Thomas MacMillan Photo
Newhallville Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards announced Wednesday she won’t seek reelection and threw her support behind trial lawyer Michael Stratton. He launched his campaign by taking aim at unions and “political bosses” who he said are wasting taxpayer dollars — by, for example, having twice as many firefighters as the city needs.
Stratton (pictured) took that stance during a Wednesday morning interview in his law office at the corner of Elm and Orange streets. Stratton last week filed to be a candidate for alderman in Ward 19, which covers the north end of Newhallville, Prospect Hill, and part of East Rock.
Alfreda Edwards, the current Ward 19 alderwoman, said she won’t run for reelection after seven terms in office. She endorsed Stratton for the job. Stratton is currently running unopposed. He aims to get on the ballot for the Sept. 10 Democratic primary.
Stratton has emerged on the political scene this year as a major fundraiser for and strong supporter of Alderman Justin Elicker’s campaign for mayor. He has also formed an organization called New Haven First, which promotes mayoral candidates who are taking part in the city’s clean elections program, the Democracy Fund.
Stratton, who’s 47, lives with his wife and three kids on Huntington Street in the wealthier part of Ward 19. The ward contains some of the richest and poorest parts of the city. He grew up in the city and started the law firm of Stratton Faxon, now known for its sponsorship of the city’s annual Labor Day road race.
On Wednesday morning, he sat down for an interview in his firm’s third floor offices. He wore a grey suit over an tie-less blue shirt. He’d just come from one of his three weekly workout sessions with a personal trainer.
“This is a once in a generation opportunity this year to change the way we do politics,” he said of his aldermanic bid. New Haven politics has become “all about satisfying political donors.”
Donors give to campaigns and receive political favors in return, Stratton said. Take the school construction program, for example, which benefited contractors who gave to the DeStefano campaign, he said.
School construction saddled the city with hundreds of millions of debt, amounting to $70 million in debt-service payments each year, he said.
DeStefano got support over the years not only from construction companies, but building trade unions and the fire union, Stratton noted. The result? Over 350 fireman in a city that needs far fewer, Stratton said. “We need 150 firemen.” The city is only 18 square miles and sees only about 200 fires a year, yet has 10 fire stations, Stratton said. (The city currently has 270 firefighters and is looking to hire 80 to 120 more in the next two years.)
“They justify their existence by saying they’re first responders,” Stratton said of firefighters. But American Medical Response, a private EMT company, could respond to medical emergencies as fast as the fire department if it had only one or two more ambulances, Stratton said.
Stratton said his firm’s charity work has shown him how much good can be done with just a little money. Stratton Faxon donates 10 percent of its earnings to neighborhood organizations like LEAP and Solar Youth, he said. Meanwhile, “tens and hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted on things that don’t benefit the people of New Haven,” he said.
“Let’s think of New Haven first. Not unions. Not political bosses,” Stratton said.
Many of the current members of the Board of Aldermen have their “first loyalty to the Yale unions,” Stratton said. “They’re not bad people.” But a lawmaker’s loyalty “has to be to New Haven and its people.”
He said he saw the sweep of aldermanic seats by Yale-union-backed candidates two years ago as “a wake-up call” that inspired him to run. “Why is it one interest group is able to completely dominate the Board of Aldermen?” It’s because “other people were asleep at the switch.” Where are all the business people, the academics? Stratton said he’s “standing up so others will.”
An Assistant
Stratton acknowledged that his ward contains wildly divergent income levels. But the issues are the same in the wealthy and not-as-wealthy areas, he said: taxes, education, and crime.
The wealthier property owners were hit particularly hard last year by property tax revaluations, which could force people to leave the city, Stratton said. “Thirty-five of the top 50 taxpayers live in Ward 19,” he said.
Stratton said property taxes need to be controlled so that New Haven doesn’t become a city populated only by the wealthy and the rich, after high taxes send the middle class moving out of town. Stratton said that he doesn’t consider himself middle class, although he grew up “lower middle class” in Westville. “I’m very privileged.”
“That problem [of high taxes] is best solved by focusing on the poorest side.” Stratton said his focus as an alderman would be “more on Winchester,” in the Newhallville part of the ward.
Stratton said as a candidate he will have to overcome stereotypes that separate rich and poor and black and white. He said he hopes he “will begin to establish credibility” by focusing on Winchester.
As an outspoken supporter of clean elections, Stratton said he will only spend his own money on his race, and “can’t imagine” that will amount to more than $1,000. “Assuming it’s contested.”
Stratton said that as alderman, he would hire a part-time assistant to help him with constituent services. “I need someone to help me.” He said he would introduce his assistant to all the department heads so that when a constituent calls Stratton to complain about, say, a pothole, he could have his assistant follow up with the Department of Public Works to get the pothole filled.
Edwards’ Decision
“I just think that I’ve put my time in,” said Alderwoman Edwards on her decision not to run for reelection. “We’ll let some new blood come in.”
Edwards said she is endorsing Stratton for alderman. “I think Mike will do an excellent job. He’s willing to get out in the community. I’m willing to work with him.”
“He needs to be able to sit down and talk to people and relate to people,” she said. “I’m going to make sure he gets out. He may not want to do it in another week or two. I’m going to take him to meet the real people.”
Edwards said she knows of another person considering a run for Ward 19 alderman but declined to name him or her.