Politics

Ballot-Access Case Puts Purcell To The Test

by | Aug 28, 2023 12:13 pm | Comments (8)

Thomas Breen file photo

City attorney Rod Williams and city-hired attorney Proloy Das: "Trying to change the ballots now would result in voter disenfranchisement."

What would be a greater affront to the public trust: the court’s intervention in an election already underway, or its adoption of a pernicious” judicial doctrine allegedly geared towards voter suppression?

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2 Franks Reconnect On Campaign Trail

by | Aug 25, 2023 11:28 am | Comments (9)

Thomas Breen photo

Frank Ayala and Frank Redente, catching up in Lombard St.'s TBLR.

Frank Redente, Jr. walked into ThinkBrokeLookRich on Lombard Street and, amid the store’s custom-designed hats and shirts and other apparel, immediately recognized someone he knew: another Frank, last name Ayala, who lives around the corner — and who Redente used to coach on the New Haven Legion youth baseball team.

I love what you’re doing here,” Redente said to Ayala and his clothing-store business partner, and cousin and fellow Fair Haven native, Justin Compres. We need more of this in the community. Life!”

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Ballot-Access Lawsuit Lands In Court

by | Aug 23, 2023 5:46 pm | Comments (15)

Thomas Breen photo

City lawyer Rod Williams and defense attorney Proloy Kumar Das: "The court has no jurisdiction to act in the middle of an election."

Thomas Breen file photo

Shafiq Abdussabur: "The people have the jurisdiction."

Voters have begun casting their absentee ballots in September’s Democratic primary for mayor — and a state court shouldn’t intervene in an election already underway.

So argued the lawyer representing New Haven’s registrar of voters, as he urged a state judge to throw out a ballot-access lawsuit filed by mayoral challenger Shafiq Abdussabur.

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Alder Santiago Steps Up To The Reelection Plate

by | Aug 23, 2023 11:28 am | Comments (27)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Alder Santiago (right), with Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez: Keep me in, coach!

A new dugout at Clinton Avenue park, fairer playing fields across the city, and municipal teamwork.

That was the pitch Fair Haven Alder and softball enthusiast Ernie Santiago practiced on fans Tuesday night during a fundraiser for the incumbent’s run to remain the neighborhood’s local legislative representative.

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6 Alder Primaries On Tap; Zola, Christmas Petitions Rejected

by | Aug 18, 2023 4:20 pm | Comments (6)

Zola, on Court Street with her dog Teddy: "It seems like they made it almost impossible to get onto the ballot."

Seven petitioning alder candidates in six different wards have qualified to make it onto September’s Democratic primary election ballot, while two — Dixwell’s Fred Christmas and Wooster Square’s Andrea Zola — didn’t make the cut.

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Bassett Street Speeding Bumps Into Alder Race

by | Aug 18, 2023 4:14 pm | Comments (0)

Laura Glesby photo

Kimbrough's supporters include her grandson Warren Kimbrough, local business owner Jesse Crespo (of ADT Auto-Body), her niece Sonya Scott-Campbell, Hamdenite Sonia Powell, and Newhallville resident Brother Born.

I want a stop sign right there by that school,” said Lossie Gorham. And a speed bump.” She pointed at Lincoln-Bassett Community School, which stands across the street from where she’s lived for two decades.

Addie Kimbrough, the alder candidate who had knocked on Gorham’s door, nodded and repeated a refrain she’s often voiced on the campaign trail: Newhallville is being neglected.”

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Abdussabur Sues For Primary Ballot Access

by | Aug 18, 2023 2:09 pm | Comments (50)

Thomas Breen file photo

Abdussabur: "The extraordinary rejection rate for the candidates of color raises a 'red flag' as to whether uniform standards were applied to all petitioners."

Mayoral challenger Shafiq Abdussabur has filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to get his name on the Sept. 12 Democratic primary ballot — claiming that he did in fact gather enough petition signatures to qualify, contrary to the findings of the city’s registrar of voters.

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Elicker, Walker-Myers Embrace Unexpected Alliance

by | Aug 18, 2023 11:46 am | Comments (15)

Thomas Breen photo

Prez Walker-Myers, with Mayor Elicker: "You probably never thought I'd be here doing this ... But today is your day."

