Brackeen Gets The Nod In Upper Westville

After his only rival suddenly dropped out, Darryl Brackeen earned the endorsement of the Ward 26 Democratic committee for Upper Westville’s open aldermanic seat.

The endorsement took place at a meeting Thursday evening at Davis Street school. Brackeen had been running against Ward 26 co-chair Ron Rainey for the ward’s aldermanic seat, which is being vacated by Alderman Sergio Rodriguez, who’s running for city/town clerk. Rainey, however, stood up to announce that he had decided to withdraw his candidacy in order to spend more time with his two daughters, who will be applying to college soon.

The move left Brackeen (pictured), who teaches at Lincoln-Bassett School, as the only candidate left in the running for the endorsement of the ward committee, which is a small, neighborhood-level branch of the Democratic Town Committee (DTC). The endorsement of the ward committee, which comprises up to 50 voters in the neighborhood, usually translates to an endorsement by the full DTC, which is key to getting a top spot on the ballot heading into the Sept. 10 Democratic primary. Brackeen received the committee’s endorsement in a unanimous vote.

The ward committee also voted to endorse Toni Harp in the race for mayor and Rodriguez for city/town clerk.

In his speech withdrawing his candidacy, Rainey said threw his full support to Brackeen and urged ward members to ​“make sure he stays on task.”

“I feel [Brackeen]’s a good candidate for this ward,” Rainey said. ​“He’s grown a lot in the past two years when he last ran for alderman [against Alderman Rodriguez]… He’s moved me. He’s touched me.”

Following Rainey’s withdrawal, Rodriguez — who previously endorsed Rainey — announced to the crowd that he would now support Brackeen, who sailed unopposed to the ward committee’s endorsement by a unanimous vote.

Prompted by Rodriguez to speak to the audience, Brackeen thanked those in attendance — including DTC chair Jackie James, state Rep. Pat Dillon and Ward 27 Alderman Angela Russell — before emphasizing that his candidacy ​“wasn’t about [Brackeen] … it’s about the community.”

James had a word of advice: Now that Brackeen has his ward committee’s nomination, mayoral candidates may someone else in Ward 26 to run against him. Brackeen, in other words, can’t afford to become complacent.

As ward committee members packed up to leave after the quick meeting, one member wanted to know who Rainey and fellow co-chair Arnie Amore will support at the July 23 DTC convention, where each of the ward committee co-chairs will vote for candidates to receive the official Democratic Party endorsement. There, they’ll cast votes for mayor, town/city clerk and alderman. (Thursday’s vote was technically advisory; aldermanic candidates don’t receive the official party blessing until co-chairs cast their votes at the full DTC.)

Amore cautioned that ​“endorsement by the Democratic Town Committee does not guarantee victory,” citing the 1989 election, when John DeStefano received the DTC endorsement but still lost to John Daniels in the Democratic primary.

By state law, ward committee co-chairs can vote for whichever candidate they want, regardless of the wishes of the rest of the ward committee. But Amore and Rainey said they decided to hold a straw poll of the 14 ward committee members in attendance Thursday before revealing whom they had decided to support.

For clerk, 12 committee members supported Rodriguez, with one vote each to alderman Michael Smart and current clerk Ron Smith. In the mayoral race, 12 votes went to Harp and two went to Henry Fernandez.

Rainey and Amore revealed that, serendipitously, they had already planned to vote for Harp and Rodriguez at the DTC convention, putting them in agreement with a majority of the ward committee.