Hamden Democratic Primary 2025: Cyr Seeks Mayoral Nomination

HAMDEN, CT — Five candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination for Hamden mayor in this year’s primary election.

The crowded field of candidates was whittled down in July when Mayor Lauren Garrett announced that she was ending her re-election campaign for a third term.

Since then, Legislative Council President Dominique Baez won the Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement at the party’s convention and is now facing a primary challenge from Peter Cyr, Lushonda Howard, Walter Morton IV and Adam Sendroff. Jameka Jefferies also intended to be on the ballot for the primary election, but fell short of the signatures needed to qualify and will appear on the ballot in the municipal election in November as a petitioning candidate, according to the New Haven Register.

Jonathan Katz is the Republican candidate for mayor.

Early voting is underway for the Democratic primary election. Voting hours for this weekend are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Miller Library-Thornton Wilder Hall, 2901 Dixwell Avenue, for both Saturday, Sept. 6, and Sunday, Sept. 7.

Patch asked the mayoral candidates on the Democratic primary ballot to answer questions about their campaigns ahead of the primary, which is Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Peter Cyr

The single biggest issue in town is ______, and I plan to do this about it:

The cost of living. We live in an expensive state, and in Hamden our taxes make that burden worse.

Unfortunately, this is mostly due to years of not paying our pensions, so it is not realistic for a candidate to say they can lower our tax burden immediately. After this budget cycle there really isn't a lot left for us to cut. Our only path forward is to lean into growth as a town.

My short term solution to rebuild the fund balance, not on the back of taxpayers, is to sell the Board of Education Building, and restructure our Pension Obligation Bond to take advantage of lower interest rates. We also need to fully staff our finance department so that we can reconcile our books, and finally produce our state mandated audit.

Long term our solution has to be growth. Last year we had a decline in value in commercial real estate, and our population decreased. If these trends continue they will even further exacerbate our tax burden. We have antiquated shopping centers that were built for the 1970s. We need to work with developers to modernize our commercial districts by mixing commercial and residential zoning. In addition to making the plaza feel like more of a downtown, we should look into mixed use developments in the State Street corridor, which is often overlooked but a great space for young people to live.

Currently we have a housing shortage in our state, I think leaning into that opportunity is the easiest, and most straightforward way to bring people back to our town and grow our tax base.

Critical differences between me and my opponents:

The key difference between me and my opponents is that I am not associated with past decision making, and am drama free. I can provide a fresh start for a town that has let politics often interfere with municipal decision making.

With me as Mayor, you will get someone that is going to conduct national searches for talent, and bar party leadership from holding town positions. The Mayor’s Chief of Staff should not also be the Democratic Town Committee Chair.

I also have the youth, energy, and vision to tackle the problems of the future. The cost of housing, wealth inequality, and climate change are squeezing the middle class more and more. The generation that caused these problems will not be the one to solve them.

Accomplishments:

Currently I work for a non profit focused on lowering transportation emissions for municipalities and companies. I manage a number of grants and recently conducted a foundational study to bring $52 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Funds to CT to help build electric vehicle highway infrastructure. I do this work because I believe climate change is real and going to impact my generation in a fundamental way.

Early in my career I did a lot of political organizing work, my first job out of school was organizing for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 campaign in Wilkes-Barre, PA. I worked for Senator Murphy for 3 years, and later Governor Lamont’s 2022 election where I hired, trained, and managed many young bright minds throughout Connecticut.

I have a B.S in Political Science from UC Berkeley (2016). At Cal I met my longtime partner, Kahley Rowell, where we were both divers on the men's and women's team respectively.

I also serve locally on the board of the Hamden Alumni Association and the Farmington Canal Commission. In 2023, I was inducted into the Hamden Athletic Hall of Fame.

Other issues:

One of the biggest issues for me personally is that I feel like the spirit has left Hamden. I want us to feel pride in our town again. As Mayor, I’d like to form more volunteer park commissions to help get people engaged, and keep our parks clean. We are increasingly online and isolated from each other. Contributing to a local neighborhood third space can help everyone feel a little more connected.

I’ve organized 3 Farmington Canal Earth Day clean-ups in partnership with AAA, and it’s always a great event and well attended. In addition, working with the Alumni Association I’ve been able to help in organizing events like the Distinguished Alumni Awards, innovation grants to teachers, and end of year scholarships. As Mayor I’ll continue to support programs and partners that work to instill pride in Hamden.

There are also a lot of blighted properties, vacant lots, and huge empty parking lots in town. We can be doing so much more with these spaces. We need to actually enforce our blight ordinances, impose higher taxes on vacant lots to change the value proposition for owners, and remove parking minimums to create development opportunities in our wasted lots. These big parking lots are also contributing to the urban heat island effect, which makes our shopping centers less welcoming for seniors.

What else would you like voters to know about you?

When I was younger I found a lot of structure and discipline through athletics. I value programs outside of school that keep our kids busy and out of trouble like sports, theater, and the arts. Keeping these programs, and increasing access to them is incredibly important and can do a lot for kids, especially those without a lot of structure in their home lives. For me, it helped me get into a great school, allowed me to travel the country and meet so many amazing people, and taught me self confidence and discipline. Every kid should have access to those same opportunities.

I was raised by educators, my dad is a retired biology teacher from Kennedy High School in Waterbury, and my mom just retired from an over 40 year career at Benhaven School in Wallingford, an outplacement school for children with Autism. I also have 3 older siblings who all graduated from Hamden High; Kaitlin, Tim, and Patrick.

I’m proud to be from Hamden, I’m proud to live here today. I want to be here the rest of my life.