3 Dems Eye Party Chair’s Seat

As city Democrats prepare to elect a new party leader in March, three people considering the job promise to make the Democratic Town Committee more than just another arm of the mayor’s reelection campaign.

In interviews last week, three Democrats said they’re considering running for DTC chair: former Alderman Vinnie Mauro, special counsel to the state Senate and the son of former DTC chair Vinnie Mauro, Sr.; former Alderwoman Esther Armmand; and Hill Alderwoman Jackie James. The chair is elected by members of the DTC in March, after those DTC members are elected in March primaries.

The current chairwoman, Susie Voigt, is believed to be stepping down at the end of her two-year term in March. Voigt is close to Mayor John DeStefano, whose aldermanic allies were roundly defeated by a labor-backed coalition in November’s election.

Reached last week, Voigt said ​“the decision is still ahead of us” on whether she’ll run again.

Though Voigt hasn’t officially announced her departure, conversations are already under way on who will replace her.

Armmand said she’s definitely running. Mauro and James said they’re considering running. (Wooster Square Alderman Mike Smart, who was rumored to be interested in the seat, said last week he decided not to run.)

If elected, all three vowed to make the Democratic Town Committee a more transparent body — and one that operates more independently from DeStefano.

“You can’t have a town committee that is totally focused on one entity,” said Mauro. ​“It can’t just serve 165 Church St.,” a.k.a. City Hall. ​“It’s got to serve the party as a whole.”

“I see this as a partnership” between the party and the mayor, said Armmand. ​“I definitely don’t see it as a dictatorship.” Just as a party chair wouldn’t dare try to run the city, ​“it doesn’t make sense for the mayor to say he’s going to run the chair of the party,” she said.

“I think the party should be more independent from John DeStefano — of course,” said James.

James, who’s entering her fifth term as alderwoman, declined an invitation for a full interview, calling it premature at this time. She acknowledged that she already has been discussing her candidacy with fellow Democrats.

“I am considering to run,” she said, ​“and I am going out there and talking to folks about myself.”

Transparency

All three town chair candidates said the party needs more transparency, particularly in the process of how people get onto ward committees, the tentacles of the DTC that stretch out into the 30 wards. Those committees are key in endorsing aldermen in party primaries, yet for years, newcomers have been thwarted from finding out where meetings are and who’s on the committees, and from grabbing a seat when a vacancy opens.

In recent elections, ​“I saw firsthand how the Democratic Party had broken down; endorsement processes were not transparent and people were not encouraged to get active,” James wrote in an email.

“Going forward, we want this to be the most inclusive party and process there has ever been in the city,” she later added.

Mauro said a new party leader needs to establish ​“a new set of bylaws that is more inclusive than it has been.”

“It’s important for us to rebuild the Democratic Party in New Haven so that people feel included,” agreed Armmand.

The former alderwoman said she came to that conclusion from personal experience. Born in Mississippi 66 years ago, she said she recalls a time before the Voting Rights Act, when her parents could not vote. She moved to New Haven in 1975. In 1991, she decided she’d like to get involved in the ward committee in Ward 7. She was told ​“there were no spots.”

Armmand said she did some research and learned that half of the ward committee was indeed open. To get on the committee, you have to be appointed by one of the two co-chairs. Armmand asked then-party chair Arthur Barbieri what to do. He told her she just needed a co-chair to support her. When none would, she announced she would run for co-chair herself. Then, irate over her exclusion from the process, she changed her mind and decided to run for alderwoman instead.

Armmand won the election and served on the aldermanic board from 1992 to 2001.

A Splintered Party

As a party leader, Armmand said she would do her best to bring together disparate groups, as she did as alderwoman. She said at the time she served, her ward spanned from Trumbull to Howard, and Dwight to Olive — a diverse swath of the town.

After a primary election where a labor-backed coalition beat a City Hall-backed faction in 14 of 15 contested races, then prevailed again in the general election, the party remains divided.

Armmand said the situation calls for ​“a special kind of leadership — one that is committed, inclusive and brings a sense of fairness and integrity,” and listens to all voices.

Armmand worked briefly for mayoral challenger Clifton Graves last year, but she said she has worked for DeStefano’s reelection campaigns over the years as well.

Mauro, who has worked against DeStefano in the past, said he’s still removed enough from local battles to be able to bridge the gap between factions.

A lawyer by trade, Mauro has spent the last decade as special counsel to Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney. Mauro helped out on all of Looney’s campaigns, including when Looney famously gave DeStefano his toughest primary battle in 2001.

Mauro also served as alderman from 2000 to 2004 in Wooster Square’s Ward 8. On the board, he described himself as ​“one of John’s biggest pains in the ass.”

Yet as DeStefano faced spirited challenges from three contenders last year, and even more vigorous opposition to his allies on the Board of Aldermen, Mauro stayed out of the fray.

“I don’t have a dog in either fight, to be honest with you,” he said.

Armmand said she doesn’t see herself getting involved in the ward co-chair races in March, except on a ward-by-ward level.

James, an outspoken critic of the mayor, has allied herself with the labor-backed coalition that overthrew DeStefano’s allies. She is now president pro tempore, second-in-command on the new board.

A Legacy

If Mauro is chosen as the party leader, he’d be following in the footsteps of his father — a man he hardly had time to get to know.

