DTC Battles Ahead

Updated 1/17/20, 11:00 a.m. — After a contentious 2019 Democratic primary, elections featuring many of the same fault lines that have defined the last two years of Hamden politics are now likely as Hamden’s 17,309 Democrats choose the members of the party’s leading body.

Last Wednesday, Democrats met in nine separate caucuses throughout town to choose whom to endorse for each district’s Democratic Town Committee (DTC). Unlike in previous years, every district seat was contested, with multiple seven-person slates going head to head to secure their voices in the future of Hamden politics.

As of Friday morning, the losing slates in five districts had filed paperwork to bring the decision to voters in a March 3 primary. Mayor Curt Leng was on one of the slates that lost at the caucus and is now seeking to run a primary campaign for election to the DTC. If petitioning slates in all five districts manage to collect enough signatures to trigger a primary, it could tie a 1966 record for the most DTC district primaries in town history.

The DTC has 63 members: seven from each of the nine Legislative Council Districts. At its conventions, the DTC endorses Democrats who want to run for elected office in Hamden. An endorsement secures the candidate a spot on a primary ballot. Anyone who plans to run against an endorsed candidate must petition to get onto the ballot. If no one petitions to run against an endorsed candidate, the candidate then automatically gets a spot on the general election ballot. (Read more about this summer’s convention here and https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/dems_make_choices_for_new_voices/)

In order to pick the members of the DTC, each district holds a caucus; any registered Democrat in the district can show up to vote. The district elects seven people to endorse. Usually, people wanting the endorsement organize themselves into seven-person slates based on their political alignments. In order to challenge an endorsement, another slate must petition to hold a primary and collect the signatures of 5 percent of registered Democrats in the district.

Opposition slates in five districts — the fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth — have filed paperwork to petition their way into a primary. The caucuses came after an election cycle that saw multiple contentious races and challenges to the status quo from both the left and the right.

The next DTC will have an important role to play in the 2021 municipal elections, as it will decide which candidates to endorse and support when voters go to the polls. DTC Recording Secretary Joseph McDonagh said that as far as he can remember, there hasn’t been a year with primaries in four districts, which could happen this year if every petitioning slate manages to collect enough signatures to make the ballot.

Tuesday afternoon, a slate containing some of the biggest names in Hamden politics filed paperwork to petition its way to a primary after failing to secure the district’s endorsement. In addition to Leng, the slate includes Board of Education (BOE) Chair Arturo Perez-Cabello, BOE Member Melissa Kaplan, Legislative Council President Pro-Tem. and Hamden Energy Efficiency Coordinator Kathleen Schomaker, and Interim Finance Director Myron Hul. In addition to those five candidates, it includes Rochelle Cummings and Vaughn Scanterbury.

The Ninth District, too, features an opposition slate stacked with a few current office holders, including Brad Macdowall, who currently represents the district, and Roxana Walker-Canton, who was recently elected to the Board of Education. Former Town Council member Lauren Garrett, who ran an unsuccessful but contentious primary campaign against Leng in September, was on that slate at the caucus, but pulled her name after the slate lost; she gave the spot to Walker-Canton. Garrett said she wants to take a break from elections this time around. Her husband Dan Garrett is on the slate.

The challenges in both the Sixth and Ninth Districts feature a split in the party between longer-serving politicians and relative newcomers allied with a reform agenda. That split defined the last two years in Hamden politics and loomed large in elections this fall. Younger politicians elected to the Council, including Lauren Garrett, Cory O’Brien, Brad Macdowall, and Justin Farmer, were outspoken critics of Leng’s handling of town finances.

Mayor Loses

In the mayor’s Sixth District, it was not the mayor’s camp, but the opposing camp, that won the district’s endorsement. The winning slate included O’Brien, who lost a primary for his council seat in September. One member of the mayor’s slate — Mike Lockett — also made the cut.

