FIC Blog

Pro-family Rep. Minnie Gonzalez (D-Hartford) defeated an effort yesterday by pro same-sex unions Mayor Eddie Perez to purge her from the legislature’s Democratic caucus. Today’s Courant reports that Rep. Gonzalez’s supporters bested Mayor Perez’s supporters in the primary elections for Democratic Town Committee, which almost guarantees her re-election in November:

A brazen caravan of honking cars - some bearing photos of state Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, one carrying Gonzalez herself - wound down Park Street Tuesday night to deliver, through cheers and the waving of Puerto Rican flags, a message to Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez: You lost….

The 3rd District race, and its results, have highlighted the acrimony between Gonzalez and Perez and, judging from the Gonzalez camp’s victory, is a sign of Latino opposition to Perez as he seeks re-election next year.

Mayor Perez faces Latino opposition because he forgot the wisdom of his own Nov. 4, 2004 Courant op-ed, “Kerry Lost the Values Vote,” in which the Mayor warned that “to regain status as the national majority party, [Democrats] must be willing to embrace those for whom faith in God is a key component of civic participation.” Rather than following his own advice, Mayor Perez sided with pro same-sex “marriage” activists who told Rep. Gonzalez after her vote against civil unions that “we’ll be sure that you’re out” at the next election.

But instead of her defeat, yesterday’s election provided a big victory for Rep. Gonzalez and a hint of potential trouble for the Mayor’s own re-election efforts in 2007.

The elections in Hartford yesterday provide several lessons. It reminds those, like Mayor Perez, who fail to consider the pro-family values of Latino voters that they do so at their own peril. And it shows what can be accomplished when pro-family voters rally to pro-family leaders like Rep. Gonzalez.