Taftville businessman, former mayoral candidate will run again
Norwich — A fifth candidate has joined the already crowded ballot in this fall's mayoral race.
Joseph Radecki Jr., a two-time past mayoral candidate, filed a petition with 54 ratified signatures of Norwich registered voters last week to become an unaffiliated petitioning candidate for mayor in the Nov. 7 election.
He joins a field with endorsed Republican council President Pro Tempore and former Mayor Peter Nystrom, endorsed Democrat Derell Wilson, endorsed Libertarian William Russell and petitioning candidate Jon Oldfield.
Radecki, 65, a U.S. Navy veteran of the nuclear submarine force from 1969-73, has owned C&J Septic Service in Taftville for the past 43 years, but said he is semi-retired from the business.
Radecki said Wednesday the same factors that motivated him to run in the past are still evident in Norwich, including wasteful spending, unnecessary bonding — “let's bond this and that,” he said — and favoritism by some city officials and departments.
He said the current proposal to spend $5 million to repave and improve city streets, bridges and drainage is premature. The city needs to fix infrastructure beneath the roads before repaving them. He said too often, roads are paved and then torn up shortly afterward. He called the proposal to study whether Water Street can be converted to two-way traffic “a waste of money.”
Radecki first ran for mayor in 2001, the first mayoral race under new charter changes that created the position. Radecki lost the party endorsement to former police Chief and then-council President Richard Abele, but then won a surprising upset in a primary on Sept. 11, 2001 — when many people were focused on the terrorist attacks. Radecki then lost the election, along with two other candidates, to Republican Arthur Lathrop.
In 2009, Radecki ran as a petitioning candidate and came in fourth in the four-way race won by Republican Nystrom.
“I am not spending a lot of money for this election,” said Radecki, who still has some of his old campaign signs, “just to prove to people that you can do something without spending a lot of money.”
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