democratic state Sen. Frank Barrows, who declared his candidacy last December, and Hartford state Rep. Art Feltman, D-District 6, who is scheduled to announce his candidacy next week.| Click here to e-mail newstips to Eyewitness News, or dial toll-free: 866-289-0333. Be sure to stay with WFSB.com and Channel 3 Eyewitness News for the latest Campaign 2007 updates. |  |
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