Former West Haven Mayor’s Bid To Reclaim Spot Ends: Report

WEST HAVEN, CT — Former West Haven Mayor Ed O’Brien’s bid to reclaim the city’s top spot as a third-party candidate has apparently come to an end, according to the New Haven Register.

The Register reports O’Brien’s campaign missed a Sept. 1 deadline with the Secretary of the State’s office to file paperwork as the Action & Accountability party. O'Brien, who served two terms as mayor as a Democrat, previously said he would run a slate of candidates on a minor party line.

The paperwork needed to be submitted to the state, but had been sent to the city, and a spokesman for the Secretary of the State’s office told the Register missing the Sept. 1 deadline for the statement of endorsement filing was a “fatal error.”

O'Brien addressed the issue with the following statement in a post on Facebook:

Today we were told that the team will not be on the ballot in November. I know we made an error in filling out the Certificate of Endorsement with the City Clerk, and not the Secretary of State, and while I don’t agree with the penalty, I do accept blame. I am the team leader and the buck stops with me.

We are looking into options and haven’t thrown in the towel yet.

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who has faith in our mission and joined the team, the many people who are supporters, people who believed enough to contribute money to fund a strong campaign and all the friends I met along the way.

I also want to apologize to each of you for not catching this earlier.

Please know that our time was not wasted. We set a tone of working together regardless of political ideology that we will carry on throughout the next two years.

Thank you and stay tuned!

Read the full story at the New Haven Register here.