WTNH

On Sunday, city Director of Health Maritza Bond announced her candidacy for Connecticut Secretary of the State. 

Bond is running against State Rep. Stephanie Thomas of Norwalk, Meridian State Rep. Hilda Santiago, Hamden State Rep. Joshua Elliott, New Haven Alder Darryl Brackeen and Middletown State Senator Matt Lesser on the Democratic side. Dominic Rapini and Brock Weber are the only Republicans to announce their candidacy thus far.

“She’s shown time and time again that given new challenges, she thrives. She did it with the pandemic in New Haven, and she’ll do it again as the next Secretary of the State,” said Andrew McIndoo, a spokesperson for Bond’s campaign.

If elected, Bond said she would seek to make it easier to vote and do business. She aims to bring early voting to Connecticut, restore trust between local election officials and the Secretary of the State’s office, improve business services by restoring fiscal autonomy to the SOTS office and restore the SOTS small and minority business unit, according to her campaign website.

McIndoo noted that Bond rose up the ranks to be the Director of Public Health in Bridgeport and now New Haven and that she is the first Hispanic public health director in the state.

The decision is “kind of inherently related to her decision to go into public health to begin with, which is to help people, and she’s a born problem solver,” McIndoo said. 

Bond is capitalizing on her experience throughout her campaign. What differentiates her from other candidates, according to McIndoo, is “her perspective, it’s her lived experience, and it’s her job. At the end of the day, the Secretary of the State job is an executive position. She’s done this for years. She’s been successful. She’s thrived in these positions, and she would hit the ground running from day one.”

Michael Licamele, who worked with Bond during her previous job as Bridgeport’s health director, told the News this fall that he supports Bond because “she’s got the energy for this job and the executive experience which is definitely transferable to the Secretary of the State.”

Bond led New Haven throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, leading efforts to educate citizens to socially distance, get vaccinated and wear masks. According to McIndoo, Bond’s biggest challenge will be getting through the Democratic convention. 

The primary election for Connecticut’s Secretary of the State will take place on Aug. 9, 2022, and the general election will take place on Nov. 8, 2022.