Allan Appel Photo
Dixon Jimenez had never knocked on doors for candidates before. He signed up to do that to help the Democratic Party rally the vote in the three weeks remaining until Nov. 2 — joining a campaign “Brigade” that’s seeking Latino help as it turns its focus to the city.
An activist with the Ecuadorian community in New Haven, Jimenez (pictured above) was one of more than a dozen potential new canvassers who signed up with the Hilltop Brigade at a house party Tuesday night organized with the Connecticut Democratic Hispanic Caucus. The Brigade is a team of local liberal Democrats from the region who swing into other Connecticut U.S. House districts where they’re needed every two years. (Click here and here for previous stories on Hilltop Brigade events.)
This year, it seems, there’ll be work for Brigade members like Jimenez here in New Haven. A Brigade normally focused on sending local volunteers elsewhere has a reason to target New Haven this year — and it needs Latino help to succeed.
Tuesday’s event drew 40 people to the home of Lee Cruz and Sarah Miller on Clinton Street in Fair Haven, where former gubernatorial candidate Juan Figueroa and former 10-term U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson rallied the troops.
Gejdenson (foreground, with Figueroa) delivered a stem winder about what he termed the alarming extremism of the Republican opposition statewide and nationally.
“We cannot compete with corporate ads on TV. But we can beat them [Republicans] with putting people on the streets. And if you can’t you’ll pay the price,” Gejdenson said.
Normally the Hilltop Brigade recruits in safe districts to send canvassers to other districts where Democrats are challenged, said Paul Nuñez, a member of the caucus and policy analyst for state House Speaker Chris Donovan. New Haveners are recruited to knock on doors and call voters in, say, Fairfield County or Greater Waterbury. The Brigade made its name in 2008 recruiting and deploying in the close election of Connecticut U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney, Chris Murphy, and Jim Himes.
This time the Hilltop Brigade agreed to do something it had never done before: Recruit and deploy for two Sundays between now and election day for canvassing strictly in New Haven, where its U.S. Rosa DeLauro’s seat is considered safe.
That’s because the Brigade is worried about the fate of two Democratic statewide candidates, gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy and Senate hopeful Dick Blumenthal.
If the votes [for the statewide offices] don’t get out in a Democratic stronghold like New Haven, and if the outcome is unhappy for the Dems, “We’ll be looking at November 3rd and wondering, ‘Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda,” Nuñez prophesied.
That’s where people like Jimenez come in. He signed up not only for the Sunday New Haven canvasses but for the Saturdays between now and Nov. 2 as well.
He said that he will recruit his friends to join him, likely in New Haven, to door knock among the Latino population, he said. Nuñez said pullers like Jimenez will be sent to speak with Latino voters over the next two Sundays.
In Jimenez the Hilltop Brigade has found someone who may not have local experience but is very familiar with politics. Click here for an Independent portrait of Jimenez’s emergence as a local leader..
Jimenez said that in his native town, Puerto Quito, a rural district of 80,000 people in Ecuador, he was secretary to the election committee for the man who ran for mayor. Jimenez’s candidate won.
Jimenez and Nunez.
He agreed that the person-to-person contact is the vest way to reach people. About the Republican-Democratic face off that characterized most American elections, Jimenez said, “It’s different for Ecuador, because we have 11 legal parties and 27 legal political movements.”
“It’s less confusing,” he said of New Haven’s elections.
Nuñez asked Jimenez to be in touch with new citizens to make sure they register.
In addition Jimenez plans to be in touch with people who may not be citizens but are nevertheless interested in canvassing.
Nuñez and Jimenez exchanged numbers.
“Any voter not part of the mainstream for language or whatever reason, there should be a greater effort” to reach to them, Nuñez said.