New London - Kathleen Mitchell, known for being a passionate and self-proclaimed voice of the disenfranchised, has decided to run for mayor.

The 67-year-old Mitchell, who has continued to speak loudly for the residents of Fort Trumbull displaced by eminent domain action, has never held elected office except for a term on the Democratic Town Committee.

But she says she can do at least as well as those who have led the city for years.

"Look at what (a)... mess the city is now,'' she said. "I have at least those qualifications to keep it a mess."

She said she doesn't have all the answers, but "I ask a lot of questions and I'm damn good at finding out who does have the answers."

Mitchell, a registered Democrat, joins a growing slate of candidates vying to become the city's first elected mayor in 90 years. Others are Democrats Daryl Justin Finizio and city councilors Michael Buscetto III and Michael Passero. Councilor Rob Pero, a Republican, is also running, and Lori Hopkins-Cavanagh, also a Republican, has said she may run although there is an eligibility question regarding her New London residency.

Mitchell hasn't yet filed her intention to form an exploratory committee or to run. She said she will make a formal announcement in May in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood, at the site where the Cristofaro family home once stood.

The Cristofaros were among the property owners in the neighborhood who fought to keep the city from taking their land by eminent domain. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2005, a majority of justices sided with the city.

When the Cristofaros' house was torn down in 2007, Mitchell, who had been arrested in a 2000 protest at Fort Trumbull, said she nearly cried as she saw Michael Cristofaro watch his house come down in about 10 minutes.

"I may very well have decided on that freezing, cold day,'' she said of her decision to run for mayor.

That event, she said, symbolized how out of touch city leaders were. The New London Development Corp., acting on behalf of the city but partially led by nonresidents, was in charge of the Fort Trumbull development. Most of the 90 acres in the Fort Trumbull Municipal Development Plan area were cleared for economic development.

More than 10 years later, most of the land is still vacant, though there is a proposal to build between 80 and 104 housing units on a portion of the property.

"Not just this City Council,'' Mitchell said, "but city councils through the years have turned against the people they represent. They have chosen to represent out-of-towners against the wishes of the people who elected them.''

The events of Fort Trumbull continue to divide the city, she said.

"There is a great rift in this city. ... The city of New London owes an apology to the people who live here, and they have never given it. There's no room for forgiveness because there has been no apology," she said.

Mitchell, who calls herself a community activist, has four children and seven grandchildren. She grew up in the City of Groton and graduated from Robert E. Fitch High School. She said she's been to a lot of colleges but never graduated.

She came to New London in the 1980s to work as a case manager for Thames Valley Council for Community Action, the regional anti-poverty agency.

Issues she wants to address include lack of school supplies for public school students; forcing department heads to live in the city as required by the city charter; and preventing the sale of a portion of Riverside Park for a U.S. Coast Guard Academy expansion.

k.edgecomb@theday.com