Thomas Breen Photo
Abby Roth at a neighborhood management team meeting.
A newly elected alder who raised thousands of dollars to run against nobody is turning over much of the money to charity.
The alder-elect, Democrat Abby Roth from Audubon/East Rock/ Downtown’s Ward 7, is returning to a seat she used to hold before retiring two years ago. She ran unopposed in Tuesday’s election.
She ended up raising $8,660 for the quest (not including in-kind contributions), she said. And she ended up not needing most of it.
She reported Wednesday morning that she expects to have $6,025.05 left over, which she plans to split among four charities: New Haven Reads, Liberty Community Services, Artspace, and New Haven Land Trust.
She sent the following email message Tuesday night to supporters:
“Hello!
I want to again thank everyone who donated to my campaign for alder and happily report that I won the election today. After the incumbent dropped out in late July, a write-in candidate entered the race. I won the election against him by a count of 419 – 8.
As I have said to some of you previously, your generous donations played a critical role in this campaign.. They demonstrated I had strong support, was organized, and was serious about campaigning hard. I am almost positive this played an important role in the incumbent dropping out. Your donations also enabled me to create campaign materials including fliers, yard signs, and mailers. Postage is expensive, but critical to reach folks in some of the apartment buildings downtown that have prohibitions on going door to door to meet folks.. So again, thank you!
While I purposefully raised a lot of money as a show of strength, I only spent what I needed to spend. Therefore I am happy to report that I expect I will have over $5,000 leftover which, per campaign finance rules, I can distribute to nonprofits. I am going to distribute the money to four local nonprofits doing high-impact work in critical areas for New Haven, including addressing homelessness, education, the environment, and the arts. Specifically the organizations are Liberty Community Services, New Haven Reads, New Haven Land Trust, and Artspace.
I am very excited to become Ward 7 Alder as of January 1, so that I can be strong advocate for residents and businesses in Ward 7 and work hard to address challenges and take advantage of opportunities for all of New Haven.
Again, my sincere thanks for your support of and belief in me!
Abby