Jacob Cohn Photo
Morris Cove has been the Republicans’ last New Haven redoubt for decades. Sarah Saiano declared her “very strong commitment to working people” and her experience as a union executive board member will help her break the trend.
“I think that a Democrat can win in Morris Cove,” said Saiano (pictured). The key to victory, she claimed, is “helping people to understand the issues.”
Saiano, who’s 61, has announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for alderwoman in Ward 18. She hopes to replace Republican incumbent Arlene DePino, who has not yet announced whether she plans to run again. When contacted, DePino said she would reveal her plans at the city Republican convention on July 21.
DePinos — Arlene, and before her Chris — have held the Ward 18 seat since 1989; before that, Democrat Nick Balletto held the seat. Arlene DePino is currently the 30-member board’s only Republican alderman. The city last elected a Republican mayor in 1951. (Another alderwoman, Maureen O’Sullivan-Best, was elected as an independent. The other 28 aldermen are Democrats.)
Saiano is also expected to face a party-backed Democratic opponent in a Sept. 13 primary. Nicholas Colavolpe, a retired Southern Connecticut University custodian and 10-year member of the ward committee, said Friday he expects to file papers next week to run. He said ward party leaders are backing him.
A research assistant for the psychiatry department at Yale University, Saiano moonlights as a women’s studies teacher at Quinnipiac University.
She acknowledged she has little experience with direct political activity. But she said she possesses “a depth of knowledge about politics in the broader sense” and a “knowledge of the effects of inequality.” As an executive for UNITE HERE Local 34, a 3,200-member union which represents Yale clerical and technical workers, Saiano focuses on bargaining rights and maintaining lines of communication between staff members and the Yale administration, she said.
Her reason for running? “I just really have come to the conclusion that the city needs to go in a different direction,” Saiano said.
Saiano plans to make job creation and the plight of working families the center of her campaign. She argued that the city needs to find alternate sources of revenue, claiming that nonprofit entities such as Yale University need to be assessed to ensure that they are contributing their fair share to the city. She claimed that too often “working people are the go-to people” when it comes to making cuts and raising taxes. However, when asked about the one proposal recently before the Board of Aldermen to get more revenue from Yale—creation of a stormwater authority to collect a fee from not-for-profits alike for the cost of handling rain run-off —she didn’t support the idea. She said it needs to be revisited to assess how it would impact homeowners who are already burdened by taxation.
(DePino opposed stormwater too. “I understand the environmental concerns. And I agree with that. But I don’t think this is the time for that” because “I don’t think people can afford it,” DePino said. Colavolpe said he too opposes the stormwater “tax”; he said he doesn’t want to discuss other issues yet.)
Saiano is part of a slate of union-affiliated candidates running for the board this year, in several cases against party established-backed candidates on primary day, Sept. 13.
While she acknowledged the challenges facing Democrats in Ward 18, she maintained that there is a solid base of Democratic support in Morris Cove and that the neighborhood has leaned Democratic in statewide and national races. Though she did not comment on any specific votes by DePino with which she disagrees, she claimed that “when it comes to putting some pressure on wealthy individuals and institutions, I think Arlene and I might differ.”
Some have argued that New Haven needs the participation of more than one party for independent scrutiny of people in power.
Saiano maintained that she would bring a new voice to the board and work to effect change.
“All I know is that the direction of the city is not a good one and whatever is driving the vision of the board as a unit needs to be provided with some new energy,” Saiano said.
She said she disagrees with the DeStefano administration’s push to privatize the jobs of school custodians. That “puts people into poverty,” she said.
When reached for comment, DePino said that if she chooses to run again she will focus her attention on senior citizens and their tax burden; she sponsored a city law that freezes property taxes for some seniors.
DePino said that being the sole Republican on the Board of Aldermen has not diminished her ability to influence policy or work with other aldermen.
“My colleagues have been respectful in having my concerns addresses, and I think I work very well with them,” DePino said.