Paul Bass Photo
As Clifton Graves prepared to jump into the mayor’s race, he was heartened to see Cross students march for better schools — and outraged to see officials try to silence them.
The episode, he said, symbolizes why he has decided to take on nine-term incumbent Mayor John DeStefano.
Graves, a Democrat, said he plans to file official papers Tuesday to form an exploratory committee for his campaign. That enables him to start collecting campaign donations. He said he expects to make a formal announcement of his candidacy before the weekend of the May 15 Freddy Fixer Parade and to open headquarters in the Whalley Avenue storefront traditionally used by State Sen. Toni Harp.
Former Hill Alderman Tony Dawson said Monday that he plans to announce within the next few weeks that he’s running, too.
Graves, who’s 58 and a longtime New Haven civil rights activist, said he congratulated a Wilbur Cross High School junior who last month led a student march on City Hall to protest education budget cuts and high administrative salaries. Then, Graves said, he was outraged to learn that school officials responded by disbanding the junior’s political action club on the pretext that a faculty adviser was no longer available to oversee it. Students say school officials have since reneged on a promise to meet with elected student council members. (Schools spokesman Chris Hoffman said, “There appears to be a misunderstanding. They can call [the superintendent] and set up a meeting.”)
“We have a national campaign against bullying. And here are the adults bullying these kids,” Graves said in an interview at the Athenian Diner Monday morning about his upcoming campaign.
“Bright, intelligent students want to get involved. They organized. They meet with the mayor and the budget director. Then we take the rug from under them and ban their organization on a pretense!
“You and I both know some phone calls were made. This is the arrogance and the short-sightedness of the administration.The mayor, then [schools Superintendent] Dr. [Reggie] Mayo made that decision. The principal of Cross did not make that decision on her own. You can be sure of that.
“These are students asking intelligent questions about their schools. They should be encouraged, not discouraged.”
DeStefano noted Monday that he sat down with the student protest leaders for an hour when they marched on City Hall.
“The best thing is to engage them. I’m not clear what the administration at Cross is doing about that,” DeStefano said. “I talked to the superintendent after they came up to the office.I directed them to go to a couple of places. It would be my hope that those places would engage those kids. This is the stuff of running high schools, with kids who are testing the limits. Anyone with adolescent kids knows that’s what an adolescent kid is supposed to do. They’re doing what they should be doing. They should be engaged.”
Democracy & Teens
In meeting with people around town about a possible mayoral run, Graves said, he has encountered many adults who feel the way those protesting students do: Shut out. And he said kids most of all need the city’s attention right now.
Graves praised Mayor DeStefano for much of what he has accomplished over his 17 years in office, including the construction of new school buildings and some of the initiatives of his nascent school reform drive.
But an “arrogance” has spread in government that “disrespects” and silences citizens who have criticisms or want to make the city better, Graves argued. He said he’s running to reinvigorate “participatory democracy” in order to improve New Haven — especially the prospects of young people growing up in neighborhoods like Dixwell, Newhallville, and the Hill.
“There’s a sense that decisions are being made in a vacuum,” he said. “There’s an arrogance emanating from City Hall that discourages true participatory democracy from the neighborhoods and even from other elected officials.”
Graves called for creating “blue-ribbon panels” to look at “tweaking” the school reform drive and to assess the city’s true financial condition. He spoke of how when the last long-serving mayor, Biagio DiLieto, stepped down, his successor, John Daniels, discovered a hidden structural deficit far larger than anyone had anticipated.
He said at this point he doesn’t have many specific examples of different ideas for running the schools or approaching the city’s budget crisis. Those will come as the campaign unfolds, he promised.
The city faces serious financial pressures requiring union concessions, Graves acknowledged. He criticized DeStefano for “demonizing” union leaders and seeking to drive down custodians’ wages while giving mayoral staffers raises.
He praised the creation of the new Engineering and Science University Magnet School and said the $1.5 billion citywide school rebuilding program produced beautiful buildings. The city did lose an opportunity to steer more young New Haveners into construction jobs in that rebuilding effort, he said; he called for the city to bring Yale and the Chamber of Commerce into a new apprenticeship effort. He also called for more schools to stay open at night and on weekend to house youth programs and for the creation of voluntary same-sex K‑8 schools, saying that black males have performed better in such settings in other states.
DeStefano Monday said he “looks forward to debating” Graves “frequently.”
