Brianne Bowen Photo
Another citywide race has dwindled to two candidates, as Sergio Rodriguez ended his campaign for city/town clerk.
Rodriguez made the announcement on his Facebook page.
“I am sorry to announce that I have removed my name from the November ballot,” he wrote. “It has been a challenging campaign in many ways. I would like to thank all who supported my candidacy and were actively involved in working, supporting or contributing to the campaign. We accomplished a great deal. We were the third highest vote getter in the primary and it was due to so many that helped throughout the campaign.”
After thanking his supporters by name, he blamed the media for his not doing better.
“We did a great job getting out the message even though the media did a very poor job of covering our race and the historic significance of this election and the transformational vision we offered to bring to the City Town Clerks [sic] position,” Rodriguez wrote. Click here, here, here, here, and here to read some of the stories written about Rodriguez’s campaign for the clerk’s job, a city position many New Haveners have never heard of.
Reached by phone earlier Wednesday, Rodriguez said he had no time to answer questions from the media. He promised to call back. He didn’t call back or answer subsequent calls for comment.
Rodriguez lost to Michael Smart in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary for the clerk position. He had secured a position on the Nov. 5 general election ballot as an independent, but has apparently chosen not to follow through with that campaign.
The current clerk, Ron Smith, is proceeding with an independent campaign for the position.
The clerk conducts roll calls at Board of Aldermen meetings and technically oversees the clerk’s office, where people file official papers ranging from lawsuits and real-estate sales to dog licenses and committee formations and petitions to run for public office. The 20-hour-a-week position pays $46,597. A full-time staff deputy, Sally Brown, actually runs the office day to day. The office has a $471,808 annual budget.
Rodriguez would have become the city’s first Latino citywide elected official if he had won the clerk’s position. He had the support of Latino elected officials in his campaign. But his campaign hit a fatal roadblock when the mayoral campaign of Toni Harp decided to position for a ballot position on a ticket with clerk candidate Smart; Harp won a decisive victory in the mayoral primary in a campaign that swept Smart along with her. Smart defeated Rodriguez 6,395 to 5,696.
Democrat Harp is now running for mayor against independent candidate Justin Elicker, the last two candidates standing in a field that previously numbered seven.