Mayor David Martin Submits Signatures For Sept. 14 Primary

STAMFORD, CT — Shortly after State Rep. Caroline Simmons was endorsed to be the Democratic candidate for Mayor of Stamford last month, incumbent Mayor David Martin pledged that he would garner enough signatures by 4 p.m. on Aug. 11 to get on the primary ballot in September.

Sure enough on Wednesday afternoon, an hour before the deadline, Martin strolled into the Registrar of Voters office in the Stamford Government Center and submitted those signatures for review.

In order to qualify for the primary ballot, Martin needed to gather signatures from 1,550 registered Democrats in Stamford, equivalent to 5 percent of all registered Democrats in the city. On Wednesday, Martin said he had collected nearly 3,000 names.

Martin, who was first elected as mayor in 2013, said he was humbled and honored by the support he has received from people around the city in recent weeks. He said the "well-funded party establishment" didn't want to give residents a choice in the election.

Bobby Valentine, a Stamford native and longtime Major League Baseball manager, is running as an unaffiliated candidate. Joe Corsello, a former Stamford police officer, was endorsed by Republicans to run.

"I've spent 40 years here. I've got more experience on the Board of Education, the Board of Finance, and the Board of Representatives than all the other opponents put together. I know how this works, and it is one devil of a challenge but we are getting it done," Martin said. "I love this community, I love what I'm doing, and I'm so pleased I've gotten this level of support beyond what I could have expected."

Martin said since taking office, he has improved infrastructure and helped steer the city away from bankruptcy. He pointed to an improved 911 system, new security poles/cameras in parks, body cameras in the police department, more diversity in city government, more below market rate housing, leading the city through the pandemic and amassing a high vaccination rate for a city with 70,000 people or more as accomplishments of his administration. But he stressed there's more work to be done.

"We work tirelessly to make this city work better. There are still improvements that need to be made, whether that's about the roads, whether that's about bringing in electric vehicles or looking at solar, or the amount of work we still have to do in the schools," he said.

While out collecting signatures, Martin said he was able to hear the concerns of constituents, and that the feedback has been helpful in coming up with solutions to make the city run better.

"I still have a lot of improvements to make, and people are going to make a lot of complaints, but that's why I'm running. We are fixing those things and making them better for every citizen of Stamford no matter where they live, no matter what their income, the color of their hair, the color of their eyes, the color of their skin. It doesn't matter. We're making this a place for everybody," he said.