“Mike Tyson” Questions Hit Mayoral Candidates

Haven’t you already served in public office long enough? What makes you think you can run a city if you can’t run a school? What did you ever do in City Hall for African-Americans and Latinos? Are you just going leave a city you’ve barely lived in if you don’t become mayor?

New Haven’s five remaining mayoral candidates fielded those shots Tuesday night — not from each other, but from questions posed by a moderator at their latest debate.

The debate, at King Robinson Magnet School in Newhallville, proved the most pointed to date, challenging the candidates on what their skeptics view as their major vulnerabilities.

The Register’s Shahid Abdul-Karim moderated the debate, which was sponsored by the local NAACP, the Association of Hispanic Evangelical Ministries of New Haven, the Clergy Ambassador Program and the Greater New Haven Business and Professional Association. Five still-standing Democratic mayoral candidates participated: state Sen. Toni Harp, former city economic development chief Henry Fernandez, Alderman Justin Elicker, Hillhouse High School Principal Kermit Carolina, and plumber Sundiata Keitazulu.

State rep. Gary Holder-Winfield did not participate. Instead, he dropped out of the race.

After a series of general questions for all the candidates to answer, moderator Abdul-Karim read queries the sponsors tailored to each mayoral hopeful — queries that got right to the point about their perceived liabilities.

“Mike Tyson has nothing on this dude,” Carolina said of Abdul-Karim, before responding to the question: ​“How can you manage a city if you can’t run a high school?”

Carolina recited statistics showing academic improvement and increased parental involvement at Hillhouse under his direction. Fernandez described efforts as a City Hall administrator to make blacks and Latinos got city-funded construction jobs; and to bring Gateway Community College downtown. Harp said she learned that a mayor has more control than a state senator over how state dollars get spent in New Haven.

Elicker grew up in New Canaan. He has lived in New Haven for six years. He was asked about that.

“None of us here can control where we grew up or our backgrounds. What we can control, and what we should be judged on, are our actions. How we can improve the world,” he replied. Then he spoke about starting a youth program in his neighborhood, bringing an independent voice to the Board of Aldermen, and working so hard at constituent services that voters joke that he can be counted on to come change their light bulbs.

During closing statements at the debate’s end, Carolina lobbed a bomb: He suggested that Harp actually lives in Bethany, not New Haven. Harp denied it. She said after the debate that her husband used to own a property on Judd Hill Road in Bethany, but that the family never lived there. She said her late husband, a developer, built the house ​“for a doctor that was coming into town. They were not happy,” so the family never moved in. That was around six years ago, she said. The house has ​“stayed relatively empty” since then, Harp said. ​“Occasionally we would have parties there. That’s all there is to the story.” She said she lives in her family’s Conrad Drive home in upper Westville.

A limited-liability partnership, 35 Judd Hill LLC, owns the Bethany property. State records list Harp’s late husband and her son as principals of the partnership. It lists the Conrad Drive property as their home address.

Following is a blow-by-blow live-blog account of the debate, including details on the candidates’ answers to the questions about their suitability for office.

7:08 p.m. Debate’s starting late. Most of the candidates have yet to take the stage.

7:11 p.m. Emcee James Rawlings from the NAACP welcomes people. African-American and Latino ministers worked together on organizing this event.

7:17 p.m. The Rev. Boise Kimber is delivering a “statement of purpose” as Toni Harp arrives to join the other candidates onstage.

7:22 Rawlings denounces today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Civil Rights Act, noting how the section of the law struck down was used by civil-rights activists to combat voter suppression efforts aimed at African-Americans in the last presidential election. Biggest applause for Harp and Carolina as Rawlings introduces the candidates.

7:24 Rev. Keith King of the Clergy Ambassador program—who doubles as an assistant U.S. attorney—lays out the rules (each candidate gets a minute to answer each question).

7:26 Looks like about 200 people here in the crowd. Carolina’s opening statement: His number-one campaign issue is “breaking the cycle of poverty” and “help pregnant mothers educate their children.”

7:27 Elicker: “This election is about equity. ... How we treat the least among us. No longer is it acceptable for us as a city to fix a sidewalk” or approve a spot for a child in a school based on personal or political connections.

7:28 Fernandez: “Thanks to y’all for coming out ... I grew up in serious poverty.” His mom had only a high-school degree; she did a great job along raising three kids, all of whom went to college. He was proud to run the LEAP program for seven years and to fight for immigrant rights alongside his wife, Kica Matos. Last year he worked nationally with the NAACP to register 450,000 people to vote.

7:30 Harp: “I’ve lived in New Haven for 40 years, and I’ve served most of you in the General Assembly for the past 21 years. I think what marks my public life is my belief in the people I serve. ... I will be your champion.”

7:31 Keitazulu: “For too long we have heard empty promises year after year after year. No jobs in our community. Poverty running wild. Violence running wild. Yale-New Haven Hospital getting everything they wanted. For too long our children have been bred for prison.” He promises “real change.”

7:32 First question from Hispanic Clergy Association. Latinos feel downtown has gotten developed while ​“little” has been done with neighborhoods. What specific plans do you propose to engage the power of our Hispanic communities?

7:33 Keitazulu speaks of building new vo-tech schools. Harp promises to create jobs, support small business, and promote bilingual education — for everyone.

