(A&B) Lines Drawn In Crowded Primary

When Hamden Democrats go to the polls Tuesday, they will decide among 21 different candidates seeking office — or simply between teams on two rows that will appear on the ballot. Row A and Row B.

Well, add an asterisk: Row A, Row B, and ​“Row C.”

Those 21 candidates are running for a wide range of offices, from mayor to city clerk to Board of Education to Legislative Council.

How to tell them apart?

In most cases, they’re running on one of two lines: Line A, the Democratic Town Committee-endorsed slate. And Line B, a challenge slate that petitioned its way onto the ballot. Registered Democrats in Hamden can vote between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the following locations: Miller Memorial Library, Booker T Washington Academy, the Keefe Community Center, Spring Glen School, the Board of Education offices, and Ridge Hill, Dunbar Hill, Bear Path, and West Woods schools. (Click here to look up your voting location.)

As the final weekend of door-to-door campaigning and rallies demonstrated, the candidates are running to a large extent as teams, based on those lines. Team Row A is led by DTC-endorsed mayoral candidate Lauren Garrett; it’s calling for a change in the way the town has run. Team Row B is led by incumbent Mayor Curt Leng, for keeping the current leadership team and current policies in place.

There’s also a third mayoral candidate, Peter Cyr, who’s running on his own without a slate. (Hence ​“Row C.”)

The vote-seeking this weekend did reveal some nuances: Some candidates pressing more individual pitches, others more team-oriented. And within the Team Row A slate, which roughly represents a progressive wing that has been ascendant in town politics in recent years, three candidates have also been endorsed by the Working Families Party, two others by Central Connecticut’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter; those two groups also had supporters out on the trail.

In addition to Garrett for mayor, the Team Row A’s candidates for contested seats in Tuesday primary include Karimah Mickens for town clerk; David Asberry, Siobhan Carter-David, Melissa Kaplan, and Mariam Khan for Board of Education; and Dominique Baez, Katie Kiely, Cory O’Brien, Laurie Sweet for council at-large. The team has emphasized more concerted action on the town’s crushing long-term debt, contract reform, racial equity, and police reforms.

Leng’s Team Row B is made up of both veteran officials and community leaders new to local politics who Leng personally asked to join his campaign. They are primarily running on a pro-police platform; Leng was endorsed by the Hamden Police Union on Friday. Alongside Curt Leng, Row B features Melinda Saller for town clerk; Frank Dixon, Nicholas McDonald, Jennifer Jason Sweeten, and Joshua Watkins for Board of Education; and Richard Mutts, Berita Rowe-Lewis, Kathleen Schomaker, and Rachel Scolnic Dobin for council at large.

Row B ​“Bromance”

As Watkins knocked on doors Saturday, he didn’t emphasize the word ​“Watkins.” Or his biography. He spoke about Row B.

“I don’t think I’ve told anybody I’m running for Board of Ed in two weeks, ​”Watkins said as he drove between districts, honking every time he saw a sign advertising Row B.

Watkins, said the success of his slate takes priority over his personal win.

“I’ve stopped thinking about myself altogether. It’s all about them,” he said of Row B.

That may be partly because Watkins isn’t just a BOE candidate. Two weeks before the primary, Leng asked him to be his campaign manager.

Watkins said he and Leng have been in constant communication since he expanded his food security work as director of New Haven’s Community Soup Kitchen into Hamden in June. (Read here about how he provides free farmer’s markets and meals every week out of the Keefe Center.)

Their ​“bromance,” as the pair refer to it, blossomed further in late July.

“So, how busy are you right now, Josh?” Watkins remembered Leng asking him around the time of the DTC convention. Watkins’ wedding was scheduled a few days out, a honeymoon in Portugal after that. He told Leng so.

“Ah… OK,” Leng responded. ​“But I just have to ask: Would you consider running for the Board of Ed?”

Watkins, who campaigned in the past for New York Mayor Bill De Blasio but has never sought an elected office himself, found himself agreeing. And beginning his campaign from another country.

Two weeks later, Leng made a second ask: Would you be my campaign manager?

Rachel Scolnic Dobin, a first-time candidate for an at-large Legislative Council seat, said that she has had her eye on seeking local office one day since she interned with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro in college. Like Watkins, she has worked on the campaigns of others, including former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman and presidential candidate John Kerry.

Scolnic Dobin, who grew up in Hamden, originally sought the support of the DTC. ​“I thought that’s what you were supposed to do,” she said. But after she failed to win a nomination, she received a call from Leng.

“I talked to Curt for hours,” she said. ​“It was beautiful. It was natural. It was friendship.”

Scolnic Dobin, a licensed social worker, has served on Hamden’s Disability Commission for eight years. Like Watkins, she didn’t speak much about herself when she visited voters this week. She first informed them of the primary date, then urged them to vote for Leng, and lastly to support all of Row B.

