Allan Appel Photo
New Haven’s Gerry Garcia’s has little more than a week to go to raise enough money to get public financing for his underdog quest for secretary of the state. The city’s Democratic faithful turned out to hoist gazpacho and pledge to help him over the finish line.
Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Susie Voigt (pictured) was one of 30 party movers and shakers who gathered Tuesday night at Jenelle’s riparian eatery down by the Quinnipiac in Fair Haven to cheer on the candidacy of an Elm City native son, and to try raise the balance of the $75,000 required in donations ranging from $5 to $100.
Garcia needs to hit that goal by July 16 to qualify for $350,000 in matching money from Connecticut’s Citizen Election Program. His opponent in a Democratic Aug. 10 primary, party-endorsed Denise Merrill, announced last week that she has already raised the needed dough. Garcia said last week that he is “over halfway there.” He needs to get all the way there to have enough cash to mount a competitive race.
Campaign Manager (and State Rep.) Jason Bartlett estimated that Tuesday night’s event brought in about $10,000.
“We’re closing in,” Garcia (pictured) said Tuesday night. He declined to be more specific.
Among the many Board of Ed supporters at the event were Fair Haven Middle School Principal Kim Johnsky, Chief of Staff Leida Pacini, and Superintendent Reggie Mayo. Mayo (at left in above photo) said he would urge people to write checks for Gerry and encouraged him to keep fighting.
Other politicos in the room included Mayor John DeStefano, State Rep. Juan Candelaria, Waterbury Mayor and comptroller candidate Michael Jarjura, and former Board of Alderman President Tomas Reyes (left in photo, with Bartlett center). (Bartlett emphasized that Garcia has also had an event with Jarjura’s Democratic primary opponent, Kevin Lembo.)
“He picked the secretary of state position for its importance to the low income [not only Latino] community that doesn’t vote in the numbers it should,” Reyes said of Garcia. “He is obsessed on making that office address that issue.”
Others attending included Housing Authority of New Haven Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton, Spanish American Merchant Association Chair Frank Alvarado, and Democratic Town Committee Vice-Chair Norma Rodriguez-Reyes. Rodriguez-Reyes (left in photo, with Garcia supporter Catalina Rayas) showed off a new bilingual campaign postcard for the Garcia campaign with the tag line “Make history together.”
“I feel great. I’m the only candidate who’s injecting passion [into the race],” Garcia said. “I’m not a career politician. I’m running to reinvent the Secretary of State.”
Garcia has said that his campaign has been driving the issue of early and same-day voting and bringing those approaches along with more up to date technology to bear on increasing voter turnout.
But the first step is those small donations before the end of next week. Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro urged attendees to locate five or ten friends who have not yet filled out the form and made their contribution to the Garcia candidacy.