As Hamden’s mayoral elections approach the horizon, taking a look back at the candidates’ history and experience gives voters an insight into their future.
Democratic candidate Lauren Garrett and Republican candidate Ron Gambardella both have distinct histories within Hamden. Both have successfully run for Hamden Legislative Council and have unsuccessfully run for mayor in the past.
While they may agree that Hamden needs a change, they’ve taken very different paths to get to where they are now.
Lauren Garrett
Lauren Garrett was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and later attended the University of Michigan, graduating with a degree in naval architecture and marine engineering in 2003.
Garrett moved to Connecticut as an intern at a Bridgeport shipyard where she met her husband, Dan. In 2003, Garrett moved to Hamden where she and her husband would start politicking.
In 2006, Garrett volunteered for then-unsuccessful U.S. senatorial candidate Ned Lamont’s unsuccessful bid to unseat then-Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Since then, she’s been involved in national, state and municipal campaigns, while working as a real estate investor.
In 2012, Dan Garrett took their daughter, Abigail, then-6, to the Occupy movement protests in New York and New Hampshire.
Garrett was appointed as Inland Wetlands Commissioner in 2016, leading the commission in reviewing applications for construction that could have an impact on the town’s wetlands.
“The commission has the ability to deny the development or approve the development (of land) with conditions,” Garrett said. “Sometimes those conditions are like putting in some barriers so that the wetlands remain undisturbed — that kind of thing. Usually, there’s quite an extensive plan for water runoff and that kind of thing, so that the wetlands don’t get contaminated from road runoff.”
Garrett said that one of her accomplishments on the commission was denying the development of a large apartment complex on top of Rocky Top, the hilly terrain between the Sherman and Shepard avenues. The development, Garrett said, would have required drilling and explosives to cut into the ridge, which would harm the wetlands nearby.
Due to the denial and public outcry, the property was donated to the Hamden Land Conservation Trust (HLCT), which will protect the land as open space.
“The community really decided they wanted to protect the property and that was key,” said HLCT President Jim Sirch, in a statement to the New Haven Register.
We’re grateful and honored to protect this property for the community.”
In 2017, Garrett was elected to the Hamden Legislative Council, where she developed a reputation as a leader of Democratic progressives. Garrett also served as the chair of the council’s Education Committee, where she worked with the Hamden Board of Education and legislators to create solutions.
In both her 2019 and 2021 runs for mayor, Garrett has been critical of Hamden’s financial status, which has been ranked as the most indebted town in Connecticut. While on the council, she helped to fully fund the pension plan for the fiscal year 2019.
“We fully funded the Hamden pension plan. And we did that because we knew that,, that our pension plan was going to be in its best shape if we actually funded the plan,” Garrett said. “And every time that we did not fully fund the actuarially required contribution, it was going to cost us more down the road. What happened later on in that fiscal year was that the administration didn’t fund the pension plan, and used that money to then pay other bills.”
Ron Gambardella
Ron Gambardella has been pushing for change in Hamden for over a decade.
Gambardella is a Hamden native who graduated from Gateway Community College, then named South Central Community College, in 1976 with an associate degree, and later earned bachelor’s degrees in accounting and economics from Southern Connecticut State University.
He later received a master’s degree in finance from the University of New Haven.
In his career, Gambardella has been a small business owner, a legislator, a financial consultant and an educator. Gambardella is a former budget manager for Southern New England Telecommunications, which was merged into AT&T in 2006, and worked in finance and accounting positions at Northeast Utilities and Anthem Blue Cross. Currently, he does accounting and finance work for 17 businesses, according to the Hamden Patch.
Gambardella also served in the U.S. Navy beginning in 1974, and ending in 1975 when he was honorably discharged.
While Gambardella has been interested in politics since he ran for class president in middle school, he got his big break in Hamden politics when he successfully ran for a spot on the Legislative Council in 2003, where he stayed until 2007.
While on the council, Gambardella was known to be vocal against the Democrat-majority body.
“Well, unfortunately, because there were only two Republicans against 13 Democrats on the council, I was not able to accomplish much because we were all voted on almost every single issue,” Gambardella said. “It simply mattered that I was a Republican, that I was out voted, even when I made strong suggestions regarding how we should conduct budget analysis.”
In the now-defunct Hamden Daily News, Gambardella ran a column alongside Mayor Curt Leng where they presented opposing viewpoints of different situations in the town. Eventually, Leng cancelled his column after accusing Gambardella of writing editorials that “consist of inaccuracies, illusions and hav(ing) venom for fellow councilmembers that is in no way productive.”
In columns ranging from satirical rap songs to scathing indictments of the town government, Gambardella called for transparency and change in the town. Gambardella repeatedly called for revisions to the town charter, and ran for mayor in 2007 and 2009 on platforms founded on financial change.
“Hamden needs a mayor who will fight to control Town Hall spending, and hold the line on future tax increases,” said Gambardella in Sept. 2007.
“(Mayor) Henrici and his current council have increased spending by nearly $20 million in the last two years alone. They have also given us the largest tax increase in the town’s history. The reality is that his record over the last two years has been of higher and higher taxes, and more and more spending.”
While Gambardella’s bids for mayor both failed, they are the closest a Republican has come in Hamden in decades. He lost to the late Craig Henrici by 650 votes in the 2007 election, and by 1,100 to Scott Jackson in 2009.
In 2009, Gambardella was nominated, and approved, to be a member on the Connecticut Community Colleges’ Board of trustees. From 2012 until 2014, Gambardella served as the head of the Hamden Republican Town Committee.