Mayor Justin Elicker and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers traded words of praise — and even a hug — as the two city leaders stood side by side, to their own surprise, and encouraged local labor advocates to help keep the same team” in office for the next two years.

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Brennan: New Haven Needs To "Zone Up"

by | Aug 17, 2023 2:20 pm | Comments (21)

Thomas Breen photos

Liam Brennan (right) with Keith and Yolanda Harper talking through ...

... fewer empty lots, more housing, on Starr Street.

Keith Harper can still remember the three-family house that stood a few doors down from his own family’s Starr Street home. It’s now a vacant city-owned lot. 

Mayoral challenger Liam Brennan visited Harper’s Newhallville block to make his pitch for why a house should be standing there again today — and what rules need to be changed to make that denser land-use vision a reality.

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Brennan Makes Ballot; Abdussabur, Goldenberg Come Up Short

by | Aug 16, 2023 5:19 pm | Comments (37)

Thomas Breen photos

Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans (right) drops off certified petitions with Deputy City/Town Clerk May Gardner.

Brennan, with campaign staffers Abdul Osmanu and Michael Morris, after clinching primary ballot access.

Liam Brennan became the only mayoral challenger to make his way onto September’s Democratic primary ballot Wednesday — after the registrar of voters office certified his campaign’s petition, and rejected dozens of pages of signatures submitted by fellow mayoral hopefuls Shafiq Abdussabur and Tom Goldenberg.

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DeLauro Endorses Elicker

by | Aug 15, 2023 2:09 pm | Comments (5)

Paul Bass file photo

DeLauro (center) endorsing Elicker in 2021.

New Haven’s longtime congresswoman has thrown her support behind Mayor Justin Elicker in his bid for a third two-year term in local office, citing city government’s budget surpluses and investments in our most vulnerable communities” during his tenure as reasons for her endorsement.

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Ward Maps Changed; Voters Shuffled; Election Impact Unclear

by | Aug 11, 2023 12:52 pm | Comments (13)

George Crawford Manor was previously in Ward 7 (left) and is now in Ward 3 (right); September polling place unclear.

When alders sat down for their August full board meeting on Monday night, Downtown Alder Eli Sabin represented the residents of the Dwight public housing complex George Crawford Manor.

By the time the alders rose from their seats at the meeting’s close less than an hour later, those hundred-plus George Crawford Manor tenants had a new representative: Hill Alder Ron Hurt.

That sudden change has left the secretary of the state’s office stumped so far as to whether or not new ward maps can legally apply when voters cast their ballots in September’s primary.

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Mayoral Challengers Submit Petitions On Time

by | Aug 9, 2023 5:46 pm | Comments (15)

Thomas Breen photos

Mayoral challenger petition drop off day: Shafiq Abdussabur and campaign manager Gage Frank ...

Thomas Breen Photo

... Liam Brennan (center) and campaign staffer Abdul Osmanu ...

... and Tom Goldenberg and campaign staffer Jayuan Carter, all paying their respective visits to Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans.

All three mayoral challengers seeking to unseat incumbent Justin Elicker in September’s Democratic primary got their petition paperwork in before Wednesday’s 4 p.m. deadline — leaving it up to the registrar’s office to comb through hundreds of pages containing thousands of signatures to determine which candidates’ names will make it onto the ballot.

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Trowbridge Campaign Talk: Homelessness, & Homelessness

by | Aug 9, 2023 12:53 pm | Comments (18)

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker speaking to a voter through a Ring camera intercom in the Hill.

Marisol Pagan and Jose Lugo stood on the sidewalk beside Trowbridge Square’s wrought iron fence as they urged Mayor Justin Elicker to do something about the marked increase in homeless people staying, and publicly urinating, in the Hill public park.

On the other side of that fence, Greg Abraham took a break from sipping on a can of paper bag-held beer to pace out for the mayor just how small his last apartment was — and to explain how he couldn’t afford the room’s rising rent, and is now spending his nights at a Grand Avenue shelter.

