Thomas MacMillan Photo
Now that New Haven’s Gerry Garcia has made the primary ballot in his quest to become Connecticut’s first-ever Latino candidate for statewide office, his campaign turns to the next big challenge: Raising money. A tie-dyed Grateful Dead alter ego may help.
Garcia, who’s running for secretary of the state, Connecticut’s top elections official, captured nearly 25 percent of delegate votes at last weekend’s state convention. That was enough to defy expectations and earn Garcia a spot on the Democratic ballot. But he also lagged behind two better-known candidates at the convention: state legislators Denise Merrill and Jonathan Harris. (In the photo, Garcia, at center, and his wife, Magda, watched as delegate votes come in at Saturday’s convention.)
The Garcia campaign is leaving the convention with a couple of fund-raising strategies: Hit up newly converted delegates, and capitalize on the popularity of Garcia’s trademark tie-dyed T‑shirts, inspired by the fact that he shares a name (with one letter difference) with a certain expired Grateful Dead guitarist.
Now that Garcia has made it to the primary, campaign manager Jason Bartlett has turned his attention to the next challenge. Garcia now needs to raise an additional $50,000 to qualify for public campaign financing.
That’s job number one, said Bartlett (pictured). He was seated on the convention floor shortly after delegates left the building for the year. Behind him, workers walked the aisles and cleared up the detritus of a completed convention: signs, stickers, and flyers from winners and losers.
Garcia made an early commitment to qualify for public financing, Bartlett said. To do so, he needs to raise a total of $75,000 without accepting donations larger than $100. So far, the campaign has raised around $25,000, Bartlett said. That leaves $50,000 to be raised before Garcia can earn his public financing check for about $340,000, Bartlett said.
He identified two ways the Garcia campaign will try to reach that goal.
“Everybody wants this T‑shirt,” Bartlett said, plucking his tie-dyed Garcia campaign garment. He said he’s going to consult the campaigning rules to see if Garcia can sell the t‑shirts (pictured) to raise funds.
Beyond selling T‑shirts, Bartlett said he plans to start asking for fundraising assistance from some of the delegates and Democratic operatives who supported Garcia at the convention. “We’re going to ask some of the people that helped him here today.”
Garcia is coming out of the convention with a bump, Bartlett claimed. “We have huge momentum,” he said. “Because no one expected us to place.”
Garcia’s candidacy has gained viability at the convention, but some delegates may have supported Garcia only for the length of the first round of convention voting. That’s when Garcia got on the ballot. In the second round, many of Garcia’s delegate votes transferred to the other two secretary of the state candidates. In other words, delegate votes to get on the ballot do not necessarily transfer to permanent support.
This was made clear after the voting, as Garcia was speaking to the Independent just outside the convention floor. A delegate came up and congratulated Garcia on making the primary. He said he had supported him in the first round.
As he shook the delegates hand, Garcia asked if he could count on his future support. “So are you with me?”
“I’ll be with whoever’s nominated,” the delegate said.
“Oh,” said Garcia.
The delegate said he planned to support House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, who went on to win the official secretary of the state nomination.
Informed of the interaction after the convention, Bartlett dismissed the case of the fickle delegate. “That’s an anomaly,” he claimed.
Garcia converted a lot of delegates at the convention, Bartlett maintained. As the least known of the three candidates, Garcia capitalized on the greatest potential for growth, he said.
Bartlett explained the strategy that he said led to Garcia’s relatively successful convention this year.
Since the campaign didn’t have a lot of money, Bartlett decided to save it for the convention. “I knew there’d be a lot of undecided delegates,” he said. So the campaign dug into its savings to buy tie-dyed bandannas and T‑shirts and Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” ice cream to give away at the convention.
“It was important to demonstrate that you can hang,” Bartlett said. “That you are a powerhouse.” Garcia’s ice cream and t‑shirts helped make a splash and give Garcia a higher profile at the convention.
Garcia’s strong convention appearance was also based on months of “shoe leather” campaigning. Before he declared his candidacy, Bartlett had Garcia go to “every wise man and wise woman” in the state Democratic party and sit down for a cup of coffee. And he crisscrossed the state meeting with Democratic town committees. “He worked the process the way you’re supposed to work the process,” Bartlett said.
That’s why Garcia was able to hit nearly 25 percent of votes at the convention, when some had predicted he wouldn’t make it even to the 15 percent he needed to get on the primary ballot, Bartlett said.
Nobody believed he had 15 percent, Bartlett said. Bartlett said he told people repeatedly before the convention that Garcia had the votes he needed. “They didn’t want to believe me.”
Now that Garcia has earned some more attention, Bartlett said he plans to spread the word about his “progressive” platform, which focuses on reforming the election system. Garcia is going to advocate for early voting and other ways to bring more people out to vote, Bartlett said.
Connecticut shouldn’t have such an “archaic” voting system, he said. People should be able to vote over the course of a week, rather than just on a single day, he said. Such a change would mean that more Democrats would win and single mothers and working people would vote in greater numbers, Bartlett said.
As the first Latino to appear on the ballot for a constitutional, statewide office, Garcia will be aiming to boost turnout among Latino voters, Bartlett said. The Latino community is the fastest growing in Connecticut, “but has not demonstrated their political power yet.”