In order to meet a course requirement, these Hopkins students helped defeat an incumbent Democrat — at the urging of a Democratic mayor’s team.
Ben Koizim (at left in photo) and Patrick Hulin were among a dozen Hopkins kids passing out Maureen O’Sullivan-Best palm cards Tuesday before the two polling places in Ward 11, which lies in Fair Haven Heights and Bishop Woods.
In that contest O’Sullivan-Best, an independent making her first run for alderwoman, defeated incumbent Democrat Robert Lee by 365 to 222 votes (not counting absentee ballots). It was the upset of Election Day in New Haven this year.
Along with other allies of City Hall, the kids just might have been a secret weapon. For the past two to three weeks they have been phone-banking and participating in get-out-the vote efforts for O’Sullivan-Best. All told they provided the O’Sullivan-Best campaign 80 to 100 hours of door-knocking and phone-calling.
“These lovely guys made all the difference in the world,” observed Patty DePalma, Ward 11 Democratic co-chair.
There was one girl among the contingent.
According to Ben Koizim, who had previously worked as a volunteer on the mayor’s gubernatorial campaign, their involvement began this way: Thom Peters, the students’ teacher at Hopkins in a course called 21st Century Democracy, contacted Mayor DeStefano’s campaign. The teacher wanted the students to be involved in a genuine political campaign. He assigned the students to work 10 hours of practical political experience.
The mayor’s campaign manager, Keya Jayaram, subsequently emailed all the kids in the class. She directed them to the O’Sullivan-Best campaign.
A week later the mayor showed up and spoke to all 50 kids about politics in general.
Koizim and Hulin and about 10 others were assigned to the O’Sullivan-Best campaign. (Other Hopkins kids were sent to work on campaigns in their respective towns.)
On Tuesday, they weren’t the only pro-City Hall Democrats working against the endorsed Democrat in Ward 11. Tim Larson, who runs Tweed-New Haven Airport, also worked for Sullivan-Best. (Larson, the brother of U.S. Rep. John Larson, is also a Democratic state representative from East Hartford.)
Both DeStefano and campaign manager Jayaram made no apologies for backing an independent against a candidate endorsed by their own party.
“She was the better candidate. She just wasn’t a Democrat,” DeStefano said. “Maureen was a great candidate. She talked to people instead of yelling at them.”
“It’s not about being on one party or the other,” Jayaram said. “It’s not about always saying yes or no, but being willing to think and reason.”
O’Sullivan-Best made clear Tuesday night that, independent or not, she’s on the mayor’s team. “I voted for the mayor,” she said, and she intends to work with him.
Real-Life Learning
On Tuesday, Alderman Lee (pictured) spotted Koizim, Hulin, and the others passing out his challenger’s palm cards in front of the Bella Vista polling place. “He’s using the kids,” Lee said, referring to the mayor. “He’s bad!”
Hulin said he liked the grassroots quality of the experience. He’d volunteered on the Obama presidential campaign. But only through this experience had he met the people who run things, he said.
Before the results came in Tuesday night, Ben Koizim said he was “cautiously optimistic.” Hulin also cautioned about the power of Robert Lee’s incumbency.
When the moderator called aloud the results and O’Sullivan-Best’s face shined, the Hopkins crew was exuberant in that laid-back way of teenagers.
But not all of them. “I want to be called ‘Ben-The-Secret-Weapon Koizim!’” Koizim declared.
Before they got to work on their papers, the students went off to celebrate at the mayor’s victory party at Playwright downtown. The mayor gave the Hopkins students a special shout out during his victory speech. (The students are pictured with O’Sullivan-Best at Playwright.)
Melissa Bailey contributed reporting.