Alfreda Edwards had some advice Tuesday for supporters of her candidate for president, Barack Obama, based on her own experience in New Haven politics: Don’t expect to change everything overnight.
Edwards is alderwoman from the 19th Ward, whose polling place — Celentano School — was a hotbed of debate Tuesday morning for partisans of both leading Democratic presidential candidates in the primary. A female Congresswoman who supports Barack Obama came to vote, crossing paths with a prominent African-American state representative backing Hillary Clinton. He, in turn, got into a debate with a black Obama supporter over gender and race in the White House.
Alfreda Edwards has a daughter who is ward chair and a granddaughter who was working at the polls at Celentano School on Primary Day Tuesday. At 22, Candice Edwards (pictured with her grandma) is skewing the average age of poll workers in this country, which is reportedly 72.
Candice is an old hand already, and said she likes the new voting system because it’s quick and easy. (One of the two machines that accepts the paper ballots got jammed in the morning, but was fixed by an elections tech, who said the few ballots that voters fed into the machine’s auxiliary bin will be counted by hand, but definitely will be counted.)
Alderwoman Edwards is an Obama fan. She was excited to see him Monday night, along with 17,000 others, at the convention center in Hartford. Quizzed on some of his specific proposals — like whether his health care plan is really universal or not, and whether he’ll be able to put in place his call for $4,000 grants for college students, provided they give something back in service — she had some advice for politicians and for the voters who may expect too much of them.
“I think when you first start off, you never know until you get there and you get your own plan together and you start perfecting things. You know, it’s just like when you become an alderperson and go down there with intentions of changing the world, and you get down there and start looking at budgets and things and it changes your whole attitude. It’s not saying you’re not going to try — you try with what you have, and that’s very important. I think if he gets elected and goes to Washington and tries to do some of the things that he’s promised to do, we all know that dollars and cents are a biggie.
“He sees what he wants to do, and once he gets there, regardless of all the talk that he’s doing, if his heart is really in it, he’ll try to figure out some things he’ll be able to accomplish and some things he won’t, and I think that’s what people need to realize, if he tries to do it, I think he’ll be elected on trying.”
Celentano School happened to be the polling place for both state Rep. Bill Dyson (a Hillary Clinton supporter) and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (a Barack Obama backer).
DeLauro was greeted by one of her constituents, Elise Knapp (pictured), who praised her for “doing the right thing” in publicly endorsing Obama. Knapp said afterward she thought it took a lot of courage, because many in the Democratic establishment must have tried to pressure DeLauro against that move. Knapp, of course, supports Obama too, “I was an Edwards supporter,” she explained, “because I thought issues mattered most, but now I realize that the American people are ready for change – that’s serious, not just a slogan.”
DeLauro herself echoed that, after voting and schmoozing with several constituents. She said it was a hard decision, “because we have two exceptionally qualified people for the job.” Perhaps it was especially difficult in light of her friendship with the Clintons and the fact that she’s been a longtime supporter of electing women to office in this country. She even served as first executive director of EMILY’s List, whose goal is to elect pro-choice women at every level of government. She said she supports Obama’s “new compact with people, that says if you work hard, you progress. I think Sen. Obama is the person to lead the way.” Click here for more of her thoughts.
Dyson came later (pictured showing his ID to a poll worker). After voting and the requisite check-in with constituents, he said he values both Clinton’s experience and Obama’s inspiration, “which is a heck of a dilemma to be confronted with.” He said he wished he could have both in one candidate, but went with Clinton because he thinks her experience and her contacts in the world are critical.
Outside, Dyson got into a discussion with another African American man, Cleveland Johnson, who opined that Hillary Clinton would not be accepted by other world leaders, especially in Muslim nations, because she is a woman (leaving aside the fact that a number of Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Indonesia, have elected women heads of state).
“And what would be the way you confront that?” Dyson wanted to know. “That’s an argument to make sure you always have men leaders.”
Alfreda Edwards disagreed, but left the conversation before elaborating, although she did mention that she didn’t appreciate Bill Clinton’s philandering.
“I’m talking about Hillary, not Bill,” Dyson pointed out.
“Conversely,” Dyson continued, “what about black men?” Would they be respected by other world leaders?
Johnson said that would be a lot easier, and as an example mentioned the respect that Jesse Jackson earned when he successfully negotiated the release of hostages in the Middle East.
Only time will tell which of these historic candidates has a chance to earn global respect by going up against the white guy in November.
