O'Sullivan Temporarily Suspends Mayoral Campaign

Citing medical issues, Republican mayoral hopeful Jim O'Sullivan has temporarily suspended his campaign.

In a statement released Tuesday morning, O'Sullivan makes it clear that he is not withdrawing from the race. Upon consultation with his physician and family, and following a hospitalization on Oct. 10, he made the decision to suspend his campaign. 

The announcement comes less than a month before Election Day. O'Sullivan is running against incumbent mayor Bob Mezzo, a Democrat. 

"I made a commitment to the people of Naugatuck and to my party," O'Sullivan says in the statement, which was published by the Citizen's News. "The residents of Naugatuck deserve to have the opportunity to elect a mayor who is dedicated to turning this Borough around and I intend to give them that. In the interim, I will still be supporting the candidates who I know and believe have the same vision for Naugatuck as I do."

Read Republican Town Committee Chairman Dorothy Hoff's reaction here.

O'Sullivan Takes Issue With Patch Article

The majority of O'Sullivan's statement is dedicated to addressing an article by Patch Senior Local Editor Paul Singley that was published on Oct. 10.

That article informed residents that a Patch-sponsored debate would no longer be taking place due to scheduling conflicts with the O'Sullivan campaign.

On Sept. 9, O'Sullivan agreed to debate Mezzo at a date to be determined, most likely in mid-October. But he maintains that he was never made aware of the Oct. 15 debate date by Patch; that he learned of it through a Facebook post.

"It would have been appropriate for Mr. Singley to confirm the date of October 15th or any other date he was considering with both the candidates prior to making it public or securing a location," O'Sullivan says. 

Singley states that he spoke to O'Sullivan about the Oct. 15 debate date on Wednesday, Oct. 9 — a day after the tentative debate date was shared on the Naugatuck Patch Facebook page. At that time, O'Sullivan said he was unavailable on Oct. 15.

"I told Mr. O'Sullivan that we would be willing to work in conjunction with other local media outlets to find a mutually acceptable date and location for the debate to occur between Mayor Mezzo and Mr. O'Sullivan. He said he could not because he plans well in advance and his calendar was full through December," Singley states.

"It is also unfortunate that Mr. Singley took my comments out of context when he wrote his article," O'Sullivan's statement reads. "I have confidence in the residents who know me and those who know that you cannot believe everything you read. Although, I do not believe Mr. Singley’s article was deliberately written to attack any one candidate, it is unfortunate that it was written in that way."

Read Singley's full article here.

Debate Location Questioned, Too

The Patch-sponsored debate was to take place at City Hill Middle School, at 7 p.m.

"As an aside," O'Sullivan's statement reads, "I would have also recommended that the debate be held somewhere that would not cost the tax payers additional money."

"The choice of utilizing City Hill Middle School for the debate would require the Borough building to have to open and then be secured by paid staff; costing the Borough a needless expense. Furthermore, it is unclear from the article whether or not it would require additional insurance coverage by the Borough to hold the debate at this venue. In an effort to keep cost done for our tax payers, I would have suggested the Naugatuck Portuguese Club, the Elks Club or similar locations which have graciously held free debates at no cost to the tax payers in the past." 

Singley says the choice of City Hill made sense because the janitors work nights and the high school is under construction. The school can also accomodate a sizable crowd, and the idea to sponsor a debate was to provide as many residents as possible with the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates.

Borough Controller Bob Butler had previously told Patch: "As there are no fees with the proposed event to be held on Town property and the Patch is merely a promoter, coverage falls to the Town/BOE policy."

Chamber Debate Still On

O'Sullivan and Mezzo are still scheduled to face off at a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored debate at noon on Oct. 29 at Jesse Camille's Restaurant.