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Elicker: Mayor & Alders Should Serve 4-Year Terms

by | Aug 9, 2023 11:28 am | Comments (27)

Thomas Breen photo

Mayor Elicker knocking doors, and shaking hands, with Hill Alders Kampton Singh, Ron Hurt, and Carmen Rodriguez.

Two-year terms result in too many elections — which push municipal leaders too frequently from governance to campaigning, and create fatigue” among voters.

So argued Mayor Justin Elicker as he articulated his support for a newly finalized ballot question that, if approved in November, would bump up mayor and alder terms in office from two to four years each.

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Shoppers Stop & Sign Brennan's Petition

by | Aug 7, 2023 8:28 am | Comments (16)

Thomas Breen photo

Valerie Morrison, pasta salad ingredients in tow, signs Brennan's mayoral petition.

The high costs of housing — as close as downtown and as far as Austin, Tex. — were at the top of mind for Stop & Shoppers, as mayoral challenger and pro-development-zoning-reformer Liam Brennan brought his primary ballot petition to the Whalley Avenue grocery store.

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Challenger Finds Yale Quandary At Dixwell Doors

by | Aug 3, 2023 3:06 pm | Comments (38)

Thomas Breen photo

Anthony Geritano, Jr. and Hari Venu: "I wish you and I had met a few years ago."

Dixwell alder-hopeful Anthony Geritano, Jr. didn’t get Hari Venu to sign his petition to appear on the Democratic primary ballot this September.

But the recent Yale graduate with papers in hand did get a crash course from the recent Yale PhD who answered the door on just how persistent the town-gown divide remains — and got the chance to make his own pitch on what to do about it.

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Primary Petition Papers Start Coming In

by | Aug 2, 2023 2:01 pm | Comments (10)

Contributed photo

Shafiq Abdussabur dropping off Democratic primary petition signatures at the registrar's office Wednesday.

Fair Haven Democrats will get to pick between two different candidates for Ward 15 alder this September, now that incumbent Ernie Santiago and challenger Frankie Redente have both successfully petitioned their ways onto the primary ballot.

And two of the three Democratic mayoral hopefuls seeking to unseat party-endorsed incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker have begun submitting signatures to the Registrar of Voters office in their own respective bids to give primary voters a choice.

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Petitioning Brennan Hears Pride Center Pitch

by | Jul 28, 2023 3:28 pm | Comments (10)

Laura Glesby photo

Liam Brennan and Juancarlos Soto in the Pride Center.

A ballot petition in hand, Liam Brennan waited for the buzzer outside 84 Orange St., walked through the lobby of an architecture firm, and descended the elevator to the basement home of the New Haven Pride Center.

He emerged three hours later one signature closer to his goal of getting onto September’s Democratic mayoral primary ballot — and a clearer picture of the community center’s efforts to move above ground at a time marked by rampant transphobic legislation across the country.

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Harp Endorses Abdussabur, Kicks Off Petition

by | Jul 26, 2023 4:17 pm | Comments (23)

Laura Glesby Photo

Harp (right) signs Abdussabur's mayoral primary petition.

Former Mayor Toni Harp was the first to sign mayoral hopeful Shafiq Abdussabur’s petition to get on the Democratic primary ballot, the day after the city’s Democratic Party officially endorsed the now-incumbent who ended her tenure in the city’s top elected office nearly four years ago.

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Republicans Endorse Goldenberg For Mayor

by | Jul 26, 2023 12:49 pm | Comments (34)

Thomas Breen photo

Tom Goldenberg, with Dave Agosta: "I believe that there is enough that holds together and that we share in common than what separates us."

Democratic mayoral challenger Tom Goldenberg will be listed on the Republican Party line on November’s general election ballot, now that he has accepted the local GOP’s endorsement for the city’s top elected office.

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Ed Board Challenger Wins Dem Endorsement

by | Jul 26, 2023 12:06 pm | Comments (5)

Laura Glesby photo

Andrea Downer with fellow Ward 27 co-chair Judy Sparer on Tuesday night.

Andrea Downer won the local Democratic Party’s endorsement in her challenger bid to serve on the city’s Board of Education, as two-term incumbent Darnell Goldson opted not to be nominated at the convention — and now must petition his way onto the primary ballot. 

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