Meet the Candidates: Leo Canty and Brandon McGee

It's been a race for the history books, but Democrats in Windsor and Hartford may find out who the party's nominee in the race in the fifth Assembly district will be.

The choices have narrowed a bit, with Windsor Mayor Don Trinks bowing out in this second primary election, but voters will still have to decide whether they'd like Windsor's Leo Canty or Hartford's Brandon McGee to be their representative.

Windsor Patch sat down with both candidates prior to the initial primary on August 14 to see where each stood on local issues and why they deserve to receive residents' votes.

Leo Canty

Leo Canty's name is synonymous with local politics.

The chair of the Windsor Democratic Town Committee, Canty has had a hand in the election of a number of sitting Windsor public officials. Statewide, as a leader of Connecticut's American Federation of Teachers, he has rubbed shoulders and negotiated with the capitol's heavy hitters for decades, in an effort to improve wages and benefits for local teachers.

Simply put, Canty has recorded his fair share of political victories in the state, including successfully lobbying the re-drawing of voting lines to give Windsor a majority within one of the districts in which its residents vote.

That said, the self-described "warrior for working families" says there's still plenty of work to be done, and that's why he's running to represent his neighbors in the fifth assembly district.

Click here to continue reading our profile of candidate Leo Canty.

Brandon McGee

In a race against a Windsor political heavy-hitter in Canty, 28-year-old Hartford-native Brandon McGee can be easily mistaken for a political novice.

With signs of support popping up on lawns across the newly-redrawn fifth district, however, it's clear that McGee is not only a seasoned campaigner, but he's also a talented community organizer.

Those talents stretch back to his college days where he served as president of Alabama's youth and college division of NAACP and worked on the floor of the state legislature.

He continues to use those talents today as he has worked for years with Hartford politicians in an effort to produce positive changes in Hartford's public education system and works to improve his community as the economic development chair of his local neighborhood revitalization zone.

Click here to read our profile on candidate Brandon McGee.