Elicker: “Time to come together.”
Mayor Toni Harp is likely to face a challenge in her quest for a third two-year term, but probably not from the candidates who have so far presented the most organized opposition.
Harp has formed a reelection committee and says she is planning to seek a third term in the 2017 election.
She first won office in 2013 in what began as a seven-person field in the Democratic primary. Democrats Justin Elicker and Henry Fernandez ended up her top vote-getting opponents in that race, and Elicker mounted a vigorous general-election race as an independent, gaining 45 percent of the vote.
As is the norm in New Haven politics, Harp in 2015 did not face significant organized opposition in her first reelection bid.
This time around there’s been more talk of a serious challenge. Elicker has been discussing the possibility of a race with people around town in recent months. Any serious campaign would probably need to get off the ground in early 2017.
After much deliberation, Elicker said Thursday, “I’m leaning towards not running. I think it’s time for the city to come together. We’re going to be dealing with a lot larger challenges, and we need to work together.”
“But I don’t want to close the door to the possibility of running,” he added.
“I am not thinking of running for mayor,” Fernandez stated definitively.
Paul Bass Photo
Paca with his wife Mendi Blue, whom Harp also fired, at the Casanova rally.
Marcus Paca, a family friend of Harp who served as her labor relations chief until she fired him this past April, has also been sounding out people about a possible run as well. Paca, who served a term as an Edgewood alder before losing the seat, showed up at a support rally last week for Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova, a rally that drew many people critical of the Harp administration. Paca has begun issuing statements critical of the administration’s performance.
Another person often mentioned as a possible mayoral candidate is Michael Smart, the current city clerk. “No, not at all,” Smart said of a 2017 mayoral bid. “I’m running [again] for city clerk.”