Laurel Leff Photo
Reyes (left) and Williams, volunteers for insurgent candidates.
Stung by recent criticism that insurgent aldermanic candidates are beholden to the Yale unions that have endorsed them, the insurgents struck back Monday with a charge of their own: the establishment candidates are part of “a mayoral slate” beholden to Mayor John DeStefano.
“It’s called a slate because these are the people the mayor wants in office,” said Jim Berger, one of four volunteers for union-backed candidates who called a press conference Monday to defend the union effort and to attack the Democratic Party establishment’s approach. According to the volunteers, the “mayor’s slate” comprises the candidates endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee who have not received union support. The insurgents will face the party-endorsed candidates in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary.
Locals 34 and 35 UNITE HERE, which represent Yale clerical, technical, service, and maintenance workers, endorsed 15 candidates earlier in the month, including 12 challengers. The unions said they made the endorsements, probably the largest number they have ever made, to shift the “balance of power” in the city.
DeStefano campaign manager Danny Kedem denied that his campaign was involved in the aldermanic races. “There might be some understanding with some aldermanic candidates but there is not some sort of mayoral slate,” he said.
Kedem said the mayor has only endorsed one aldermanic candidate: Norma Rodriguez-Reyes, who is running against incumbent and union-backed Dolores Colon in the Hill’s Ward 6. (Rodriguez-Reyes publishes the Spanish-language newspaper La Voz Hispana. She also volunteers as chair of the board of the not-for-profit Online Journalism Project, which publishes the Independent.)
Harper, left, and Berger
Berger, a Yale lecturer who volunteers for Westville aldermanic candidate Adam Marchand, said he and his fellow volunteers had seen evidence of collusion during their time spent campaigning. He said none of them are union members. He brandished similar flyers from different candidates that he said demonstrated coordination among the pro-City Hall candidates.
Reached Tuesday, Democratic Town Committee Chair Susie Voigt said some aldermanic candidates “may be working together but I think that’s good.” She added that some are “affiliated with the mayor and are proud of that affiliation.”
Voigt said: “I’ve not been made aware of any unfair campaigning.”
Berger also criticized the “tone of the campaign,” which he said involved “union bashing.”
Berger pointed to comments critical of the union effort in a recent New Haven Register article entitled “Labor On Attack In Elm City.” (The headline has since been revised.) Board of Alderman President Carl Goldfield, who is being challenged by Yale union organizer Brian Wingate, told the Register that the unions were trying to take over the board.
“They have a single interest, which is the union’s interest,” Goldfield is quoted as saying. “I think aldermen who really come from the community who aren’t backed by a single interest are more capable of satisfying a larger and broader interest.”
East Rock Alderman Matt Smith, who is running against union-backed Jessica Holmes, told the Register union members shouldn’t be over-represented on the board.
“I think we run the risk of sacrificing the needs of our residents here in New Haven to a group whose members mostly live outside of New Haven,” Smith said.
Berger took Goldfield in particular to task for those comments. He said some of the aldermanic candidates, such as Goldfield, “consider themselves good Democrats and liberals, old fashioned New Deal Democrats.” Yet, on “such a crucial point they are suddenly swinging toward Scott Walker,” he said, referring to the Wisconsin Republican governor who became nationally known for his attacks on unions.
Berger also said the insurgent candidates are independent minded, “very much on our own with the backing of some Yale unions.”
The back-and-forth signals the heating up of an already charged Democratic primary in what is shaping up as the most competitive campaign season in New Haven in at least a decade. There are primary challenges in 19 of the 30 aldermanic wards, some of which involve multiple candidates; in 11 of those, Unite Here locals 34 and 35 have endorsed upstart candidates; in three others they have endorsed incumbents with strong labor records. In one case, the unions endorsed an upstart candidate who received the party backing but will face the incumbent alderman in the general election. In addition, 24 candidates have filed to be on the general election ballot if they lose the primary race.
In one case, the unions have endorsed an incumbent, Ward 28’s Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, who was also endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee. Robinson-Thorpe said in an interview Monday night that despite the official endorsement she has not received support from the party.
“I haven’t heard anything since I got the endorsement because I’m not the mayor’s candidate,” Robinson-Thorpe said of the endorsement she received at the Democratic Town Committee nominating convention on July 27. “I’m not on the mayor’s agenda. I think independently. On the board, the mayor’s agenda is the only one that moves.”
Robinson-Thorpe said the mayor was backing her primary opponent, Wayne McCloud. She said McCloud called her the Sunday before the nominating convention to tell her he was running and that he had the mayor’s support.
“This was my own decision,” McCloud, a retired state worker who has lived in the New Haven area since 1990, said Monday night. “Pretty much no one recruited me.”
Asked about the mayor’s supposed support for McCloud, DeStefano campaign spokesman Kedem said, “I have no comment on that.”
