Paul Bass Photo
The gubernatorial campaign brought some new jobs and coffee customers downtown, as Ned Lamont opened his campaign nerve center on Orange Street.
The first 11 staffers for the front-running Democratic candidate were already working in their new storefront at 169 Orange St. Tuesday. An official opening is coming soon.
The space, recently vacated by the Convention and Visitors Bureau (which merged with the Regional Growth Partnership and moved to 900 Chapel St.), will serve as the Lamont camp’s statewide headquarters. For now the 800 square-foot space will serve as the campaign’s operations center. Over the course of March the campaign will gradually move in to 3,700 square feet on the second floor and put field staffers there. Eventually up to 30 paid staffers and dozens of volunteers and interns are expected to be working out of the office.
Lamont has courted New Haven in his quest for the party’s gubernatorial nomination. He won the city in his 2006 Democratic U.S. Senate primary bid — even though he was running against a hometown incumbent (Sen. Joe Lieberman). New Haven State Sen. Toni Harp has already endorsed him this year; Lamont has courted Mayor John DeStefano, publicly praising the city’s school reform drive on the stump. The city sends the most delegates, 81, to the state convention that endorses a candidate.
But none of that figured into the decision to locate the statewide HQ in the Elm City, according to 31-year-old campaign manager Joe Abbey, who comes to Connecticut after running campaigns in Virginia.
Abbey said the decision came down to location, location, location: Center of the state. Center of the city. Near loads of volunteers.
“Campaigns live and die off their volunteers. I wanted to be in an office that’s accessible to its volunteers, they can walk to,” he said. “If you’re not accessible to your volunteers, you don’t have a candidate.”
After one day in their new space, the staffers have already discovered Bru Cafe down the block. The panini and the cookies got thumbs up.