Groton City voters will elect a new mayor, council on Monday
Groton — Days before Monday's Groton City election, the race for mayor has gone from agreeable to contentious, with both sides accusing the other of negative campaigning.
Harry Watson, a town councilor, is running for mayor against Keith Hedrick, the city's deputy mayor and a Democrat, in the first contested race for the seat since 2013.
"Keith and I shook hands in February when we were shoveling snow together and said we're going to keep this campaign clean. And I've kept my word," Watson said. Democrats distributed mailers claiming Watson wants to eliminate police from the schools, a contention Watson said is false.
"... I saw Keith Hedrick at Little League opening day and we reiterated our pledge not to get nasty and those freaking fliers were in the mail at that very point," Watson said.
Hedrick said Watson has not supported the city and Republicans made negative videos about him. "It's not about who is the nicest guy. It's about who is going to be the best mayor for the city. Who has supported the city?" Hedrick said.
"They're so two-faced about this. It's OK for them to attack me," he said.
Groton City voters on Monday also will elect six members to the Groton City Council. Democratic incumbents Lawrence Gerrish, Conrad F. Heede, Stephen Sheffield and Jill Rusk are seeking re-election. Newcomers Rashaad Carter, a state trooper, and Jamal Beckford, an engineer at Electric Boat, also are running on the Democratic side.
Among Republicans, Town Councilor Gregory W. Grim is vying for a seat along with Christopher M. Calkins Jr., who works for a virtual assistance business; Emily H. Maher, a Representative Town Meeting member, and Joshua J. Trask, a technician at Electric Boat.
City Clerk Deb Patrick, a Democrat, is seeking re-election unopposed.
The mayor's race has become as much about eroding city-town relations as the difference between the two candidates' political parties.
“I’m running because I think the communication between the town and the city is at a new low, and I think I can offer to be the conduit so we can work together and find efficiencies,” Watson said. If the two collaborate, everybody wins, he said.
Hedrick said he wants to protect the city from those who would undermine its services.
“My opinion is that the town doesn’t like to make sausage,” Hedrick said. “They don’t like to get together and air your opinion, I air my opinion and then we meet somewhere in the middle. The town, if it starts to get hard, the town just legislates.”
The city and town have argued for years, but Groton's financial situation has strained those relations further. The town is facing a potential $13.3 million loss in state aid, which has led to increasingly louder calls to combine some town and city services to save money.
Hedrick said he hasn't seen a plan for combining services that shows taxpayers would save money and the city wouldn't be harmed. The town hasn’t taken initiative to discuss these issues, he said.
Though there’s always been some bickering back and forth, "in the last five years it’s gotten really vicious and there have been arbitrary cuts to roads and highways and things like that, that have led us to this inability to really interact with each other,” Hedrick said.
Watson said Democrats unfairly have characterized him as one who supports consolidation when he, in fact, does not. He wants to work with the city to look for ways to save money and maintain the city’s quality of life, he said.
“I don’t want to consolidate the town and the city of Groton,” Watson said. “I do want to communicate. There seems to be — we’ve never had good communication between the city and the town and I’ve been around for a long time, as you know. I’m hoping to be able to offer that.”
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