Democratic Chair Voigt said the town committee doesn’t raise or spend money on the primary, beyond paying for food for poll workers on election day. Robinson-Thorpe is vying for her second term as an alderwoman “so she may not be fully aware of that,” Voigt said.
Berger, along with Carmen Reyes who lives in Fair Haven’s Ward 14, Lateefah Williams who lives in Beaver Hills’ Ward 28, and Dorothy Harper who lives in Fair Haven Heights Ward 11, gathered up flyers from several establishment candidates that they said bore an uncanny resemblance to one another. They spread them on the dining room table of Reyes’ Fair Haven apartment.
Flyers for Smith, Greg Morehead In Dixwell’s Ward 22, Doug Bethea in Dwight’s Ward 2, Stephanie Bauer in Fair Haven’s Ward 14, and Marcus Paca in Ward 24, all appeared on the same blue paper, had black lettering and were the same size. (Democratic Town Chairwoman Voigt made Morehead and Bethea official candidates at the nominating convention when she broke ties resulting from ward co-chairs splitting their votes.)
Flyers for Stan Kontogiannis in Westville’s Ward 27 and Wayne McCloud in Beaver Hills’ Ward 28 were even more similar, sporting the same mustard yellow paper and a similar layout.
Flyers for Yusuf Shah in West River’s Ward 23 and Michael Slattery in Westville’s Ward 25 were on the same-sized, lime green paper. (Alderman Shah initially withdrew from the race when the town committee endorsed his opponent and union-candidate Tyisha Walker but then decided to run in the general election.)
Reached Monday night, Bauer, Smith and McCloud all denied they were coordinating their campaigns with the mayor’s. Bethea, who was also contacted Monday night, said he would call back with a comment but never did.
Smith said that as a graphic designer he designs all his own literature. He also pointed out that the various campaign’s literature didn’t use the same design template or have the same wording. “It’s not as if, we just plopped a different picture into the same literature,” Smith said.
“I am an independent voice for East Rock,” the incumbent said.
He also pointed out the he had raised all his own money, which he said his most recent financial report will show amounts to almost $5,000.
Fair Haven Alderwoman Bauer also emphasized that her financial backing came from her constituents.
Carmen Reyes, one of the volunteers leveling the charges of a mayor’s slate, said she had discovered a revealing mistake in one of Bauer’s fund-raising appeals. Reyes, who had been one of two candidates running against Bauer until she dropped out to avoid splitting the vote, said she had received an invitation to a Bauer fund raiser. The form had a problem, however. It said the check should be made out to Doug Bethea, a Dwight aldermanic candidate, not to Bauer. That shows they used the same form, but just forgot to change the name, said Reyes, who does clerical work for the Knights of Columbus.
“To my knowledge the form that was filled out said the contribution was for Stephanie Bauer,” said Bauer, who will face Gabriel Santiago in the primary. Santiago has not been endorsed by the Yale unions. Reyes said she is supporting him.
Bauer said she has disagreed with Mayor DeStefano, including over monetizing parking meters. “I did, however, support the mayor when he said no tax increase this year,” she added.
The insurgent volunteers also criticized other aspects of the DeStefano campaign’s involvement in the aldermanic races.
Harper, who worked for the city as director of a senior center until she retired 10 years ago, complained that the Democratic Town Committee did not endorse her candidate, Barbara Constantinople, even though she was the the only Democrat in the race. Constantinpole is running against Alderwoman Maureen O’Sullivan-Best, an independent, in the general election.
The volunteers also described “subtle intimidation” that prevented city workers and others dependent on the city from posting lawn signs supporting insurgent candidates.
More fundamentally, they objected to the grip that the town committee had on the selection of candidates in a city where winning the Democratic nomination has almost guaranteed victory.
Berger said just 20 town committee votes in his Westville ward led to the selection of Mike Slattery as the Democratic candidate. “That means 20 people can elect an alderman,” Berger said. “We’re a one party town. And it’s a mini party within the party that has the power.”
The races in which union-endorsed candidates (marked by three asterisks) are vying against establishment candidates.*
Ward 2: Doug Bethea v. Frank Douglass***
Ward 6: Dolores Colon*** v. Norma Rodriguez-Reyes
Ward 9: Matt Smith v. Jessica Holmes***
Ward 13: David Baker v. Brenda D. Jones Barnes***
Ward 18: Sal DeCola v. Sarah Saiano***
Ward 20: Charles Blango v. Delphine Clyburn***
Ward 21: Moses Nelson v. Brenda Foskey-Cyrus***
Ward 22: Greg Morehead v. Jeanette Morrison***
Ward 24: Marcus Paca v. Evette Hamilton***
Ward 25: Mike Slattery v. Adam Marchand***
Ward 27: Stan Kontogiannis v. Angela Russell***
Ward 28: Claudette Robinson-Thorpe*** v. Wayne McCloud
Ward 29: Carl Goldfield v. Brian Wingate***
*Candidates that have received neither the party endorsement nor union support are not included in the list.