Brackeen Steps Toward Statewide Run

A hundred friends and affiliated politicos poured into a newish downtown bar to wish Darryl Brackeen a happy 33rd birthday — by boosting his ​“exploration” of seeking the office of Connecticut’s guardian of democracy.

That office is secretary of the state, Connecticut’s top elections official in an era when that’s a particularly big deal.

With most statewide incumbents expected to seek reelection last year, that position will probably be one of only a handful open on the Democratic ticket in 2022. Ambitious politicians statewide looking to move up have already started seeking support for a primary. Three-term incumbent Denise Merrill is not running for reelection.

Brackeen, a five-term alder representing New Haven’s Ward 26 in Upper Westville, sought to leap ahead of the pack by holding Thursday evening’s birthday party/ fundraiser at Doc’s Baja Surf Shack, which opened late last year at 196 Crown St. near the corner of Temple. Brackeen is the second potential secretary of the state candidate so far to form an ​“exploratory committee” to begin raising money for a run. (Hamden State Rep. Joshua Elliott has also formed a committee.)

The Doc’s Baja crowd included Brackeen supporters from Hamden, West Haven, and Fairfield, but consisted most of all of New Haven campaign veterans.

Mayor Justin Elicker, whose campaigns Brackeen has supported, returned the favor with a speech that characterized Brackeen as someone primed to protect voting rights at a time ​“when other states are whittling away” at them. (Watch a video of the speeches here.)

In his own remarks to the crowd, Brackeen echoed the argument that the Republican Party is ​“seeking to take away the rights of people to vote in underrepresented communities and disenfranchised communities.”

But then he pivoted: He spoke of how Connecticut actually lags behind red states like Georgia and Florida on some electoral measures. For instance, those states allow early voting. Connecticut doesn’t. It’s time it did, he said.

The New Haven native, who caught the civics bug and started organizing voter-registration drives as a student of the late Hillhouse High School teacher Jack Paulishen, also spoke about the long lines voters in New Haven often wait on to cast their ballots. He spoke of how he founded and chaired a group called Generation Change CT to expand voting participation, voting rights, electoral reforms, and election security here in the state.

Before his speech, he said he plans during the ​“exploratory” phase of the campaign to dive into specific proposals to advance three goals as secretary of the state: expanding voting rights, ensuring clean and secure elections, and supporting the development of new small businesses, especially in cities. Besides overseeing elections, the secretary of the state is in charge of business filings and maintaining the commercial registry.

The secretary of the state also proposes and lobbies for new election laws. Perhaps as a result, for decades the position has been filled by state legislators who already had experience drafting and voting on such legislation: Merrill, Susan Bysiewicz, Miles Rapoport, Pauline Kezer. Elliott, the only other potential candidate this year to form an exploratory committee, also serves in the legislature, as does Meriden State Rep. Hilda Santiago, who is also said to be seriously considering a run.

Brackeen and his supporters Thursday night spoke of his elections/democracy experience. Besides Generation Change and voter drives, he has proposed and passed legislation as an alder, served as presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s New Haven campaign chief in 2016, served as a campaign surrogate for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, and worked as northeast regional director for the Young Elected Officials Network.

Supporters Thursday night were asked to donate $250 to Brackeen’s exploratory committee — and no more. That’s because the campaign wants to be ready to roll over those donations ​“as soon as we’re ready” to transition from the ​“exploratory” to the official campaign stage and still qualify for public financing, explained treasurer Rhonda Caldwell, a Hamden Democratic Town Committee member and social-justice activist. Contributions above $250 would disqualify Brackeen from participating in the public-financing Citizens’ Election Program.

Brackeen told the crowd he fully intends to participate in the program, which seeks to enable candidates to wage campaigns without relying on tainted money from corporate or other special-interest donors: ​“I don’t believe in dealing with corrupt individuals. I don’t believe in doing business with corrupt individuals,” Brackeen declared.

The last New Havener to mount a secretary of the state campaign, Gerry Garcia, lost to Merrill in 2010. Garcia, too, had the support of New Haven’s then-mayor and leading politicians.

Since then, New Haven has produced no statewide elected officials, despite producing the largest number of Democratic votes in statewide elections.

Another issue for the Democrats this year will be whether the party wants to have no Latinos represented on their statewide ticket, as is currently the case with the statewide constitutional offices. Neither major party has ever had a Latino candidate on a statewide general election ballot.

“It’s high time New Haven had someone on the statewide ticket,” said Democratic Town Chair Vincent Mauro. Mauro hasn’t endorsed a specific candidate yet; he wasn’t present Thursday night at Doc’s Baja Surf Shack. When a full field of 2022 candidates emerges, he said, ​“it’s our responsibility to coalesce around the best candidate we can.”

In the meantime, Darryl Brackeen will be focusing on two campaigns at once. In addition to seeking statewide support for his 2022 exploratory secretary of the state quest, he is running in the 2021 municipal election for a sixth term as Ward 26 alder. He has an energetic Republican opponent, Joshua Van Hoesen.

Correction: an earlier version of this story reported that 50 people had attended the event. The campaign reports that 100 people signed in.