New London — Before the dust from Tuesday’s midterm elections had settled, the race for the mayor’s office began when Democratic Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio announced early Wednesday morning that he will seek a second term, despite very public proclamations in the last seven months he would not run again.

And City Councilor Michael Passero, also a Democrat, is planning to make “a special announcement” about his political future this afternoon. Passero is expected to announce that he will seek the city’s top elected office next year.

“I made a decision on my political future weeks ago, and I feel I have a broad and very diverse base of support in the city,” Passero said Wednesday morning. “I decided that after three terms on the City Council, I am not prepared to seek another term on the City Council. I’ve been invested in this city my whole life, and I’m certainly not going to walk away with the job only partially done.”

Though Passero would not explicitly say what he will announce today, he filed paperwork with the city clerk’s office earlier this week to seek the city’s corner office. He will officially make his announcement at 4 p.m. at Muddy Waters Cafe on Bank Street.

Passero said residents have been urging him to run for many months, but he chose to wait until after the midterm elections to make any announcement so as to not draw attention away from Democrats on the ballot.

“I’m prepared to really move to the next level,” he said, “with a lot of encouragement.”

Finizio made his announcement on his personal Facebook page Wednesday morning, saying he was “inspired” to continue what he had started after watching the results of Tuesday’s election.

In particular, Finizio said the fact that voters passed all five referendum questions pertaining directly to the city swayed him to seek a second term.

The overwhelming affirmation of the City Council’s approval of up to $168 million in bonding to complete the facilities portion of the city’s transformation into the state’s first all-magnet school district (by a ratio of nearly 2-1), and the passage of the city and education budgets represent “a clear mandate that the city wants to move forward,” Finizio said.

“The Coast Guard (museum) is coming to New London. There are a lot of things that are happening in the city that I would like to see to completion,” he said. “It’s going to take three to five years to make it happen, and I feel like I should remain and finish the job I started.”

The city’s first elected mayor in almost a century, Finizio announced during his April 1 State of the City address he would not seek re-election in 2015. City Councilors and other city officials said that night they initially thought the mayor’s announcement was an April Fool’s joke.

At the time, he said politics was dividing the city. The focus, he said, was on him instead of fixing the city’s finances, which he says are now balanced.

“I cannot simultaneously lead the city out of this situation, do what is necessary, and continue to speak uncomfortable financial truths, if every proposal from my administration is perceived as a political maneuver designed to get me re-elected,” Finizio said. “It is for that reason that I have decided I will not be a candidate for re-election next year but instead will dedicate myself fully to the task at hand.”

Since April, Finizio had reaffirmed his decision not to run for a second term, including during a City Council meeting in September when a citizen raised the topic during public comment.

On Wednesday, Finizio said he was earnest in April when he said he would not seek re-election. He said he even encouraged other people to run, although he would not identify who those people are.

Finizio said he does not want to be mayor for life, but feels his leadership is needed to complete the magnet schools and the Coast Guard museum. His strong relationship with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who secured his own re-election Tuesday, will help make those projects happen, the mayor argued.

Finizio said he plans to file campaign papers by the end of week, and make a more formal announcement at the beginning of the year.

Staff writer Izaskun E. Larrañeta contributed this report.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung

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