“I have no doubt that this is the union candidate who will not confront the reality of what taxpayers and families are facing, which is the need to reset health care and pension benefits,” DeStefano said. “Cliff clearly stood on the sidelines of this issue, does not want to engage it. New Haven needs to engage this issue of health care and pensions. I don’t think there’s been as difficult a time in the lives of America or the state of the city since the Great Depression. New Haven has posted dramatic population and grand list growth compared to most places in America. I think a diversion into unfocused set of directions is not going to serve the city.”
The mayor called Graves “a well-intentioned individual who has had lots of opportunities for leadership in the community and frankly has been nowhere on school reform, which is the preeminent issue in the city. He has missed the opportunity to be engaged and involved and has not uttered one word of support for [the reform] effort. It is the clear powerful issue to reduce violence and create wealth in the city. I have no doubt that school reform would wither and dry under his leadership.”
Graves said he has worked with the school system on contract to create the “Obama Initiative,” a mentoring program for sixth through eighth-grade boys at Roberto Clemente and Lincoln-Bassett schools. (The program’s emphasis on encouraging black kids to become “scholars” caught Glenn Beck’s attention.)
The stories boys tell in that program motivated Graves to run for mayor and find new ways to inspire them to chase constructive dreams, he said.
How many of you know someone who’s been shot? Graves asks the kids in the class. Most hands go up.
How many know someone in jail? All hands go up.
He asks them about their dreams. They say they want to become inventors, doctors, authors, auto mechanics. “Then you hear them talk about, ‘I can’t sleep at night because of the gunfire. I have fear of walking home and getting shot. This is the environment they’re growing up in.”
The New Haven Promise college scholarship program for higher-achieving students “offers promise. It’s a step in the right direction,” Graves said. “But what promise does it hold for these young boys?” He spoke of one boy at Roberto Clemente who told him, “Mr. Graves, I just want to make it to 18.”
“If this is the mindset of our children,” Graves said, “that says to me, ‘We have to make some changes. This is not to put all this at the foot of the mayor. But you can shape priorities in the city.”
2 Challengers?
Graves said he hopes to have the support of half the state’s legislative delegation and a third of the Board of Aldermen by the time his campaign hits its stride. The primary takes place Sept. 13.
State Sen. Toni Harp said her husband, developer and architect Wendell Harp, who has backed several challengers to DeStefano over the years, is supporting Graves. (He was unavailable for comment Monday.) Toni Harp said she hasn’t made up her own mind yet on whom to endorse. “But people are happy there will be a race and a discussion of issues,” she said. “[Graves is] very well-respected in the community. He’s had a lot of experience. I think he can make the case, certainly.”
Former Alderman Dawson said that once he formally enters the race, he’ll make the case that his 16 years as an alderman give him more experience than Graves. Both Dawson and Graves are African-Americans with long-established ties to black organizations in town.
One DeStefano critic, West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson, said he’ll support either Dawson or Graves. He said he hopes the two “come together” to decide that only one of them will run.
“But I don’t understand why either of them would want the job,” Goldson added. “With the economy the way it is and the city budget the way it is, it’s like a house of cards. I don’t know what’s in there. It’s one of those Biagio DiLieto things — when a new mayor comes in, you go from a balanced budget to a $17 million deficit. It’s like Obama becoming president. Everyone knows he didn’t create the problem. But once he’s in there, it’s his problem. I don’t want to see a second African-American mayor inherit the mess that John Daniels had to inherit and be the one responsible for cleaning up the mess.”
Graves currently works as a diversity consultant and as a sociology professor at Gateway Community College. His parents moved the family to New Haven in 1969; Graves’ mentor was the late Rev. Edwin Edmonds, a former Board of Education chairman and the city’s most politically powerful African-American minister. Graves attended Tufts University and Georgetown law school. He worked as deputy corporation counsel for the city under Mayor Daniels; he held a similar spot with the housing authority under then-Executive Director David Echols. He was an administrator for 12 years at Southern Connecticut State University. He has held leadership posts with the NAACP and was a founding board member of Amistad America.
As he prepared for his mayoral run, some supporters questioned whether he should continue to wear his trademark kufi. They suggested some voters might misunderstand the head covering as a sign that Graves, a lifelong Christian, is a Muslim, and draw negative conclusions.
Graves said he has to continue being who he is. He trusts voters to avoid such misconceptions, he said; he wears the covering as “an acknowledgment that there’s a power higher than you.”
“This is not the backwoods of Idaho. This is a progressive community,” Graves said. “I think people would be more concerned about what’s in my head that what’s on it.”