Thomas MacMillan Photo
West River Alderman Yusuf Shah Thursday declared himself not a candidate for reelection and threw his support to the woman seeking to boot him for office.
Shah (pictured above on the floor of the Board of Aldermen), a Democrat who has represented West River’s Ward 23 for 10 years, originally declared himself not a candidate for reelection on July 28, after challenger Tyisha Walker succeeded in gaining the endorsement of the Democratic Town Committee. He decided not to run for reelection in a Democratic primary.
Two weeks later he secured a petition spot as an independent on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Shah said in an interview Thursday that he definitely is not running in that election, after all.
He said he made the decision in the wake of Tuesday’s Democratic Party primaries, in which 14 of 15 candidates backed by Yale’s UNITE HERE union locals defeated candidates backed by City Hall. The unions support Walker, who’s a steward with UNITE HERE Local 35; Shah has been allied with the DeStefano administration.
“After seeing [what happened Tuesday], I don’t want to get involved in a race like that in the 23rd Ward,” Shah said, pointing out the amount of money spent on behalf of labor-backed candidates. “I don’t want to see any more money spent like that on an election. That money can be better spent on summer youth employment.”
“Wow. That’s great,” Walker said upon learning of Shah’s decision.
“Support for me is support for West River,” she added. “I want West River to go to the next level.”
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Walker.