Paul Bass Photo
Dick Blumenthal brought two members of Congress into Grand Avenue’s El Jibaro barbershop to help him deliver a message in two languages: voters in Democrats’ urban strongholds have a stake in what happens next Tuesday.
Democrat Blumenthal was dropping in on shopowners along the Fair Haven neighborhood’s main commercial strip Tuesday as part of an afternoon-and-evening-long sweep through New Haven. He’s looking to shore up his most reliable support in the final week before his election contest against Republican Linda McMahon for Connecticut’s open U.S. Senate seat. In addition to the walk, he held a domestic-violence-awareness press conference with public safety union heads and hit an evening Democratic Town Committee fundraiser at Bar.
Blumenthal’s campaign didn’t invite TV crews for the Grand Avenue walk. Nor did it alert the statewide press corps. As it has in the last stretch of this bare-knuckle contest, his campaign wanted the candidate to meet voters without TV cameras getting in the way — and without word seeping out to McMahon’s camp and the young tracker it sends to document Blumenthal’s every move to try to catch him in a slip-up.
Midway through Tuesday’s walk, the tracker had found out anyway. He got to see Blumenthal escorted by veteran Latino activists and political figures who already support him, and on whom Blumenthal’s counting to get out the vote.
Blumenthal was invited and guided on the walk by the Spanish American Merchants Association (SAMA) and Tomas Reyes, head of the Connecticut Democratic Hispanic Caucus. SAMA also invited McMahon last month to walk the neighborhood — one of three under-the-radar hand-shaking visits McMahon has made to New Haven in recent weeks, also largely out of the glare of the press corps and the Democratic Party’s tracker.
McMahon’s mission on those visits has been to introduce herself to people in a city who don’t know her beyond her image on TV and in newspapers in this campaign, an image largely sullied by opponents’ efforts to portray her as a heartless millionaire head of a misogynist, violent wrestling enterprise that drugs and even kills its workers (those it hasn’t outsourced to the Third World). McMahon has displayed a warm, engaging personality on the trail, striking up relaxed two-way interactions with small business people. (Click on the play arrow for a sample.)
Blumenthal had a different style (stiffer, less intimate) and a different mission on Grand Avenue. Ahead by double digits in the polls, and already well known in town, he needed to reconnect with familiar faces more than he needed to find new votes. Translating his lead into victory will depend in large part on motivating Democratic vote-pullers in cities like New Haven to get busy. That’s a challenge this year in New Haven. There are no competitive local state legislative races to motivate people to turn out, no locally popular figures beyond Blumenthal running for statewide office, and no Barack Obama making history at the top of the ticket.
Before the walk, Blumenthal displayed another core element of his support: police and fire unions. Statewide public safety labor leaders representing close to 10,000 members — from AFSCME police Council 15, the Uniformed Professional Firefighters of Connecticut, the Connecticut State Police Union— joined him outside the Blatchley Avenue substation to reaffirm their endorsements of his campaign. TV crews were invited to this photo op.
An experienced campaigner, Blumenthal made sure to heap praise on local dignitaries like Mayor John DeStefano. He called the substation — which was built before DeStefano took office — a testament to the mayor’s commitment to community policing.
The press conference doubled as a pitch to another crucial part of Blumenthal’s base: women. Female voters are responsible for his pulling ahead in the race. They support him by a blistering 61 to 35 percent in the latest Q poll. (Men favored McMahon 49 to 47 percent.) The press conference’s subject was officially Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Little was said specifically about what to do about domestic violence. Blumenthal did mention that he believes he has had a great record on the issue as Connecticut attorney general. He vowed if elected senator to push for more money to local police departments to combat domestic violence and to support expansion of the Violence Against Women Act. (McMahon campaign spokesman Ed Patru later said his candidate supports strengthening domestic violence laws, too.) The dozen personages standing around Blumenthal speaking up for women’s safety were all men, save one.
After they all scattered, Blumenthal did meet up with another female, New Haven motorcycle cop Kristen Fitzgerald.
After an hour’s break, the TV crews long gone, Blumenthal reemerged around the corner for his Grand Avenue walk. New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro accompanied him, adding some animation to the enterprise, not to mention embraces with constituents.
