Allan Appel Photo
He told a retired city worker he endorses giving more preference points to New Haven residents who apply for city jobs.
He told an independent voter who pledged to vote for him thanks very much: “Tell your friends.”
And he used his language skills as he shared a pot roast and succotash lunch with Esther Santiago (pictured) and her friends.
That’s how mayoral candidate Justin Elicker campaigned among the seniors at the Atwater Senior Center Thursday afternoon. Elicker is running for mayor as an independent against Democrat Toni Harp in the Nov. 5 general election.
Elicker greeted by Cuomo, with the WPA mural by A. Reid Winsey and R.A. Laurel in the background. Cuomo said the 1928 building is as old as he is.
Before Elicker and an entourage of two arrived, the longtime president of the Atwater Senior Center association, Gus Cuomo, showed a reporter the 1935 WPA mural at the back of the former public school.
Nabbing An Independent Senior Vote
When Elicker arrived, he visited the room where bags of food were being distributed he received the handshake and endorsement of Tim Kennedy (pictured).
“I’m an independent. I couldn’t vote for you” in the primary, he said.
Kennedy, a recent retiree, said he had made up his mind for Elicker during the initial primary campaign debates. Elicker’s responses regarding senior issues in particular struck him as clearer and more authoritative than his opponents’, he said.
When Elicker dropped by Ralph Cannata’s (pictured on far right) table, he heard an earful: Having worked 25 years in the street division of the public works in town, Cannata was upset that too many of the young “kids” now in the jobs hail from Meriden, Ansonia.
“Department heads [have to live in town]. Workers don’t,” a fellow senior eating the cup of fruit cocktail chimed in from the end of the table.
“They go home. They don’t shop here,” Cannata went on, visibly exercised. He complained that residents should be first hired. He called for a commuter tax (an idea championed by Democratic mayoral primary candidate Kermit Carolina).
“Watch your blood pressure,” someone else advised Cannata from the far side of the table.
Elicker listened patiently. “The state changed the law,” He told Cannata. “We’re not allowed to” institute residency requirements for workers. But he concurred with Cannata that more preference points should go to city residents applying for city jobs.
Cannata said he’d vote for Elicker as a breath of fresh air. He asked where he could get a sign to put up on his property.
Bill Stubbs and his table-mate were discussing a Tom Clancy novel when Elicker approached them. The two discussed Clancy, then how the local Native Americans in Colonial days had feasted on oysters at the Quinnipiac River before retiring, about this time of year, to warmer less- riverine quarters in what is now East Rock Park.
Stubbs said that during the Democratic mayoral primary his wife voted for Elicker but as a loyal Fair Havener he cast his ballot for Henry Fernandez. Now his vote will go to Elicker, he said. He said the city needs not a state legislator but an administrator as mayor. He acknowledged that Elicker’s resume doesn’t exactly fit the “administrator” label. But “he’s closer,” Stubbs claimed.