Maritza Bond is preparing to ramp up her campaign staff and go full blast on media platforms now with an expected $400,000 cash infusion for her quest to become secretary of the state.
Bond announced that her campaign has crossed the $86,600 threshold of contributions of between $5 and $290 to qualify to participate in the Citizens Election Program (CEP), which provides grants to candidates for statewide office.
The program is designed to enable candidates who demonstrate sufficient popular support (through the minimum-contribution threshold) to address issues and meet voters without worrying about raising more money.
Bond said that is what she now plans to do, assuming the program approves her application for the $400,000 available to qualifying secretary of the state primary candidates. Bond faces party-endorsed candidate and current State Rep. Stephanie Thomas of Norwalk in an Aug. 9 Democratic primary for the position, the state’s top elections official who also oversees the commercial registry. Incumbent Denise Merrill is retiring.
Thomas has not yet announced whether her campaign has met the threshold. (Her campaign did not return requests for comment for this article.) She has not submitted an application to the CEP.
Two Republican candidates for the position have announced meeting the threshold to qualify. The CEP has already approved a grant for Dominic Rapini, and is scheduled to decide at a meeting Wednesday on Brock Weber’s. Rapini and Weber are facing each other in a GOP secretary of the state primary.
In an interview Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program, Bond said she’s thrilled to have raised the money to qualify for the program. This gives her a chance to “spread our message,” she said. “I have a lot of grassroots supporters who are not typically engaged in the process.”
Bond, New Haven government’s health director, said that message centers on how she believes her background managing government agencies — especially her helping to organize safe elections and help small businesses reopen during the Covid-19 pandemic — positions her to serve as secretary of the state.
The position, nationwide, has gained prominence since controversies over the 2020 election, currently the subject of Congressional hearings into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“More than ever we need to protect our democracy,” Bond said. “We have a threat. It’s a real threat. We can’t have a passive leader.”
If elected, she promised to create a task force of local registrars of voters and city clerks to help guide the state toward an anticipated move toward early elections and no-excuse absentee balloting (aka mail-in voting), currently the subjects of pending state constitutional amendments.
She also defended Merrill’s creation of a position to battle campaign misinformation in real time (called an “election information security analyst”). Some Republicans have criticized the unit as a potential partisan propaganda unit. (Read more about that here.)
“It would be great if they would make up their mind,” Bond said of the crisis. “They say elections are being ‘stolen’ ” and government needs to address allegations of fraud. “Here is a solution. This is an opportunity for us to be transparent.”
Click on the video at the top of the story to watch the full interview with Maritza Bond on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” including discussion of the mechanics of her campaign and how she raised $86,600 amid the pandemic.