Paul Bass Photo
Dawson handing in his petitions.
Mayor John DeStefano will have three challengers on the Sept. 13 primary ballot, according to new tabulations by the city registrar of voters.
Democratic Registrar Sharon Ferrucci Monday said that her staff has “double-checked” and confirmed enough valid signatures on petitions to allow Jeffrey Kerekes, Anthony Dawson, and Clifton Graves, Jr., to have their names placed on the ballot.
Sharon Ferrucci.
Ferrucci had eight workers — staffers as well as extra helpers called in — checking the candidates’ petitions against the voting list to confirm that both signers and circulators are registered Democrats. “I would never have gotten this done” without that big a crew, Ferrucci said. She said she plans to submit paperwork later today to formally certify the candidates’ ballot positions.
As of mid-day Monday, the fate of a fourth challenger, Robert Lee, did not appear as promising.
Candidates needed 2,092 valid signatures of registered Democrats to make the ballot. Circulators who gather the signatures must be registered Democrats, too. All four challengers claimed to have submitted more than enough to qualify; they anticipated that a certain percentage of signatures ended up being rejected as invalid. Early on in the process last week, that rejection rate was running at around 35 percent.
New Haven has not had a four-way mayoral primary involving credible candidates in decades. It had a hotly contested three-way Democratic primary (tantamount to the general election in a city that last elected a Republican mayor in 1951) in 1979; that year a challenger with a base on the East Shore, Biagio DiLieto, knocked out a white liberal incumbent, Frank Logue, who split his base’s vote with an African-American candidate, Henry Parker.
Monday’s news would appear to help Kerekes and DeStefano the most. That’s because both Dawson and Graves are African-American; they have the potential of splitting the black vote. So far Graves and Dawson have been picking up most of their support in the black community; Kerekes’ strength so far has seemed to come in white-dominated neighborhoods like the East Shore and East Rock (although all the candidates seek support citywide).
Both Dawson and Graves acknowledged that analysis Monday.
Graves.
Graves called the success of three challengers making the ballot a “signal for change” from the electorate. He added that “there is a significant amount of concern in the black community about two candidates of color on the ballot. We [he and Dawson] realize we need to have a meeting about this ASAP, absolutely. People who want change in the city think it would be best if we work that out.”
“We’re going to have to make a decision pretty soon,” agreed Dawson, who said, “I’m just delighted that the people of New Haven showed enough trust in me to be on the ballot to represent their issues.”
Kerekes meets the press.
Kerekes congratulated his fellow challengers. Their joint success in making the ballot will give voters “some choices finally for the first time in a decade. That’s good for democracy, for the city, for debate, for engagement of people who are less engaged in the process.” The more candidates, the more voters turn out, which helps all challengers, he argued.