Vinnie Mauro, Sr. served as party chair from March of 1981 until December 1987, when he died tragically in a car accident at the age of 47, ten days before Christmas. Young Vinnie was in 8th grade at the time.

While his dad was alive, he immersed his children in party politics.

“I grew up literally in Democratic headquarters my whole life,” Mauro said. Older Dems would take turns babysitting him and his sister.

“I remember stuffing a lot of envelopes” for campaigns. ​“Hundreds and thousands of envelopes.”

Mauro said getting involved in politics was really about getting involved in the city. His dad served as alderman around the Hill’s Legion Avenue, where Mauro was born. ​“My dad had a lot of good friends who always were talking to me about politics. They all had this core interest in the city.”

After his dad passed away, Mauro continued to stay involved with the party. ​“I caught rides to town committee meetings before I had a driver’s license.”

Now 38 years old, Mauro lives on the East Shore. He has never left New Haven or missed an election year.

Armmand, who’s 66, has known Mauro since he was a kindergartener in the same class as her son. A Fair Haven Heights resident, she spent her career in substance abuse services. Though she has also served on the Board of Aldermen, and has been involved in Democratic elections for decades, Armmand has never sat on the Democratic Town Committee and said she still feels like an outsider.

“I’m not part of an insider group,” she said.

DTC ​“Docile”

Both Armmand and Mauro said engaging more voters is a top priority for the party.

“The party as a whole is fairly weak,” observed Armmand. Voter turnout for the last election was 24 percent.

“That tells us how we’ve been connecting to community,” she said. ​“The mayor has done a decent job of building community structures” — such as brand new schools around town — ​“but a lousy job of building people structures.”

The last election was ​“phenomenal, wonderful” in terms of spreading enthusiasm for democracy, Armmand said. ​“But the party didn’t take a leadership role — or even a supportive role in that.”

Armmand said the DTC needs to be ​“more independent than it is now.” Right now, she said, ​“It just sits there. It’s docile. They show up and endorse people and that’s it.”

Her goal is to boost voter turnout to 50 percent in every ward.

Mauro said he’d take a ​“policy-driven approach” to boosting turnout.

“New Haven’s core Democratic voters are intelligent, progressive people,” he observed. ​“New Haven voters vote on policy. That’s what gets them to the polls. It’s a well-read and intelligent electoral base.”

Policies — such as the DREAM Act granting in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants, and the state-level Earned Income Tax Credit, which gives money to the working poor — are at the heart of what motivates people to vote, he said.

As a town chair, ​“you’ve got to motivate people on policy” to ​“give them a real reason to vote for that candidate.”

He said the job of town chair is a powerful one, as the leader of the largest Democratic organization in the state. New Haven delivered Dan Malloy a voting margin of 18,613 over his opponent — enough to secure his victory, noted Mauro, who was part of a grassroots group of people who worked hard for Malloy’s election.

“You can’t have a victory in a contested race without New Haven. That’s where New Haven really gets its credit, its strength.”

After the bitter fight last election, Mauro said, the party needs to build up that strength.

“We can always disagree,” he said. The important thing is ​“what face are we putting forward to the rest of the state” and — with state and federal elections coming up this year — ​“how do we want to perform?”

Ward Races Brew

James and Mauro called it too early to make a decision about whether they’ll run: The town chair is elected by 60 ward co-chairs, two from each of the city’s 30 wards, who form the Democratic Town Committee. It’s not clear yet who those ward co-chairs will be because it’s an elected position.

If more than two people want to be co-chair in a given ward, they have to face off in a party primary on March 6.

Voigt said typically half of the city’s 30 wards have contested elections in March. On the heels of a vigorous campaign season that saw an insurgence of new candidates put into office, there could be even more races this year.

The field will shape up later this month, when candidates start filing paperwork to run for co-chairs. Candidates can take out petitions starting Jan. 18. They have two weeks to collect signatures from 5 percent of registered Democrats in their ward. Petitions are due back to the city clerk’s office on Feb. 4 at 4 p.m., according to Voigt.

Within 30 days after the March 6 primary, at a date yet to be set, the new Democratic Town Committee will meet to elect a new leader.

James and Mauro said they want to have conversations with the new committee members before determining if they’ll run.

“There have been so many new faces with new energy this year that I would like the Town Chair race to develop in the same way,” James wrote in an email. ​“I was deeply involved in building grassroots activism at the ward level around the city through last years elections and I think that has to continue.”

Audrey Tyson (pictured), party co-chair in Ward 29 and a supporter of Mayor DeStefano, is one person who has talked to James about her candidacy. Tyson alleged that James called her and warned her that because she has supported the mayor in the past, ​“the union is going to be out there big time” if she seeks reelection for Ward 29 co-chair. Tyson, who said she felt ​“humiliated” and ​“bullied,” has decided not to run again for her seat because of the threat of a union-backed challenger running against her in March.

James replied Friday that she made no such threat and has not been involved in Ward 29. ​“What I said to her was run — you have a right to run. It’s a democracy. Anybody can run,” James said. ​“She just wants someone to say ​‘OK, you can have’” the seat.

James said she won’t be endorsing a slate of candidates for the DTC. ​“I’m not going to coerce or influence the process at all.”