Paul Bass Photo
Less that a week after a new slate of aldermanic candidates announced it was taking aim at the union-backed political “machine,” one member has already jumped ship, saying labor unions have co-opted the organization.
The slate, called Take Back New Haven (TBNH), comprises several aldermanic candidates who last Sunday unveiled a platform to combat what they described as a “machine”-dominated city government.
TBNH targets the labor-backed supermajority on the Board of Aldermen who came to power in 2012. Democrats affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE union locals took control of the Democratic Town Committee shortly thereafter.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
On Friday, attorney Mike Stratton (pictured), a founding TBNH aldermanic candidate in Ward 19 (which includes portions of East Rock and Newhallville), quit the organization. In a press release, he blasted two TBNH founders for signing on to work with state Sen. Toni Harp’s mayoral campaign. The Harp campaign is backed by Yale unions, the very “machine” that Stratton said TBNH was formed to work against. Stratton had a featured speaking spot at TBNH’s founding event Sunday. He said UNITE HERE’s top brass “has abused their leadership” while not doing “anything of value for this city. … We’re here to take back New Haven. Not so another group can control New Haven.”
Downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen, who heads up the TBNH coalition, said Friday that the group has never been about the mayor’s race, but is focused only on aldermanic races. He pointed out that one of the TBNH candidates has already openly endorsed Harp for mayor. He called Stratton’s departure a “blip” in TBNH’s growth.
In addition to Hausladen, TBNH includes Dwight aldermanic candidate Greg Smith, Wooster Square aldermanic candidate Peter Webster, East Rock aldermanic candidate Anna Festa, and Bella Vista aldermanic candidate Patricia DePalma.
In his press release, Stratton stated that he initially joined TBNH at Hausladen’s urging, who had formed the group with Hausladen’s “campaign managers and friends Chris Campbell and Michael Harris,” who were also then working for the mayoral campaign of state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield.
“This posed no conflict as they all believed in the democracy fund and transparency in campaign financing, and also vowed not to use TBNH to further the Elicker or Holder-Winfield campaigns,” Stratton said.
Then Holder-Winfield dropped out of the race and “the Harp campaign, financed and staffed by UNITE HERE representatives, hired both Campbell and Harris,” Stratton said. “This was a masterful move on the part of UNITE HERE and Harp. The purchased the core of TBNH.
“More disheartening was that Campbell and Harris did not disclose their hiring by Harp/UNITE HERE to me. In fact, their joint company, DHRU, continues still to advise TBNH and recommend candidates to TBNH.”
Stratton said he was “outraged” when he learned about the hiring on Wednesday.
“This is an object lesson for a political newcomer like myself,” he said. “I do not want to continue to be affiliated with a group now so closely aligned with the very machine I was trying to fight against. The very point of TBNH was to break UNITE HERE’s supermajority control of the BOA.”
Far from being the “core of TBNH,” Campbell said, he never formally worked for the organization. He said he and Harris (a Yale student) “did help bring a couple of candidates in” and assisted with planning, Campbell said.
Campbell said he hasn’t done any work for TBNH since Holder-Winfield dropped out of the mayor’s race the Wednesday before, four days before TBNH’s public debut. He said he and Harris have signed on as volunteers for the Harp campaign.
“There is no dynamic that changed Wednesday to Sunday that wasn’t in effect from Sunday to now,” Campbell said. “If he had second thoughts, he shouldn’t have come out on Sunday.”
Campbell said he would see no conflict even if he were to work for both the Harp campaign and TBNH. “Absolutely not. They’re two completely different fields.”
TBNH was never about opposed to Harp, Campbell said. “[TBNH-backed candidate] Greg Smith has openly endorsed Toni Harp. There are Toni Harp endorsers on their slate.”
TBNH is focused on aldermanic campaigns, not the mayor’s race, he said. Besides, it doesn’t make sense to take on Harp, he said. “You can’t win in this city running against Toni Harp, even in aldermanic races. That would be foolish.”
Hausladen said it “saddens” him that Stratton has left TBNH” “Take Back New Haven has this blip in our growth, but every coalition grows with growing pains.”
Hausladen said Campbell and Harris are no longer working for his campaign and are no longer involved with TBNH.
Hausladen also said TBNH is focused exclusively on aldermanic races. “This is not about city clerk. This is not about the mayor of New Haven. This is about people in neighborhoods.”
Webster, the TBNH candidate for alderman in Wooster Square, shrugged off the news of Stratton’s departure. He said it doesn’t bother him that Campbell and Harris have joined the Harp campaign.
“That doesn’t concern me. Mr. Stratton can do what he wants,” he said. “And the fact that people work for different organizations doesn’t mean that they can’t have full focus on what they’re doing.”
Webster said TBNH is not against organized labor. “Some people have said it’s anti-union. I don’t get that. I have been a union member since 1970.” He said he’s a member of Actors’ Equity.
Meanwhile, Harp campaign manager Jason Bartlett had this to say about the imbroglio: “That’s the power of the Harp campaign. We’re pulling people together.”