At some doors, the decision had already been made. The slate still stopped by to remind them to show up to vote on Tuesday.

Dave Huston, or ​“Uncle Dave” to the Row B team, is an ex-cop who has since worked as a mail carrier and an armed guard at Yale New Haven Hospital. He offered a warm welcome to Scolnic Dobin, Watkins, and Town Clerk candidate Melinda Saller when they walked by his home on Saturday morning.

Huston has lived in Hamden for 42 years. He’s a longtime Leng supporter, primarily because, he said, ​“Curt has always been pro-police and has brought up the force and brought out bike patrols.”

He said that Hamden’s Police Department is ​“so good” that cops transfer to Hamden from neighboring towns. That saves the town money, he said, because they don’t have to pay to certify or train veteran officers.

In addition, he said, Leng is accessible. ​“In the middle of tornadoes and blizzards, he’s telling us to stay away from roads on Facebook. He’s live,” Huston noted, ​“and his door is always open.”

The reason he will vote Row B straight across, Huston said, is because he has faith that Leng would put ​“a good team together” that shares his focus on public safety.

“People say they want change, but I don’t think they want that big a change,” he said of Lauren Garrett. ​“She’s not pro-police. She’s risky.”

“Lauren Garrett: Too risky for Hamden,” is also the headline of a mailer that Leng has funded and distributed through the final weeks preceding the primary. The literature he has put out consistently uses the term ​“anti-police” to describe Garrett’s platform. That has worked with some voters; others said it caused them to reconsider voting for Leng.

Mix & Match

On Sunday morning, Al Rosenfeld and his wife (who asked to remain unnamed and declined to be photographed) were touring a Centerbrook apartment with real estate agent Ellen Nathanson. All three are currently Hamden residents who said they are planning to go with Garrett.

For Nathanson, the big issue is rising taxes over Leng’s term. But for Rosenfeld, it’s been all the ​“negativity,” he said. Two years ago, Rosenfeld said, he voted for Leng. But the unfair and ​“unattractive” light in which Rosenfeld felt that Leng painted Garrett made him turn in the other direction, he said.

“It’s very disturbing,” he said of the literature he received in the mail attacking Garrett. ​“I’ll never vote for him again.”

However, all three did agree to vote for Scolnic Dobin — because they are members of her father’s synagogue. (Her father Benjamin Scolnic has served as rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom since 1983.)

For both candidates and voters, the choice to support a slate or an individual is about known connections.

“The only way I’ll get into politics is if it’s personal,” Watkins said. He chose the Board of Education to create a new system of communication and transparency for the future in which he has children. But ultimately, he said, ​“I’m here because Curt needed me.”

Row A: Fiscal Conversion

Over on Elihu Street, Cory O’Brien was seeking to return to the Legislative Council after two years away.

O’Brien was Hamden’s Sixth District representative for two years until Kathleen Schomaker beat him in the 2019 election. Now he and Schomaker are running against each other one more time: as at-large candidates.

O’Brien, who works as a project manager and fiscal analyst with a healthcare IT company, said that he believed he didn’t get the votes in 2019 because he was known for being a dissenting voice who was ​“outspoken against financial practices.”

“At that time the Council didn’t even know what was going on,” he said, referring to the systematic usage of capital sweeps that Leng’s administration was relying on to borrow money for town projects.

“It took me a year and FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests” to unpack Hamden’s budget, he said. Now, the political landscape in Hamden seems different: People are better educated about the nature of Hamden’s debt, and in many cases looking for candidates pursuing fiscal accountability, transparency, and who are not associated with Curt Leng.

On Saturday, he was joined at voters’ doors by State Rep. Josh Elliott, who has endorsed Garrett.

Carl Yusef’s was his first door. Yusef, a self-proclaimed undecided voter, took the opportunity when O’Brien pressed him to ask questions and share his concerns.

“Don’t residents know that we have a problem?” Yusef asked. ​“Bulk pick up is gone, property taxes are spiking.”

“Well my biggest focus is finance,” O’Brien said. ​“The town keeps saying, ​‘Everything’s fine, everything’s fine,’” he said. ​“Before the mill rate was over 50, the town kept saying, we can’t go above 50 because everyone will leave in droves.” O’Brien said they should have been asking ​“where’s the problem?”

Two years ago, O’Brien responded, he had to inform residents that Hamden was in debt. Now he’s seeking to convince voters to support Row A as the critical candidates who will make hard decisions to get the town’s financial situation back on track.

“So, where in town are we being fiscally irresponsible?” Yusef prompted.

The issue, O’Brien responded, is chronic overinflation of estimated revenues that incentivize the town to take out loans and accrue more debt. The overprojection of revenues could be solved, he said, through a more honest budgeting process featuring ​“daily, weekly, monthly oversight.”

