Paul Bass Photos
Elicker, Frank review paperwork at Registrar of Voters Office.
• Elicker submits first batch of petitions to make primary ballot.
• Plans to petition for unaffiliated slot on Nov. 5 ballot.
• “Affordable housing comes up all the time now” on the trail.
Elicker and campaign manager Gage Frank were dropping off the first batch of petitions collected to place Elicker’s name on the Sept. 10 Democratic mayoral primary ballot below that of party-endorsed incumbent Toni Harp.
Update: By day’s end the campaign had submitted 2,368 signatures, according to Gage.
Elicker needs 1,946 confirmed signatures of registered Democratic voters to make the ballot. He said his campaign plans to collect an extra 1,000 to cover any names that don’t pass muster with the registrars of voters, who will now review the petitions to confirm that the signatories are indeed Democratic voters.
“That one’s backwards. Will you take it?” Gage asked Democratic Registrar Shannel Evans, pointing to a line where a signer put the last and first names in the wrong order.
“I am very generous,” Evans responded. “Even if it’s backwards we’ll take it.”
Evans said her crew tries “multiple ways” to confirm a voter’s identity if the signature is confusing, checking the address or date of birth, for instance.
Elicker and Frank deliver petitions to Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans.
Elicker said his campaign will also collect the approximately 150 signatures needed to place his name on the Nov. 5 general election ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. At last check, New Haven had 16,288 registered unaffiliated voters, 559 members of third parties, and 2,447 Republicans who can vote in that election but not the Democratic primary, which is open to the city’s (at last count) 38,852 registered Democrats.
“I plan on winning the primary but I will run in the general as well” if not, Elicker said during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program immediately prior to his Registrar of Voters visit.
Elicker said 100 people gathered signatures on petitions this past weekend. He estimated that 80 – 90 were volunteers, the rest paid staff members.
The petitioning —required since he did not win the party’s nomination at a convention last week — proved a “great opportunity to organize” and “fire up” people for the campaign, and to connect with voters.
“This is about democracy,” he said.
Elicker also petitioned his way onto the ballot in the 2013 election, which he lost to Harp. He was asked what was different about conversations with voters during this round of petitioning.
“In 2013, affordable housing almost never came up. Affordable housing comes up all the the time now,” he responded.
Laura Glesby Photo
Elicker collecting signatures on Chapel Street on Saturday.
Elicker embraced a call by activists to institute some form of “inclusionary zoning” that would require developers of larger housing complexes to include a certain percentage of affordable apartments. He also embraced a proposal to change zoning rules to enable homeowners to add on so-called “mother-in-law” extra apartments at their homes.
He noted that 41 percent of New Haveners experience “housing insecurity” at times, meaning they have trouble making the rent.
Elicker included “safe” housing as part of the affordable-housing mission. He noted rundown conditions at some low-income housing complexes run by large management companies in town. If elected, he said, he will push for more aggressive collection of fines for housing code violations, then use the money to hire more inspectors.
As in 2013, Elicker is also hearing a lot about taxes, schools, and the need for free after-school youth programs on the trail. He has proposed inviting nonprofits to run afternoon programs in more school buildings, including making it easier for them to interact with the public-school bureaucracy.
Asked about the calls for Carol Birks to leave or be removed as schools superintendent, Elicker said he is making a point of not calling for the firing of any officials. “It gets too personal,” he said. He did add that he sees it “very difficult at this point to find a path forward” with the Board of Education under the status quo.
Click on the Facebook Live video to watch the full interview with mayoral candidate Justin Elicker on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program, including his responses to listener questions and comments.