They stopped first at START bank, the community lender about to open up in New Haven. They heard about how, amid a recession, Fair Haven’s storefronts are filled with Latino-owned small businesses. They heard about the need for more available credit. Blumenthal promised to push for payroll tax deductions for start-ups and exemptions on capital gains taxes for small businesses in their first three to five years. (McMahon proposed similar tax breaks on her Broadway walk.)
William Placke (at left in above photo), START’s president, mentioned the bureaucratic delays he’s waiting on at the FDIC and Federal Reserve to get approval to open his doors. He pivoted to DeLauro, not Blumenthal, when he said it. “Let’s talk,” DeLauro said as she and Blumenthal departed.
“Look at that!” DeLauro said as the pair entered People’s Laundromat. The words “vota lina b” (vote line b, the Democratic line on the ballot) flashed on an electric sign in the window.
Inside they checked in with laundromat owner Angelo Reyes (pictured above), who has also rebuilt much of Grand Avenue, including the building housing START bank on the first floor and SAMA’s offices above. Again, this wasn’t a new voter the politicians were meeting; it was an old supporter. Reyes has rounded up votes on Election Day for years for Democrats like Blumenthal and DeLauro. Blumenthal asked Reyes about a fire that destroyed another of his Fair Haven laundromats.
Two stops later, at the El Jibaro barber shop, Pedro Pierluisi caught up with the gang. Pierluisi, the nonvoting member of Congress representing Puerto Rico, flew to town to help Blumenthal campaign. “If you want comprehensive immigration reform, you need Democrats,” Pierluisi told owner Severiano Burgos as he took a break from cutting a customer’s hair.
When McMahon visited the same barber shop last month, Burgos promised to vote for her.
The McMahon campaign tracker (pictured above) showed up at the barber shop, too, on Tuesday. He angled to capture the crowded scene on video and refused to answer any questions (click on the play arrow to the video at the top of the story to watch him do so), including whether he indeed works for McMahon. (Patru, the McMahon spokesman, later confirmed that the tracker does. His name? “Sean. Just Sean,” Patru responded.)
A more supportive camera crew awaited Blumenthal & Co. outside the barber shop. It was from the Spanish-language network Telemundo. “I’ll do English. She’ll do Italian,” Blumenthal joked, pointing to DeLauro. Pierluisi (at center, facing camera in above photo) handled the Spanish. Blumenthal spoke of his support of the DREAM Act to enable children of undocumented immigrants to attend college or serve in the military on the way to obtaining citizenship. In her Fair Haven visit last month, McMahon said she’d never heard of the DREAM Act.
(McMahon spokesman Patru later offered a recap of McMahon’s immigration position: “Linda is opposed to amnesty which is inherent in that legislation supported by Dick Blumenthal; however, she is a supporter of legal immigration because much of this country’s strength and prosperity has come as a result of the immense contributions from immigrants. Linda believes immigration reform must include border security and interior enforcement, she believes electronic Social Security cards would help ensure illegal workers cannot get jobs and thereby make verification simpler for employers, and she supports modifying and streamlining the process for admitting temporary workers, if they are needed in an industry. Finally, she believes we ought to strengthen green card and citizenship requirements to a more merit-based system in order to ensure that future citizens will help contribute positively to society.”)
As the Blumenthal parade grew, requiring cops to direct traffic, Sean hustled to catch the action inside Hancock Pharmacy and then Victor’s Food Mart & Deli.
He wasn’t rewarded with any stumbles or embarrassing gaffes. Blumenthal did shake the hand of Gustavo Balladares (pictured above), who was working behind the counter at Victor’s.
Back at the START/SAMA building, Sean met his last door. The Blumenthal camp informed him he wasn’t allowed upstairs. A private event was taking place in SAMA’s office suite.
That event was a reception for Pierluisi and Blumenthal. Twenty-five Latino officeholders and community activists heard a few remarks from Tomas Reyes, Blumenthal, and Pierluisi before digging into a buffet.
Blumenthal reiterated his support for the DREAM Act and for comprehensive immigration reform.
He also made the pitch that was the point of the day’s visit.
“We’ve been out in the streets. That’s where we’re going to win. On the streets. On the phone,” he said.
He noted that Linda McMahon has already spent over $46 million in this campaign, a Connecticut record.
“I have something money can’t buy. I have you,” Blumenthal declared. “I have you. … You will be the margin of victory.”