He drew a distinction between the Fire and Police Departments. ​“I’m thoroughly impressed with the Fire Department,” he said. ​“I may not agree with how [the chief] is spending, but he can explain where the money goes and have a conversation.”

O’Brien said the police department operates differently, taking advantage of contract loopholes to run up overtime spending for patrol officers. ​“I’m not trying to paint that one instance as all of the issue,” he said, but rather the situation reflects broader fiscal mismanagement and obfuscation.

“Is there any penalty for not knowing where one’s money is going or overspending?” Yusef followed up.

“That’s up to the discretion of the mayor because he hires department heads,” O’Brien responded.

Yusef said that supports heightened transparency and communication around town finances. If taxes were going to go up, he said, he would want to know why beforehand.

O’Brien said he is advocating for a public five year plan that would outline and explain necessary increases in debt service payments.

“You need people willing to go in there and make the hard decisions. If I get voted out in two years knowing I made the right decision, that’s fine,” he said.

Then he transitioned to his Row A slate: ​“I’m on a slate of new people who want a different system, and are willing to make the hard decision no matter what.”

After that conversation, Yusef said, he was in. ​“I’m with you in every way,” he said, adding that he’s rooting for the slate.

Now You Ask?

A few doors down, it was too late for that conversation to affirm a voter’s choices. When Craig O’Connell saw Josh Elliott, his son’s schoolmate, on his stoop, he said, ​“I already voted for Curt.”

The reason?

“Nobody asked for my vote” from the Row A team, he said.

“I had lots of problems with Curt over the years,” he said. ​“What happened is I like how he handled the pandemic,” noting Leng’s institution of an indoor mask mandate.

He said he also opposed Row A’s constant critiquing of Leng’s decision-making: ​“It’s easier to jump down elected officials’ backs than to legislate things.”

O’Connell depicted Garrett’s campaign as overly critical.

His decision to vote for Leng also meant that he went along with all the Row B candidates.

“Well, regardless of your vote, thank you for voting!” O’Brien said.

“It really could have gone either way,” he insisted. Leng just got to him first.

Elliott asked O’Connell whom he voted for in the presidential election. ​“I was a Bernie [Sanders] supporter,” he said. ​“But I voted for Biden. I wanted a winner!”

“I was for [Elizabeth] Warren,” Elliott shared.

“JAM” Session

Unlike Row B canvassers accompanied by the Independent, Row A canvassers tended to begin with long individual conversations, seeking a personal connection, before moving on to the question of the full slate.

One example of that strategy was Mariam Khan, a 19-year-old Yale pre-med student running for an elected position on the Board of Education. She previous served as the board’s student representative for two years while a Hamden High student.

“I’m a product of the system I plan to serve,” Khan likes to say. The eldest daughter of two Pakistani immigrants, she said, she has a unique outlook compared to the eight older individuals running for BOE. She does not have a child in the school system, but she does have siblings there.

On Sunday, she was not out campaigning with Row A but with ​“JAM” the trio of Row A candidates who are endorsed by the Central Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America. The other two members include Justin Farmer, 27, and Abdul Osmanu, also 19. Those two are running unopposed for district seats on council.

The week before the primary, they organized a rally Sunday to get socialist canvassers to go out and advocate for Khan. Over 60 individuals came out — and then got to door-knocking.

Khan’s name is on spot 10A on Tuesday’s ballot. Farmer’s slogan at the doors is ​“Vote the best, then the rest,” encouraging voters to choose Khan — and then to vote for the remaining Row A candidates.

On Sunday, all three went out together to support Khan’s campaign.

“We need to get young people into this space,” Farmer told Shelby Spivy.

“These two are 19,” Farmer said. ​“They make me feel old.”

“Homeboy’s 27,” Khan said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m 27, too,” Spivy said with a laugh.

They compared experiences of troubled schooling in Hamden. Farmer recalled growing up as a special education student. For a while he was taken out of school; the town provided him with only six hours a week of tutoring services.

Spivy said she was kicked out of school early on, and felt she wasn’t provided with a support system.

“Getting help shouldn’t be something negative,” Khan said. She whipped out her phone and began walking Spivy through graphs and charts she had created to compare expulsion and suspension rates across Hamden’s schools for students of color.

“Fam got schematics!” Farmer exclaimed.

Khan explained policies that she proposed and passed while a student representative to make schooling more equitable and productive for students of all backgrounds. For example, she successfully pressed for Hamden High to follow a universal pass-fail system during the pandemic.

“That’s how it should be!” Spivy responded. She complained that students claim superiority over one another based on a matter of meaningless points. A 97 over an 87, she said, doesn’t mean one person is better than another.

At the end of the conversation, Spivy had committed to voting for Khan. ​“Get the old heads out!” she said.