Paul Bass Photo
Ward 1 candidates Eidelson, Eze.
Republicans called for more public financing for elections. Democrats didn’t.
That’s not usually how party affiliation has played out in national political discourse.
On a micro-level, those were the positions, by party affiliation, taken by candidates for alder in two New Haven wards, Morris Cove’s Ward 18 and Ward 1, which mostly covers Yale.
Voters will choose between Democratic and Republican candidates in those wards in Nov. 3’s general election. Only one other ward (11, in the Heights) has a Republican running for a seat on the Board of Alders, all of whose members are Democrats.
The question of whether New Haven’s “Democracy Fund” should extend voluntary public-financing to alder races arose during a wide-ranging discussion of campaign issues on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven.” The four candidates in those two wards — Ward 18’s Democratic incumbent Sal DeCola and Republican challenger Lisa Milone; and Ward 1’s Democratic incumbent Sarah Eidelson and Republican challenger Ugonna Eze — appeared in the studio for the program.
Traditional party ideology played little to no role in their discussion, including on the public financing question.
The question arose in response to Eze’s argument that the dominance of alders affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE unions limits dissent.
“I work as a courier at the law school,” said Eze, a senior philosophy major at Yale who grew up in New York. “I deliver the mail every day. I work alongside the dining hall staff at Yale. I think the unions have done a very very good job of producing a union contract. The only thing I’m concerned about is having a system that is dominated by one special-interest group. You don’t get” many different views that way.
He was asked if the solution is to limit the unions’ role or to encourage more kinds of people to run for office. The latter, he said — but “more needs to be done to enable people no matter what their background is or their affiliation to contribute to city politics.” That would include extending the city’s current public-financing system — the first in the state — from covering just mayoral elections to covering Board of Alders elections as well. Under the system, run by the Democracy Fund, a candidate qualifies for public dollars by raising enough small contributions from local voters and swearing off contributions from outside committees. The program’s goal is to enable more candidates to compete for public office and to limit the influence of special-interest donors.
That proposal was debated as part of a charter-referendum process two years ago, and has since resurfaced for debate. The majority of the alders ultimately voted against placing the idea on a referendum ballot, saying that they didn’t want to add to the cost of government and that alders don’t need much money to run for office. In Yale’s Ward 1, for instance, a Democratic primary candidate this year raised more money than any other candidate in town in September, and still lost handily (to Eidelson).
“In other wards money makes a very big difference. It controls your ability to take off for work and meet with constituents and pay for literature,” Eze argued in the WNHH interview.
Asked if he considers it unusual for a Republican to be arguing for campaign finance reform, he noted that GOP U.S. Sen. John McCain coauthored a signature reform law.
Republican Milone said she too would land on the side of expanding the Democracy Fund: “We probably need to have public financing for alders, but with a limited amount. I don’t think we need to go overboard. Alder is a smaller race.”
Democrat Eidleson said she likes the idea in theory, but not in practice.
“I feel very strongly about campaign finance reform, certainly at the national level,” she said. “I do not think corporations are people. I think the amount such a small number of people are going to have in the presidential race because of it is disgusting.
“Ideally I would like to expand public financing locally further. For me it comes down to a budget question, a question of priorities. Because alder races do not cost nearly as much to run, and don’t need to, certainly as races at the national level.”
“I’m with Sarah,” said fellow Democrat DeCola. “My campaign, because I’m so involved in the community and I outreach many people — I go to everybody’s house and respond back to emails — I get a lot of volunteerism. I get a lot of people calling for me on election day, driving. It’s going to be a strain on the budget if we start doing it.”
The candidates were more in agreement when asked during the program if they would support a Board of Education vote this December to extend Superintendent Garth Harries’ contract. They all said they’d need to look further into how he’s doing before deciding.
Ward 18 candidates DeCola, Milone.
DeCola, a retired postal carrier who grew up in New Haven, has served two two-year terms as Morris Cove’s alder. He has made his mark in part by pushing the city to plan more for climate change, especially future floods that could hit the Cove in expected superstorms. Click here for a story detailing his work on that and other issues.
Milone, a hairstylist and insurance agent who moved from Milford to the Cove 20 years ago, said she’s running to give voters a choice. New Haven hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1951; it has no Republican alders. Republicans will be on the ballot in only three of 30 alder races on Nov. 3.
“Everybody should have an opponent. We should all have an opportunity to make a choice,” said Milone, who serves as vice-chair of the neighborhood’s community management team.
In a September Democratic primary, which DeCola won, he and his opponent differed over a proposed expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport’s runaway from 4,600 to 6,400 feet. Neighbors have blasted the proposal in public meetings.
Interviewed after the radio program on Tuesday, Milone echoed DeCola’s position — that based on her conversations with people, the neighborhood is actually split on the question. She said she doesn’t stand for or against the proposal.
“I really believe the issue isn’t the runway being paved. I think it’s the issue that the city lied in 2009” when it signed an agreement with East Haven promising not to seek further expansion.
“That’s what prompted me to run for alder: People feel they were lied to,” Milone said, promising to promote communication between the ward and officials if elected.
A West Haven cop named Bob Proto (not the same guy who heads Yale’s UNITE HERE Local 35 and the Central Labor Council) ran against DeCola in the Democratic primary. He’s running again in November as an independent. Click here for a story giving his views; he appeared previously on “Dateline New Haven,” solo.
Eidelson, who remained living in the ward (78 percent of which covers the university) after graduation from Yale, works as for UNITE HERE. She spoke Tuesday of her concentration on youth issues as an alder. She chairs the Youth Committee on the board, from which perch she helped craft a citywide map of youth activities, a plan for bringing youth centers to neighborhoods around town, and plans to rebuild the former Dixwell Community “Q” house and to create a youth drop-in/rec center and teen homeless shelter at the Community Outreach Center on Orchard Street.
Eze said he hopes to serve as a bridge between Yalies and New Haven if elected. he spoke of engineering students serving as mentors for city schoolkids, and of linking research on urban policy to actual city projects. He suggested that schools seek to close the achievement gap between poorer and more privileged students within the district in part by addressing “summer slippage” — - the lack of educational opportunities for some kids over the summer.
Click on the above file to hear the entire radio program.
And click ont he above file to listen to the previous interview with Bob Proto.