by | Jul 24, 2023 4:27 pm | Comments (9)
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Andrea Downer at Friday's joint ward committee meeting.
Andrea Downer took another step towards securing the local Democratic Party’s endorsement in her bid to unseat incumbent elected Board of Education rep Darnell Goldson, after winning the support of two Democratic ward committees in East Rock, and tying on the third.
by | Jul 24, 2023 1:23 pm | Comments (5)
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State Senate Prez Pro Tem Martin Looney.
Marty Looney found himself in a political conversation that summed up the challenge that he and his fellow progressives face at the state Capitol. It happened not in the halls of power, but at a Dunkin Donuts.
by | Jul 21, 2023 11:45 am | Comments (47)
Travelers react to latest Tweed flood.
Laura Glesby Photo
Elicker, Abdussabur offer different takeaways at Jepsen mayoral forum.
Days after a rainstorm flooded Tweed airport and left passengers temporarily stranded, mayoral candidates conveyed varying takes on the airport’s economic value and environmental impact to its neighbors.
Continue reading ‘Sunday Storm Sparks Thursday Tweed Debate’
by | Jul 21, 2023 10:38 am | Comments (7)
Team Dixwell-Newhallville: Alder candidates Jeanette Morrison, Troy Streater, and Brittiany Mabery-Niblack.
Three New Haven natives are running as a team for alder seats in Wards 20, 21, and 22 in Dixwell and Newhallville.
by | Jul 20, 2023 3:30 pm | Comments (1)
Incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker and Board of Education challenger Andrea Downer emerged victorious in the last round of ward-level endorsement votes, this time by Beaver Hills Democrats.
by | Jul 19, 2023 1:38 pm | Comments (17)
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Liam Brennan (left) and Abby Roth (right) outside the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op on Tuesday afternoon.
Former Downtown Alder Abby Roth, a former supporter of incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker, switched her allegiances for this year’s campaign and endorsed one of his challengers.
by | Jul 19, 2023 12:42 pm | Comments (11)
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Jeanette Sykes, center, to political hopefuls: "Sometimes you're gonna have to stand alone."
With gentrification and adult education on their minds, Newhallville Democrats endorsed a political newcomer for alder while casting their support with the incumbent mayor and splitting on a school board seat.
Continue reading ‘Newhallville Endorses Amid Talk Of Change’
by | Jul 18, 2023 3:41 pm | Comments (32)
Paul Bass photo
Alternative to arrests: COMPASS crew members Yichu Xu and Nanette Campbell help out Ollie Cooper at crisis team's launch last fall.
How should New Haven police respond to the use and sale of drugs?
New Haven’s mayoral candidates are putting forward a variety of answers to that question, propelling the issue of when (and whether) to arrest people into this year’s campaign.
by | Jul 18, 2023 11:54 am | Comments (5)
Mia Cortés Castro Photo
Downer makes her pitch Monday night.
A challenger to an incumbent Board of Education member won a ward committee endorsement Monday night in her quest to win the Democratic nomination.
Making bold strikes, Ward 19’s Democratic Town Committee placed their votes on challenger Andrea Downer, rather than on incumbent Darnell Goldson, for the Board of Education membership race.
Continue reading ‘Downer Wins Ward 19 Board of Ed Endorsement’
by | Jul 14, 2023 6:00 pm | Comments (40)
Thomas Breen Photo
LCI housing code inspections up for mayoral debate.
Tenant advocate, Fair Haven resident, and grandmother Camilla Crowell arrived at a housing-themed mayoral debate with an inkling that she might vote for Justin Elicker.
Two and a half hours later, she had learned something she liked about nearly every candidate. “I think I got more options now.”
Continue reading ‘Debate Q: How To Make Local Housing Livable?’
by | Jul 14, 2023 8:26 am | Comments (20)
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Aaron Goode (right) overseeing Thursday's RCV mayoral straw poll in Westville.
There was no need for an instant runoff in Thursday’s Westville ward committee straw poll for mayor, as two-term incumbent Justin Elicker won a majority of votes on the first ballot.
But, for the fun of it — and to practice running a ranked-choice-voting election — the neighborhood Democrats assembled in Edgewood School’s auditorium counted a second round of votes anyway, and shed a bit more light on this year’s mayoral race in the process.
Continue reading ‘Elicker Ranked First In Westville Straw Poll’
by | Jul 13, 2023 5:26 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen file photo
Goldenberg campaigning at a gun violence focus group in June.
Is financial backing from just 15 New Haveners — including his wife and a campaign employee — in the second quarter of a heated mayoral race enough to get Tom Goldenberg on the ballot, let alone into City Hall?
Continue reading ‘Goldenberg $ Report Shows 15 Local Donors’
by | Jul 13, 2023 12:16 pm | Comments (26)
Thomas Breen photo
Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola (right) won the ward committee's endorsement by just 2 votes ...
... as Mayor Justin Elicker prevailed by 15, on Wednesday.
Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola narrowly beat back a challenge from a Tweed airport expansion critic to win his neighborhood’s Democratic Party endorsement for reelection — as Mayor Justin Elicker coasted in a crowded field towards securing that same East Shore party-insider group’s support — in the first votes to take place this municipal election year.
by | Jul 11, 2023 11:49 am | Comments (26)
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Mayor Elicker (right) with Democratic challengers Brennan and Goldenberg.
Mayor Justin Elicker out-fundraised his Democratic primary rivals by between $14,000 and $38,000 in individual contributions this spring — and still has over $181,000 left in the bank — according to the latest mayoral race campaign finance filings.
by | Jul 10, 2023 4:49 pm | Comments (13)
Why’s the rent so damn high? And what on earth should the mayor do about it?
Those questions might be asked — maybe not in those exact words — at a mayoral candidate forum that the Room for All coalition will be hosting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Albertus Magnus College’s Hubert Campus Center at 831 Winchester Ave.
Continue reading ‘"Room For All" Mayoral Candidate Forum To Take Place Thursday’
by | Jul 10, 2023 1:35 pm | Comments (43)
Thomas Breen photo
Alder Cupo: "To know that there is a LGBTQ+-friendly affordable housing set of units [coming to] our city makes me believe that it is possible to win more."
Surrounded by elected officials and fellow Yale union organizers, Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo kicked off her reelection campaign by focusing on affordable housing initiatives the city has gained in the past few years — and the strip club her neighborhood pushed away.
Continue reading ‘Reelection Party Says Yes To Housing, No To Strip Clubs’
by | Jul 10, 2023 1:30 pm | Comments (37)
Laura Glesby photo
Attendees, Zola (center) squeeze for a group photo at campaign launch.
To find Andrea DiLieto Zola’s alder campaign party, all guests had to do was “follow the rose petals.”
Continue reading ‘Challenger Campaign Kicks Off With Cello, CBD Mocktails’
by | Jul 5, 2023 3:56 pm | Comments (31)
Thomas Breen photo
Abdussabur on Wednesday: Check out the stats.
A retired police sergeant-turned-mayoral candidate has a plan for beefing up the city’s walking beats: hiring back fellow retired cops to pound the pavement, without a gun or the power to arrest — and with a civilian “ambassador” by their side.
Continue reading ‘Abdussabur Eyes Retired Cops For Walking Beats’
by | Jul 3, 2023 12:08 pm | Comments (76)
Thomas Breen photo
Remidy Shareef: White supremacy "is the root cause of all of our problems here in America."
Call out exclusionary suburbs. Stand up for undocumented immigrants. Help boost Black small-business contractors. And always “speak truth to power.”
New Haven’s four Democratic candidates for mayor offered those responses when asked on the debate stage about what they have done and will do to combat systemic racial prejudices that benefit people who are white and harm those who are not.
by | Jun 30, 2023 3:01 pm | Comments (28)
Laura Glesby photos
Alders Tyisha Walker-Myers, Sarah Miller, and Kim Edwards hear public testimony...
...as Unidad Latina en Acción activists like Nayeli Garcia protest stringent meeting rules.
Alders dropped an effort to amend the city charter to allow non-citizens to serve on city boards and commissions at the advice of legal counsel — after 20 activists filled the local legislative chambers with chants of “no justice” and held up posters of local immigrants with blacked-out eyes and mouths.
Continue reading ‘Alders Block Non-Citizens From Boards For Now’
by | Jun 30, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (72)
Thomas Breen photo
Brennan, Goldenberg, and Mayor Elicker on the debate stage Thursday.
Abddusabur: "If we're not prioritizing taking care of our own community, how the hell are we going to have housing for somebody else that just got here?"
A hypothetical “bus of immigrants” rolled up to a Newhallville school auditorium Thursday night — revealing a divide among the city’s four Democratic mayoral candidates over just how much of a haven New Haven should be for new arrivals in need.
Continue reading ‘Immigrant "Bus" Pulls In To Mayoral Debate’
by | Jun 28, 2023 2:56 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photo
Justin Farmer and Liam Brennan on Edgewood Avenue Wednesday.
Justin Farmer traveled out of the town where he serves as an elected politician and into the city where he’s long labored as a police accountability and affordable housing organizer to back the New Haven mayoral campaign of progressive activist ally Liam Brennan.
by | Jun 27, 2023 3:17 pm | Comments (22)
Mia Cortés Castro Photo
Rallying for "Justice For Roya!" in West Haven.
Over two dozen New Haveners decamped to West Haven City Hall to celebrate the tragically short life of Roya Mohammadi — and to amp up pressure on police and public officials to take action around the sudden death of the 29-year-old Afghan immigrant and translator, whom advocates fear was a victim of domestic violence.
by | Jun 26, 2023 2:38 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Before he grabbed a mic Sunday, Shafiq Abdussabur grabbed a spray bottle.
by | Jun 26, 2023 2:08 pm | Comments (2)
Lisa Reisman photo
Ward 21 Alder Troy Streater with Madgalene Campbell and granddaughter Makayla on the campaign trail.
Maceo “Troy” Streater was on a mission.
To win his first full term in aldermanic office. And to gather enough support to rename a stretch of Thompson Street in Newhallville for a long-time former neighborhood English teacher.
Continue reading ‘At The Doors For Reelection, & A Renamed Corner’