By Steve Collins
Staff Writer

BRISTOL — Angry that the Republicans refused to back his bid for a City Council race and convinced the city needs to change course after 16 years of Democratic domination, Gary Lawton opted this summer to try, against all odds, to win the city’s top job.

Leaping into the mayor’s race as an independent challenger, Lawton said that “instead of sticking my toe in the water, I’m taking the plunge.”

Taking on incumbent Democratic Mayor Art Ward and GOP challenger Mary Alford in the Nov. 3 general election, Lawton hopes his old high school wrestling instincts will somehow let him pin his opponents down to win the match.

But Lawton reached out to his foes early in the campaign to secure a three-way agreement to stick to the issues and avoid slamming one another personally, according to Alford.

“Personal attacks are unnecessary, uncalled for and basically just trash,” and candidates deserve to have a perosnal life that is off-limits, Lawton said.

He is “plain and simple and blue collar,” he said and the race should focus “on what’s good for Bristol and what’s not good for Bristol.”

The mayoral campaign has remained notably civil throughout, which observers say is always a benefit to incumbents.

Lawton’s campaign attracted the most attention when he called for a 35 percent cut in the mayor’s pay, which would allow Bristol’s political leader to “share in the misery” that so many struggling families in town are feeling every day. Mayors are paid $98,000 annually and serve two-year terms.

A 46-year-old welder with no political experience, Lawton moved to Bristol from New York as a middle school student and became a top wrestler at Bristol Central High School. At the time, he was known as Gary Graff.

Lawton said he used the last name Graff at the time “out of respect for my stepfather” so that if something happened at school, his stepfather would have no hassles with educators about his position as the boy’s guardian.

As an adult he switched back to Lawton.

During the campaign, though, he began calling himself Gary Graff-Lawton so that old friends would realize who he was. But he remains on the ballot as Gary Lawton.

As a wrestler, Lawton was good enough to secure a wrestling scholarship to Norwich University in Vermont after graduating from Central in 1981. He lasted two years before injuring his knee and losing the scholarship, he said.

Lawton joined the U.S. Air Force after college, but that, too, was cut short when his knee blew out entirely, leaving him unfit to serve, he said.

Lawton said he became a welder after that and has worked in a few places over the years, including his current job at Torrington Fuel Cell in Torrington.

Lawton and his wife, Brenda, have five children: Nicole, Nathan, Ashley, Casandra and Erin as well as a granddaughter, Nicole. His son, Nathan, and his son-in-law are both serving in the U.S. Marines.

The last time an independent contender ran for mayor, in 1995, he got stomped at the polls.

But back in 1951, opponents of Mayor James P. Casey allied to create an Independent-Republican movement that installed Daniel Donovan as mayor for a single term, before Casey swept it away in the following election.

This time, though, the Republicans and Lawton are not about to cut any deals.