Paul Bass Photo
Paca at a recent rally in support of Assistant Chief Casanova.
Marcus Paca, who served as Mayor Toni Harp’s labor relations chief, is now running against her.
Paca set up this campaign website and announced his intention to seek this year’s Democratic nomination in this New Haven Register op-ed article.
Harp has begun holding fundraisers for a reelection campaign and said she is running but has not yet formally announced her candidacy.
Paca last ran for office in 2011, when he lost the 24th Ward alder seat that he had held for a term as a member of a slate allied with then-Mayor John DeStefano.
Mayor Harp hired Paca, the grandson of a personal friend, as labor relations chief in 2014. She fired him last year; she said she did so because he signed costly memoranda of understanding with the fire union and improperly released confidential internal emails. He denied doing anything wrong and has sued the city over the firing.
Paca has signaled his intention to run in recent months and publicly criticized the mayor at, for instance, a support rally for Assistant Police Chief Luiz Casanova after he was suspended from his job for a day.
On his campaign website, Paca criticizes Harp’s administration for running a deficit at the Board of Education and for New Haven having had at one point in 2016 no permanent fire chief, schools superintendent, or police chief. He promises to lower permit and vendor fees while “streamlining” government. He did not respond to phone and email requests for comment for this story.
A former candidate for alder in the Hill, Ira Johnson, has also announced a mayoral bid. He is the only candidate to have filed paperwork so far with the city clerk’s office.