Dems Double Down On 4‑Year Terms

Confident in a victory at the polls in November’s contested mayoral election, Democrats from across the city and state turned their attention to a more uncertain proposition: a charter revision ballot question that, if approved, would increase mayoral and aldermanic terms from two to four years each.

Updating the city’s foundational governing document to allow for longer terms in office — and what supporters described as a better functioning government — was front and center Saturday morning at a get-out-the-vote rally held outside of Mayor Justin Elicker’s reelection campaign headquarters at 506 Whalley Ave.

Roughly 50 elected officials, Democratic Town Committee members, and local labor advocates gathered on Whalley Avenue near Ella T. Grasso Boulevard to cheer on the slate of incumbent Democrats running in this year’s Nov. 7 municipal elections. 

That included Elicker, a former alder and environmental nonprofit leader who is seeking a third two-year term as mayor. Elicker is running on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines against Republican and Independent Party challenger Tom Goldenberg and unaffiliated petitioning candidate Wendy Hamilton.

In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 15 to 1 and where every local elected office is held by a Democrat, speaker after speaker at Saturday’s rally expressed confidence that Elicker would handily prevail on Nov. 7.

“I don’t think Mayor Elicker is going to have a tough time winning at all, but we can’t take it for granted,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said.

“I think he’s got it in the bag,” said Liam Brennan, a former legal aid attorney and federal prosecutor who ran against Elicker in September’s Democratic mayoral primary, and who attended Saturday’s rally in full support of his erstwhile opponent.

Instead, the speakers urged the party faithful in attendance to do what they can to boost turnout so that Elicker wins by a hefty margin. Election turnout is one indication of a city’s ​“vitality and vibrancy,” New Haven State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney said. ​“We need to make sure that turnout is high enough” that Elicker doesn’t just win by a sizable percentage, but that the overall number of New Haveners who vote is an ​“impressive amount.”

To try to reach those higher turnout numbers, speakers celebrated Elicker as a hard worker and person of integrity, and pointed to such accomplishments by his administration as winning more financial aid from the state and Yale, supporting the unionization of the Graduate Hotel, establishing the non-cop crisis response team COMPASS, and boosting tenants unions citywide.

"Vote Yes For 4-Year Terms!"

With spirits high about a likely mayoral win, every Democrat who took the mic on Saturday — from Brennan to Walker-Myers to Looney to DTC Chair Vinnie Mauro to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro to Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow to state Treasurer Erick Russell to New Haven Rising leader Scott Marks to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz to Elicker himself — put a special emphasis during their remarks on supporting the passage of the charter revision question on this year’s ballot. 

That single question will appear on the right side of every local ballot on Nov. 7, and will read:​“Shall the City approve and adopt all other Charter changes as recommended by the Charter Revision Commission and approved by the Board of Alders?”

What does that mean, you might ask?

It means four-year instead of two-year terms for mayor, alders, and city clerk starting with the municipal elections in 2027. It also means increased pay for alders, gender neutral language in the charter, and moving most requirements for department heads and city boards and commissions from the charter to city ordinance, among other changes. 

Elicker and every other speaker on Saturday stood alongside campaign signs reading: ​“Vote Yes For 4‑Year Terms! On Charter Revision.”

Elicker also showed the crowd DTC-printed flyers explaining what changes are included in the charter revision proposal, and why local Democrats think they should pass. 

The first answer in the ​“Why Vote Yes?” section of that flyer reads, ​“Prioritize Governing Over Campaigning: Moving to four year terms will free our local elected officials to focus [on] governing rather than campaigning every other year. Most major municipalities in Connecticut have four-year terms.”

Local Republicans and the chair of the city’s parks commission have been campaigning against the charter question in recent weeks, with the former arguing against four-year terms and the bundling of all these matters into a single opaque question, and the latter speaking out in the hopes of preserving his lifetime appointment to the volunteer-run public greenspace board.

Saturday served as an opportunity for Democrats to swing back against those charter-revision critiques — and to try to convince fellow party members and the general public to vote yes on the ballot question.

“We gave the opposition an opportunity to talk to people and say ​‘no’ on the charter question,” Walker-Myers said. ​“Now what we’re going to do is we’re going to get out there and tell everybody to vote Row A, and we’re going to challenge people on their ​‘no’ on the charter question.”

Furlow said that four-year terms and the other charter revision proposals will ​“cause our government to flow better” and will bring the city’s constitution ​“into the 21st century.”

Brennan described the charter revision question as a ​“once in a generation opportunity” to give local government a chance to plan better for the long term. ​“Let’s make this a more functioning government.”

Elicker drove that message home in his closing remarks at the nearly hourlong rally. 

He listed other Connecticut cities that already have four-year terms for mayor, and didn’t mention that some still have two-year terms for local legislators.

“Is it good enough for Hartford?” he asked about four-year mayoral terms, to applause from the crowd. ​“Is it good enough for Waterbury? Is it good enough for Stamford? Is it good enough for Hamden? Is it good enough for New Haven?” (From what this reporter could find, while all of those cities and towns indeed have four-year terms for mayor, only Hartford and Stamford have four-year terms for local legislators. Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Hamden legislators serve two-year terms.)

“Twenty years ago, we tried this,” Elicker continued on Saturday as he described a charter-revision push for four-year terms. ​“Twenty years ago we tried this and it failed. Do you want to wait another 20 years? … We have got to get this thing across the finish line. … We cannot wait another 20 years to have a government that runs effectively and efficiently.”

Elicker also lambasted Belowsky (whose last name he mistakenly referred to as Lebowski), petitioning Ward 25 alder challenger Dennis Serfilippi, and the New Haven Republican Party for campaigning against the charter revision question.

The Republican Party is ​“not interested in governing in Washington, and is not particularly interested in an efficient government in New Haven,” Elicker charged. ​“We need to get the word out and educate voters about what is on the ballot.”

See below for previous articles about this year’s Charter Revision Commission process.

• Parks Lifer Campaigns Against New Charter
• Elicker: Mayor & Alders Should Serve 4‑Year Terms
• 4‑Year Terms OK’d For November Ballot
• Alders Block Non-Citizens From Boards For Now
• Immigrants Cut Short, Walk Out
• Immigrant Participation, Protections Eyed
• Revisers Punt On Residency Requirements
• 4‑Year Terms, Residency Requirements Embraced
• Immortality Loophole Looms For Board Lifers
• To Split Or Not To Split Traffic & Police Boards
• Charter Revisers Eye Alder Pay Bump
• If It’s Good Enough For Hartford, Middletown
• Elicker Administration Pitches 4‑Year Terms
• Union Targets Mayor’s Ed Board Influence
• Ready. Set. Revise!
• 9 Approved For Charter Revision Commission
• Alders Establish Charter Revision Commission
• 4‑Year Terms Back Up For Debate