Under fire for collecting thousands of dollars from special interest groups, mayoral candidate Toni Harp in turn took aim at the city’s clean elections program for allowing “sore losers” to keep running without “clean hands.”
The discussion took place at the end of a two-hour mayoral debate Wednesday at the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale. The event was the last debate before four candidates — Harp, Kermit Carolina, Justin Elicker and Henry Fernandez — face off in a Democratic primary for mayor on Tuesday.
(Click on the play arrow above to watch the exchange.)
The debate, which drew a crowd of over 100 people, was sponsored by the Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY), the Yale Divinity School Seminarians for a Democratic Society, and My Brother’s Keeper, a criminal justice group run by Barbara Fair.
Towards the end of the debate, moderator Patricia Okonta of BSAY asked a question from an anonymous person in the audience. The question was addressed to Harp and Fernandez.
She asked how Harp and Fernandez will ensure they’re not beholden to special interests and out-of-towners once in office, given the campaign contributions they’ve received.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Harp, Fernandez, Carolina, and Elicker.
Harp and Fernandez fell in the hot seat because they have both opted not to participate in the city’s clean elections program, called the Democracy Fund. Carolina and Elicker are participating in the program, which grants matching public money to candidates who collect 200 donations from New Haven voters; agree to swear off donations from political action committees and companies; and cap individual donations at $370 instead of $1,000.
Campaign finance filings released Tuesday reveal that Harp and Fernandez have raised over three-quarters of their money from outside New Haven; while Elicker and Carolina have received three-quarters of their money from city voters. Click here for a detailed analysis.
Larger donations have helped propel Harp and Fernandez into the fundraising lead: Harp reported raising a total of $287,413; Fernandez, $265,361; Elicker, $170,693; and Carolina has raised $43,110.
Harp received $22,150 from businesses and political action committees in July and August, including contributions from Yale’s unions.
Harp responded to the question by taking aim at the Democracy Fund. She noted that her three opponents have all secured spots to run as independent candidates on the general election ballot in case they lose the Democratic primary.
If they lose the primary, Elicker and Carolina can no longer participate in the Democracy Fund. They’ll be free, then, to accept donations from PACs and to take in donations up to $1,000, as Harp has been doing.
“Frankly I have a problem with that,” Harp said Wednesday. If a “sore loser” candidate uses the Democracy Fund for the primary, then runs in the general election without those clean-elections restrictions, “you muddy the waters and don’t come to the discussion frankly with clean hands.”
Harp cast doubt over whether the Democracy Fund is a good investment for city tax dollars. “We spend over $200,000 on the Democracy Fund, while cutting programs to our young people,” she said. “I am very concerned that when we have these conversations, we haven’t looked at the whole picture.”
“The reality is that the Democracy Fund itself has issues,” she said.
Carolina and Elicker.
Elicker and Carolina repeated a pledge they made at a debate last week—that they will continue to run “clean” campaigns after the primary. They vowed to stick to the $370-per-person cap, and other restrictions of the Democracy Fund, in the general election, even though they don’t have to.
“Kermit and I have both committed to abiding by the rules of the Democracy Fund as we head into the general election,” Elicker said.
“When you have a mayor that doesn’t participate in the Democracy Fund,” he warned, they will owe favors to the interest groups who supported them, and “you’re going to get an inefficient government.”
Special interest groups and out-of-towners who support Harp or Fernandez “want something back,” Carolina said. “It’s pay to play.” He said he’s proud of the number of New Haven voters who have supported his campaign.
Fernandez, who has financed his campaigns in part with money from contractors and trades unions, said “the critique against me is fair” regarding where his money comes from. He said he supports the Democracy Fund. But he argued that he needs the money to defend himself against Harp.
The Democracy Fund “doesn’t allow you to protect yourself from large special interest groups like city employee unions being able to dump money in to the elections and pay for large mailings to residents of the city, as they’re currently doing on behalf of Senator Harp,” he argued.
Elicker took aim at Harp, citing the law firms and lobbyists she has collected money from who also do business with the city or state.
“I have a record,” Harp replied. “I have run before. The reality is is that no matter who’s funded my campaign, I have been fair. I haven’t given them any favors.”
After the debate, she elaborated on her critique of the Democracy Fund.
“What we heard today” was that Carolina and Elicker would stick to the $370-per-person cap, but voters will have to take their word for it, because it won’t be enforced by the Democracy Fund, Harp argued. “We won’t know that until the [campaign] filings are made.”
She argued that as it’s currently constructed, the Democracy Fund subsidizes candidates “getting their name out” in the primary, only to let them abandon the program’s principals and run traditional campaigns in the November election.
Democracy Fund board Chair Patricia Kane, who was present at the debate, agreed there’s a problem with how the clean-election ordinance is written. She said candidates should be allowed to continue participating in the fund in the general election.
“Strong-Arm”?
Also Wednesday, Harp drew heat from her opponents for calling for new minority hiring requirements for people doing business with city government.
Harp said she “would require, any time there’s a zoning variance, there be written into it that New Haven residents be employed” by the company applying for the variance.
“That is absolutely illegal and we would get sued,” responded Elicker. The zoning board is supposed to grant zoning relief based on whether an applicant has a hardship, not threaten to withhold zoning based on how many local residents that business employs, he later explained.
“You can require it through conversation, not through law,” Harp later replied, “and that takes leadership.”
“You’ve got to want to do it in the first place” and not “make excuses,” she said.
Fernandez, who noted that he’s “the one person with a law degree,” agreed that her proposal would be illegal.
“It is very clear that you cannot even negotiate on these kind of issues. It would be illegal. It would be seen as strong-arming a developer. I don’t believe that was in any way Senator Harp’s intent. But would be illegal.”
After the debate, Harp said she would look into the legal aspect. But she said her intent would be that “anyone who got any kind of benefit from the city” would be required to hire New Haveners.