“Serving on the Hamden DTC affirms affiliation and commitment to our Town and party,” Leng wrote to the Independent, explaining his decision to petition for a primary. ​“This is particularly important when some people seem to be trying to use Hamden and the party to advance individual agendas and interests, not necessarily those that are most beneficial to our hometown and its success. That’s my focus, period… and I know that’s the focus of the dedicated people we have on our primary slate… A primary gives residents the power to choose the voices they believe will represent their vision for Hamden and the party. This type of democracy will be a positive thing for people who genuinely want to see their community succeed.”

The Sixth District caucus featured a very large turnout. Over 100 people showed up to vote. O’Brien said he thinks the turnout was due to the fact that people have become more aware of town finances and politics, especially in the Sixth District, which is home to many active residents.

Megan Goslin got the most votes, with 61. Phillip Nista was runner up, with 60, followed by O’Brien with 59, Art Hunt with 58, and Patrick Johnson, Elaine Dove, and Mike Lockett at 57.

Leng got 54 votes, and the other members of his slate garnered between 54 and 57 votes. Schomaker tied with Johnson, Dove, and Lockett at 57. The four-way tie meant that another round of voting would have been necessary to choose the remaining three endorsements. She withdrew her name, however, so a second round was not necessary.

O’Brien said he doesn’t think elected officials should serve on the DTC, especially the mayor. ​“When I was on council, I said intentionally I don’t want to be on DTC. I feel it’s a conflict of interest,” he said.

Former mayors have served on the DTC. Myron Hul noted that Lillian Clayman was on the committee, for instance. Many of the current council members, on all sides of the political spectrum, are on endorsed slates or sought endorsements.

Hul did not seek a seat on the DTC at the caucus. But when Lockett got a seat and the rest of the mayor’s slate did not, he joined the petitioning slate to fill the vacant spot.

“We need candidates who will work together collaboratively with other districts to address the pressing financial issues that the town is facing and needs recourse on,” said Hul, explaining why he decided to run. ​“We have to be able to talk with each other rather than past each other in order to solve the issues that everyone agrees are detrimental to the future of Hamden if left unresolved.”

Mayor’s Former Rival Loses

At the Ninth District caucus, the prevailing slate included Council Majority Leader Berita Rowe-Lewis, BOE Secretary Melinda Saller, and BOE Member and Hamden Director of Legislative Affairs Walter Morton IV. It secured 34 votes, while the other slate got 26.

While the mayor failed to get his district’s endorsement, so did Garrett, his rival in the September Primary. Though she herself is not petitioning, others are continuing the slate’s fight.

Macdowall, who is on the petitioning slate, said the DTC should be composed of people who are active leaders in their communities, and it should aim to bring more people into town politics. He said that many of the current district slates do not accurately reflect the districts they represent and are not composed of community leaders.

“People on the DTC should be made up of people that are leaders in their community who actually know what the town needs. And instead it’s maintenance of the power structure,” he said. He said the mayor and other politicians aligned with him are trying to ensure that the DTC is stacked in their favor.

“This is a referendum on whether or not he is getting a nomination in 2021,” he said, referring to Leng. ​“Obviously, he sees that there is a serious challenge against him. So, he’s doing what he can to try to maintain that power structure.”

Primaries may also take place in the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Districts. The petitioning slates include many of Hamden’s more progressive Democrats who oppose Leng. Sean Grace, who was Garrett’s campaign manager, is on the District Seven petitioning slate. Rhonda Caldwell, who ran for the council on a Working Families Party ticket and has been an outspoken critic of many of the town’s establishment politicians, is on the petitioning slate in the eighth. Valerie Horsley, who represents the Fourth District on the council, is on the petitioning slate in her district along with BOE Member (and former chair) Chris Daur. The endorsed 8th-District slate included one member who recently switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, but did not do so in time. Her name was pulled from the slate as a result.

Chaos In The Fifth

Though no one has filed paperwork to petition for a primary in the Fifth District, it featured one of the most chaotic caucuses of the evening.

It began with a locked door.

The room in the Highwood police substation where the caucus was supposed to take place was locked.

“That caused a little stress,” said Elizabeth Hayes, who ended up winning the district’s endorsement.

The rules state that the doors close at 7, and that no one may enter after that. After an officer finally came to unlock the door, residents walked in to find too few chairs and no heat.

