Paul Bass Photo
New DuBois-Walton mayoral headquarters at Whalley and Sherman.
Fifty supporters entered the door to Karen DuBois-Walton’s mayoral campaign headquarters Sunday — then were dispatched back out to knock on doors throughout the city.
Campaign intern Leila Smith and field organizer Bella Langlois sign up attendees at HQ opening event.
The occasion was an official opening of the headquarters at the corner of Whalley and Sherman Avenues. (Incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker, whom DuBois-Walton is challenging for the Democratic mayoral nomination; opened his headquarters two weeks ago five blocks west on Whalley; click here to read about that.)
DuBois-Walton addressed the gathering in front of a “30 for 30” chart listing the plan for the candidate and the campaign to knock on doors of homes in each of the city’s wards during June to make their case and drum up support.
In the first week of “hitting the doors,” DuBois-Walton reported, she has heard three consistent themes:
• Schools: “The fact that we were the only city in the state” that failed to reach consensus on how to safely reopen schools sooner in the pandemic. (Click here for a previous story about DuBois-Walton’s and Elicker’s back-and-forth over schools.)
• Opportunity: “People want to get back to work, to make a decent living.”
• Crime: “People are not feeling safe” in the wake of an increase in violence. (Click here, here, here, and here to read previous coverage of DuBois-Walton’s and Elicker’s differing perspectives on crime.)
Click on the video to watch the full speech.
“I talked to a woman in Beaver Hills. I talked to a woman in Newhallville. Both of them pointed to bullets in the window and the siding where stray bullets” had left holes, DuBois-Walton told the headquarters gathering.
“We through hard work can come together and be that city where every child enters our school district ready to learn and every child leaves the district ready for the world. We can be that community where we all feel safe … where we know that disputes get solved without resorting to violence. But that’s going to take work … A lot of work, day in and day out, until the Sept. 14 primary, knocking on every door multiple times.
“Now I want to get you to work …”
At that point the candidate introduced her field director, Elliot Storey (at left in above photo).
“She can talk to a lot of voters. She can’t talk to all the voters. She is going to need our help,” Storey told the crowd. Before hitting the doors, he asked them to fill out forms with contact information for other supporters who didn’t attend the gathering, as well as people who might be persuaded to pitch in.
Larry Thomas relates his experience hitting doors in Westville Saturday.
Elicker’s campaign, meanwhile, had a “night of food and fun” fundraiser planned at “Miya’s in the Woods” in Woodbridge, the new outpost of sorts for Miya’s chef Bun Lai.