Hartford’s Democrats hadn’t even started their meeting to pick candidates for the fall, and the yelling had already begun.
And it was all about FranchescaRoldan.
Roldan is a member of state Rep. Minnie Gonzalez’s third district town committee -- or at least she was until June, when the town committee accepted her signed resignation.
committee members, lawmakers and supporters gather to hear the htfd dem committee's mayoral endorsement #ctnewsjunkie pic.twitter.com/Rswz2sawRB
— Madeline Stocker 🐺 (@madelinestocker) July 27, 2015
Roldan said Monday night that she never signed that form, and never intended to resign. When they call her name, she said, she plans on voting.
Cohen: If there’s a piece of paper that has your signature on it that says you’re resigning, what’s your response? Roldan: You’re crazy. It’s as simple as that. You must have forged my signature.
But Gonzalez said Roldan isn’t telling the truth. She pointed to that same piece of paper, and said that Roldan agreed to step down after she missed voting in last year’s election, and wasn’t pulling her town committee weight.
“She signed it, and the person that is with her his her witness, because she was there,” Gonzalez said.
The job of resolving the dispute before the real fighting over endorsements begins falls to town committee Chairman Marc DiBella. He’s sought advice from the state party on the matter, and he’s consulted with the town committee’s parliamentarian.
Outside of the festivities, DiBella explained to Roldan that he would have her sign an affidavit saying she never resigned. Then he’ll allow her to vote. He also explained to her that, if she’s not telling the truth, she would risk perjury. She understood, shared some tense words with Gonzalez, and that was that.
And this coda: There’s also the question of her vote. Roldan said she plans on voting for Democrat Luke Bronin for mayor.
“What’s his name again? Luke? I feel that he deserves a chance,” Roldan said. “It’s time to set somebody down that’s going to be able to do something. Make a difference.”
Gonzalez said Bronin’s camp is behind the whole mess. For their part, Bronin's camp said they had nothing to do with it.
