KENT, Conn.—Darlene Brady has been Kent’s town clerk for nearly a quarter of a century but in this election she is running without the endorsement of either major party. She has filed to run as a petitioning candidate.
Brady explained that the Democratic Town Committee adopted a bylaw after the last election cycle saying it would not endorse any candidate who is not a Democrat. Brady is registered as an unaffiliated elector.
In the 2023 election a significant number of candidates were registered as independents.
Brady was told that the Republicans, who have cross-endorsed her previously, opted not to officially nominate her because they believed she might not want to be listed only on the Republican roster.
Brady said she sees her job as “apolitical.”
“This is difficult for me,” she said. “I have chosen this as my profession—I intentionally chose this, not to be here for two years or four years, not just to see if I could be elected. I don’t want people to think I wasn’t endorsed for any reason.”
She noted that neither party nominated a candidate to oppose her.
Reflecting on her long career as town clerk, she said she is still not the town’s longest-serving official.
“I know I have a long way to go to beat Debbie [Devaux,] as tax collector or Rick [Osborne] as road foreman,” she said.
Devaux was first elected in 1989 and Osborne has served the town for 28-and-a-half years.