7:36 Fernandez: ​“I led the city’s effort to bring Gateway Community College downtown … It sent a clear message:” Downtown isn’t just for Yale, which ​“serves people from all over the world,” but also for Gateway, which serves people from all over New Haven. Wants to help Latinos and African-Americans start businesses and make sure government-funded construction jobs ​“go to New Haven residents.” Elicker, the campaign’s only Spanish speaker, starts off en Español, then segues to English, to say government should ​“communicate with everyone in our city.” Agrees with Keitazulu’s call for more vo-tech education.

7:38 Carolina: If we don’t provide more ​“mom and pop” businesses in neighborhoods, local people, especially ex-felons, won’t get jobs. He wants government breaks directed toward businesses with under 10 employees.

7:40 Question from black clergy: What plan and resources will you direct to improve third-grade test mastery? Early-childhood education is the new rage in education policy debates; Elicker has focused on it the past week, while the governor today named a New Haven expert on the subject to an agency he formed by bypassing the legislature. Streamline enrollment processes for the ​“neediest” to have a fair chance at getting into early-ed programs at magnet schools; ​“capture” some of the big money President Obama and Gov. Malloy are committing to early-childhood ed; and despite the focus on testing, reserve the first couple of years in school for ​“love and play,” not letters and numbers. Fernandez says to hold him accountable for how the schools do and to offer ​“transparent” data on school performance. (Click here for a story about an event at which he said not to reelect him if the schools fail to improve.)

7:44 Harp: She chaired an achievement gap task force in the legislature; she says the gap begins before school starts, so she wants universal pre‑K for people who want it.

7:47 Audience question for Keitazulu: Why should we take your candidacy seriously if you can’t qualify for the Democracy Fund? ​“My voice has not been heard,” he responds. But he has a good plan for vo-tech schools and job-training, full bilingual ed and ​“city jobs for city people.” ​“This is a job about leadership. This is not about who’s the most popular.” ​“I’m the first candidate to be down in the dirt … I will rise to the top.” (Read about his personal story here.)

7:50 Audience question for Harp: ​“If 20 years is enough for John DeStefano, why is it not enough for you?” And what would you accomplish that you haven’t accomplished as senator? ​“I passed a lot of bills that I thought were going to help.” Has passed bills that sent lots of money for New Haven, for LEAP and school ​“wraparound programs.” She learned: ​“Often when you send the money down, you don’t know how it’s going to be spent.” Example: Pre-school education money. She thought it would all be spent on kids from New Haven. She discovered lots of the dollars go to suburban kids; one third of all pre-school slots. ​“I decided I’m going to run so I know the money we get from Hartford is spent right.”

7:53 Audience question for Fernandez: ​“You describe yourself as for civil rights. How do you reconcile that with your performance as economic development administrator? What did you do to support minority businesses in the inner city?” Fernandez says he’s ​“absolutely proud of my record” both in City Hall, and in national civil-rights campaigns. He speaks of how in City Hall he discovered that ​“people were being bused in from New York State to fill jobs on New Haven school construction projects.” He dispatched inspectors, then ​“I shut those jobs down. That had never been done before. For big developers, big construction companies, I said, ​‘That will never happen again.’” Then, he says, he succeeded in getting goals met for hiring African-Americans, women and Latinos. (Read more about that here.) Mentions Gateway’s downtown move again. ​“That wasn’t universally popular. But I know that putting a college downtown … serves all of our people, all of our neighborhoods.”

7:57 For Elicker: You’ve lived in New Haven only six years! ​“What makes you think” you can serve as mayor? If you lose, will you just pick up and leave? Elicker: ​“None of us here can control where we grew up or our backgrounds. What we can control, and what we should be judged on, are our actions. How we can improve the world. Yes I have been in New Haven six years. But I hit the ground running.” He started a youth program in East Rock Park; has been one of the ​“most independent voices” on the Board of Aldermen; pushed for making the system fairer for getting into schools. Urges people to ​“walk around East Rock and Cedar Hill” and ask about how hard he has worked for constituents. ​“There’s no way I’m leaving this town … I thrive on diversity. … This city makes me successful. I’m not going anywhere, whether i get elected or not.”

8 p.m. Tough questions! Now for Carolina: What about those poor test scores at Hillhouse? ​“How can you manage a city if you can’t run a high school?”

“Mike Tyson has nothing on this dude,” Carolina begins.

He talks about how ​“education saved my life.” He took on the long odds facing Hillhouse; 63 percent of the mid-year transfers from charters and magnet schools, ​“we show success.” He says ​“they” won’t ​“show you” the positive statistics about Hillhouse ​“because I’m a bad guy now because of my fight with John DeStefano.” Here are those stats, he says: Drop-out rate has decreased 33 percent in three years. Graduation rate has increased 25 percent. AP scores have tripled. ​“Parent participation has tripled.” One of Carolina’s opponents last week attacked him for school ​“climate” surveys showing discontent at Hillhouse.

Carolina’s fired up. ​“If you want change, you elect me.” The others ​“bring old faces to new problems.” ​“I didn’t want money from big business.” By participating in the Democracy Fund, he gets small donations from people with less money. ​“That’s the people I want” informing his decisions, he says.

8:17 p.m. During closing statements, Carolina lobs a bomb: Since the media has used ​“kid gloves” on ​“so-called frontrunner” Harp, he wants to ask her: Do you spend your time ​“on Judd Hill Road” in Bethany, or do you truly live in Westville? ​“I’ve never lived on Judd Hill Road,” Harp responds, sitting behind him. (After the debate, she gave a fuller answer. See the top of this story.)