Bill Vogel, the endorsed Republican candidate for mayor of New London, didn't really start his campaign until last week, after Mayor Daryl Finizio lost the Democratic primary, losing any clear path to the November ballot.

Vogel told me this week he had planned to drop out of the race if Finizio were going to be on the ballot, since he didn't want to split the anti-Finizio vote with Michael Passero, who would have run as an independent if he lost the Democratic primary to the mayor.

Now that's dedication to unseating the unpopular mayor, agreeing to help the other Democrat in the race.

With the outcome of the primary uncertain, Vogel said, he didn't campaign too aggressively, since he didn't want to disappoint volunteers and donors in the event he dropped out.

But he's in enthusiastically, now. When I called up and asked if I could meet with him and talk about the issues and his campaign, he showed up at The Day in an hour.

I guess I, like a lot of other people, wrote Vogel off as a candidate in part because he wasn't actively campaigning, and also because, really, what are the chances that Republicans, who are overwhelmingly outnumbered in the city by Democrats, could put up a winning mayoral candidate?

But then Connecticut has had its share of Republican governors, who had to win over a lot of Democrats, and the towns of eastern Connecticut seem to like their Republican leaders.

Now I know it's game on for the race for mayor of New London. And it could be a good one.

A strong Republican in the race should also enliven the City Council election.

Vogel once served on the Ledyard Board of Education and was Republican Town Committee chairman there, a town where Republicans are not so rare. He is also town chairman for his party in New London, where Republicans are a lot more rare.

Vogel said he was also encouraged by the low turnout in last week's primary. Barely more than 2,000 of the 7,000 registered Democrats turned out. It does seem to indicate a lack of enthusiasm for either candidate.

Vogel has an excellent resume.  

He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, following in his father's footsteps. His father, a Navy pilot, was killed after he was shot down in the Korean War.

Vogel ended up here in part through his service in the submarine force. He was the first commanding officer of the now-decommissioned USS Groton. Before retiring from the Navy, he spent two years in Washington as the chief of naval operations for submarine warfare.

He said he left the Navy because he needed to make more money to pay college tuitions for three children from a marriage that ended in divorce. He has been married since 1997 to a native of New London, which he said is what led him to move to the city.

After the Navy, he had a successful executive career in the nuclear industry. He has a senior nuclear plant operating license, was part of the team responsible for building Millstone 3 in Waterford and was engineering manager for Millstone 1.

The single most important job the mayor has, Vogel says, is to make good hires. And Vogel said he has an excellent track record from his years of administrative leadership. Indeed, he notes, he was trained at the Naval Academy to be a leader.

At 75, he is now semi-retired and runs a company that designs Web pages and phone apps. He has two in the Apple store, made to organize Christmas gift lists and grocery lists.

If elected, he said he would streamline the government, hire more police, try to reduce overtime expenses. He would have regular meetings, maybe daily, of department heads.

The administration of the city, hiring and managing, were the two biggest failures of the current mayor, he says.

I heard some good ideas from the Republican candidate.

He thinks the city should increase the budgeted $100,000 salary for the chief administrative officer, envisioned by the charter as a professional city manager, to compete nationally for candidates. He thinks there would be more candidates for mayor, too, if that salary were increased from the current $86,000.

"Otherwise, you get retired guys, like me and Mike," he said.

Some other good Vogel ideas I heard in our chat was one I especially like. He said he would go up the hill and tell the president of Connecticut College it's time to pay its share of the cost of running its host city.

He said he would encourage developing new retail outlets along the waterfront, so that the area could regularly draw some of the same crowds that come now to special events there. In general he would like to increase the use of the harbor.

He said he believes that economic development, bringing new business to town, depends in part on running the city better, assuring people that they will find a police presence, shoveled streets and order and calm if they come.

One significant difference, he says, between he and his Democratic opponent is that he would not give unions a leg up in competing for city contracts and business.

I couldn't draw out much criticism from him of his Democratic opponent.

It will be a civil election in the city, I think, and hopefully an engaging one.

It's time to pay attention.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: DavidCollinsct