Mashantucket — In 2013, Vincent Eleazer, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, took the unusual step of running for first selectman of Preston.

It was a rare instance of a tribal member seeking elective office outside the tribe’s reservation, and after petitioning his way onto the ballot, Eleazer lost by a wide margin to First Selectman Robert Congdon, then an 18-year incumbent.

Five years later, Eleazer has sought publicity for his candidacy for the Mashantucket tribal council, which also is unusual.

Eleazer, 54, said he believes the tribe could interact more with the towns surrounding the reservation and that cooperation between the tribes and the towns could benefit the region — economically and otherwise. Given that, he said, he wanted to introduce himself to people in the communities that surround Mashantucket, which is in Ledyard.

“How can we grow? How can we be better as neighbors?” he said in an interview. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t engage more.”

Eleazer is among 12 candidates for the three tribal council seats up for election in voting scheduled to take place Sunday. The seven-member body governs the tribe and also oversees management of the tribe's Foxwoods Resort Casino and other tribal enterprises. Council terms are three years.

Eleazer, who said he ran for the council once in the 1990s, works in the hotel operations/housekeeping department at Foxwoods. He also has worked in tribal government, first in its legal department and then as an assistant in the offices of the tribal chairman, the vice chairman, the treasurer and the secretary.

Also running for the council are incumbents Rodney Butler, the council chairman, who is seeking a sixth consecutive council term, and David Menihan Jr., who is seeking a second term. The other candidates are Natasha Eleazer, James T. Jackson, James A. Jones, Mustafa Sharif Patterson, Marquise Ruffin, Richard E. Sebastian, Cherokee Spears, Mark Thornton and Timothy A. Walker.

Vincent and Natasha Eleazer are first cousins.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com