Artie Guides Bysiewicz To New Heights

If you’re a candidate door-knocking on a particular street in Fair Haven Heights with someone named Natalino whose family has been there for 60 years … and if at least four houses on said street have Natalinos still in them and another half dozen get their driveways plowed by a Natalino during heavy snowstorms when the city is slow arriving … well, you’re fairly guaranteed a warm reception.

Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz scored that reception Monday afternoon, eight days before the Nov. 6 general election.

She also got permission to put up five lawn signs on quiet, vote-rich Summit Street as she spent an hour canvassing for the crucial New Haven vote with longtime Ward 13 Democratic Co-Chair Artie Natalino.

The aim, Natalino said, was to hit about 30 of the approximately 70 houses along the full length of Summit, at the top of Fair Haven Heights, in its full stretch from Quarry Park Preserve to Clifton Street.

Bysiewicz’s afternoon with Natalino showed the importance of finding the right homegrown guide to do ​“retail” campaigning. That campaigning is especially important in New Haven for the Ned Lamont-Susan Bysiewicz ticket: Democrats have generally needed to run up an 17,000 to 18,000-vote margin in the city to win statewide elections.

Natalino, it turned out, was the local campaign guide from retail heaven.

Natalino’s father Michael owned a lot of the land on what is now Summit Street. Particularly at the southern side, near the dead-end abutting Quarry Park Preserve, where the Natalino houses are clustered.

“This is a nice neighborhood,” Bysiewicz said as she and the Lamont/Bysiewicz campaign Latino outreach director and Hill Alder David Reyes prepared flyers and other campaign swag. ​“I’m ready to live here.” (Reyes was pinch-hitting for Ward 13 Alder Rose Santana, who had to be at work.)

“I began passing out cards for Dick Lee,” Natalino said of the late mayor who served from 1954 through 1970.

Then off they went, with Natalino offering a profile of each house as Bysiewicz approached.

Even before the candidate knocked on her first door, down the quiet single-home, tree-line street, a white Cadillac Escalade cruised to a stop.

Who was in it? A Natalino, of course. Sara Natalino Amato to be exact.

She chatted with the candidate. Bysiewicz hardly had to present any arguments or talking points because she was talking to a Natalino, Amato pledged the support Bysiewicz sought, and agreed to that first lawn sign.

Only one side of Summit is sidewalked, a very local issue that came up more that state campaign issues later in the tour. Hardly had Bysiewicz stepped onto that sidewalk than a woman who came out and hailed Artie. She of course was another Natalino, sister-in-law Marilou. In seconds another lawn sign was agreed to, along with a vote pledged.

Bysiewicz said she has door-knocked in other New Haven neighborhoods, citing Morris Cove and Westville. She also did a business tour along Grand Avenue. On Summit Street Monday, Bysiewicz hardly broke a sweat, as the sun emerged from behind rain clouds. The refreshing winds, for which Fair Haven Heights is known, made the whole scene feel optimistic.

A third of the way down the first block, cupcakes were baking in the kitchen of Dale Jones, a 20-year resident of the neighborhood. He invited the entourage in. (Alas, the cupcakes were not done and couldn’t be offered.) Bysiewicz made her pitch, emphasizing support for education and increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Jones listened patiently, took a flyer from the candidate, then pivoted to Natalino. He reminded Natalino that the street still has only one sidewalk. At another pothole‑y problem area, in the street itself, Jones complained: ​“They only put on a bandaid. We need the whole thing covered.”

“I’ll work on it,” Natalino promised. Reyes made a note.

In case you need some help beyond Artie and David, Bysiewicz said, ​“I’ll write my cell on my card,” and she handed it to Jones.

Across the street, Tilden Lyons was also friendly. ​“Your support is very important to us,” Bysiewicz said and asked him which issues concern him most.

With a two-and-half-year-old grandchild, Lyons ticked off education and then taxes.

Bysiewicz said she and Lamont are supporting property tax relief for seniors earning $130,000 or less. ​“We are committed to education, especially early childcare,” she added.

He said she can count on his vote and gave the nod to a lawn sign.

Zig-zagging across the street, Bysiewicz encountered Briana McLean (pictured), who was not as definitive. They chatted briefly. McLean listened sympathetically to Bysiewicz plead for her vote before the candidate, at Natalino’s urging, dashed off to chat with another resident in a nearby doorway.

McLean said she is inclined, by the traditions of the family she grew up in, to vote Democrat, but, ​“I’m not sure.” She added that among the issues topmost in her mind is college debt, although she and Bysiewicz had not discussed that.

The next stop was the home of Mark Pietrosimone, whom Natalino quickly profiled for Bysiewicz — New Haven’s comptroller from 1999 until his retirement in 2011.

Pietrosimone wore a Boston Red Sox sweatshirt to mark the World Series victory the previous night. He received a brief, grudging congratulations from Natalino, a Yankee fan.

He was enjoying the company of his 10-year-old granddaughter Shea Hellyar, so that led not to financial talk but to kid talk. Pietrosimone reminded the candidate that when she was secretary of state, her office ran an essay contest. Pietrosimone’s daughter, about the age of Shea now, won in one of the categories with an essay expressing pride about New Haven’s pizza.

Bysiewicz asked what has become of her essay contest winner; the former controller said she is now a veterinary tech, taking care of animals. Pietrosimone said the candidate has his vote, along with those of his wife and daughters, all in his capacious house. Neither candidate nor voter talked about the financial condition of the state or the city, which Pietrosimone, from his retired perch, described, with a shrug of the shoulders as ​“pay as you go.”

Rain clouds were gathering when Bysiewicz went up the stoop of Sean Young, one of several new arrivals on the block whom Natalino has not yet gotten to know (but he will).

“Welcome to the neighborhood,” Natalino called out to him. He then deferred to Bysiewicz to make her pitch to the young man.

This time she enumerated the campaign’s commitment to job creation, raising the minimum wage, and paid family leave.

Young turned out to be passionate about the latter issue.

“It’s ridiculous for someone to live with the risk of losing a job if they have a baby. It’s just absurd. Nobody should have to be in that situation,” he said, and he was pleased that Bysiewicz had highlighted that to him. He agreed to putting up the ticket’s lawn signs.

Reyes said he is charge of getting those up later in the day. Natalino, meanwhile, said he will devote the week running up the selection kicking on more doors. ​“People don’t like the phone” in this neighborhood, he said, meaning they don’t want to be called at 6:30 at night. Instead, retailing politicking, in person,will be his job, including arranging rides to the polls.

With the rain starting up, Bysiewicz thanked Natalino and was off to campaign in Clinton, where she was also scheduled to get a flu shot. She made sure to tell a reporter that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont’s opponent Republican Bob Stefanowski is on the record as expressing skepticism about that issue. ​“Mr. Stefanowski doesn’t believe in it, in vaccination,” she said.

Despite the depth of Democratic history on his street and in the area and in the city, Natalino ended the hour’s canvassing on a note of caution: It would be a mistake to be over-confident, he said. People, he added, are really upset about taxes.