April Capone, then-mayor of East Haven, arrives at the Inaugural Ball honoring the 88th Governor of the State of Connecticut Dannel P. Malloy at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday January 5, 2011. File photo.
Name the youngest woman elected mayor in Connecticut.
Hint: she once donated a kidney to a constituent she befriended on Facebook.
The answer is April Capone, who is the new political director of the Connecticut Democrats.
The 38-year-old former two-term mayor of East Haven left her post as intergovernmental coordinator at the state Office of Policy & Management on June 17 for the party gig.
“It was an excellent catch to be able to get her to come here,” Jonathan Harris, the state party’s executive director, told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
Capone landed at the OPM after losing her 2011 bid for a third term as mayor by a mere 31 votes to Republican Joseph Maturo Jr., whom she defeated by 25 votes in the 2007 election.
As political director for the Democrats, who hold every statewide office, all five congressional districts, both U.S. Senate seats and overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, Capone will be responsible for recruiting candidates and coordinating with local town committees.
She succeeds Moriah Moriarty, who left the job of political director in late September of 2012 to take a position with the Secretary of the the State.
Capone is said to be a solid field organizer who is closely aligned with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District.
“She brings a wealth of political experience and knowledge all across the map both from her days as mayor of East Haven and, of course, at OPM also having a job that was focused on what was happening on the ground,” Harris said.
Part of Capone’s job is expected to entail outreach to minority voters, including Latinos, whose treatment by local police in East Haven have resulted in major tensions. In April 2010, Capone put then-Police Chief Leonard Gallo on paid administrative leave pending the results of a federal investigation that police harassed members of the Latino community.
In January 2012, after Capone was voted out of office, the FBI arrested four local police officers as part of that investigation. Maturo, who ousted Capone as mayor, caused a national uproar when asked by a reporter what he was going to do for the Latino community and answered, “I might have tacos when I go home.”