While most districts featured only two opposing slates, the fifth had three, plus multiple individual candidates vying for seven spots. One slate featured Farmer. Another had been assembled by Walter Morton IV, who does not live in the district (though it included his father, Walter Morton III, who does). Another was composed of a group of Mill Rock Road neighbors.

Voting began, and a few candidates had majorities, but most did not. So, there was another round. And then another. And then another. Alan Graham, who ended the night with an endorsement, said he didn’t leave until 10:30.

Since the evening dragged on so long, people began to leave after a certain point. But that meant that votes were walking out the door. The rules state that once you leave, you cannot come back. Nonetheless, some tried, prompting more confusion.

By the end of the night, candidates from all three slates ended up with endorsements: Farmer, Hayes, and Graham from Farmer’s, Seth Rosenthal and Kyle Blake from Morton’s, Kathleen Kiely from both slates, and Shequerra Hobby from the Mill Rock slate.

Below is a full list of endorsed slates and petitioning slates. Those petitioning must collect the signatures of 5 percent of registered Democrats in their district to trigger a primary and turn it in to the registrar’s office by Jan. 29. The primaries would take place on March 3.

Slates

District 1 (endorsed)
Matthew Fitch
David Asbery
Julie Smith – Town/BOE projects director
Mendy Clouse
Christine Whitten
Kristen Zaehringer
Mick McGarry – Council president

District 2 (endorsed)
John Flanagan
Ronald Osokow
Stacey Hampton
Eben Stewart
Carole Williams
Tanesha Forman
Cassi Meyerhoffer

District 3 (endorsed)
Greta Johnson
Eric Daniels
Lamond Battle
Abdul Osmanu
Joseph Baez
Dominique Baez – Council-at-large
Athena Gary – District 3 council rep.

District 4 (endorsed)
Analis Quintman
Janina Towro
Eric Annes
Vanessa Crawford
Brian Murphy
Sana Shah
Grace Yukick

District 4 (petitioning)
Chris Daur — BOE Member
Jaime Garretson
Patricia Gambori
Valerie Horsley — District 4 Rep.
Karen Kleinerman
Bill Lavelle
Stephen Mongillo

District 5 (endorsed)
Elizabeth Hayes
Alan Graham
Kathleen Kiely
Seth Rosenthal
Justin Farmer – District 5 Rep.
Shequerra Hobby
Kyle Blake

District 6 (endorsed)
Cory O’Brien
Patrick Johnson
Megan Goslin
Art Hunt
Mike Lockett
Elaine Dove
Phillip Nista

District 6 (petitioning)
Rochelle Cummings
Myron Hul – Interim finance director
Melissa Kaplan-Charkow – BOE member
Curt Leng – Mayor
Arturo Perez-Cabello – BOE chair
Vaughn Scanterbury
Kathleen Schomaker – District 6 Rep., Energy Efficiency Coordinator

District 7 (endorsed)
Deborah DiLeone
Michael Colaiacovo Jr. – District 7 rep.
Scott Howland
Thomas Alegi
Janet Draughn
Doris Marino
William Doheny

District 7 (petitioning)
Sean Grace
Tracy Bowens
Alexa Panayotakis
Dave Hannon
Karimah Mickens
Diane Hoffman
Scott Beck

District 8 (endorsed)
John DeRosa
Michael Dolan
Larry Esposito
Angela O’Brien
James O’Brien
Jim Pascarella

District 8 (petitioning)
Christopher Atchley
Rhonda Caldwell
Michelle Gibbs
Kenneth Kirchoff
George Levinson
Jennifer Schenk Sacco
Phaedrel Bowman

District 9 (endorsed)
Walter Morton IV – BOE member, director of legislative affairs
Nicholas Rogers
Berita Rowe-Lewis – Council-at-large
Joseph McDonagh
Melinda Saller – BOE secretary
Gabe Rosenberg
Betsy Gorman

District 9 (petitioning)
Dan Garrett
Brad Macdowall – Council-at-large
David Canton
Roxana Walker-Canton – BOE member
Nancy Hill
Steve Degrand
Karen Bevins