Harp Scores Decisive Victory

Toni Harp got closer to becoming New Haven’s first-ever female mayor Tuesday night by capturing half the votes in a four-way Democratic primary.

Now New Haven has a two-way mayoral race going into the general election, between Harp and Justin Elicker.

Click here to see a ward-by-ward breakdown of all of New Haven’s Democratic Primary election results.

Harp received 49.8 percent of the votes cast in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary, just shy of the magic number of 50 percent, a goal of her campaign.

Harp celebrated her victory with a raucous crowd at Keys to The City nightclub on Long Wharf, where she was introduced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Harp said through her campaign, she ​“I crisscrossed this city and I went to too many communities that feel that they are the stepchildren of this city”: Foxon, Beaver Hill, East Shore, Westville, Dwight, and the Hill. ​“I went across this city and there were very few places that felt like they got their due.”

“Under my leadership, everyone will get their due,” she vowed.

Harp thanked her neighborhood campaign teams and the unions that supported her.

“Hundreds of union people hit the streets for Toni today,” Central Labor Council President Bob Proto said in a conversation afterwards. ​“We did the work.” Proto’s council and the two most politically powerful local unions, Yale’s UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35 and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, endorsed Harp’s campaign and devoted extensive financial, staff and volunteer resources.

“It’s a very substantial win when you get 50 percent in a four-way race,” state Sen. Martin Looney, one of Harp’s main supporters, observed after the returns came in.

Justin Elicker took 23.2 percent of the citywide vote; Henry Fernandez, whose campaign picked up momentum in recent weeks, followed behind with 18.9 percent.

Kermit Carolina came in with 8.1 percent.

Fernandez and Carolina promptly announced they will not run in the general election, even though they had secured independent spots on the ballot.

Elicker has an independent spot, too, and is pressing ahead. His candidacy will depend on his ability to attract a majority of the city’s registered 18,316 independent voters and 2,553 registered Republicans.

“We’ll see you in November,” Elicker said to about 100 supporters gathered at O’Toole’s pub on Orange Street. ​“No one believed we would come this far.”

He said he’d expected to win more votes in the primary. Then he spoke of all the unaffiliated voters; he said they represent people disaffected with party machines. ​“Those people are ours,” he proclaimed to an outburst of applause.

Then he added, ​“We have zero dollars.” He nevertheless repeated that he will continue abiding by his pledge to limit himself to individual contributions of $370 (rather than the $1,000 permitted by law) and to swear off donations from political committees. Those are the terms he accepted in order to receive matching public dollars in the primary under the city’s public financing system, the Democracy Fund. He can’t participate in the system in the general election.

Fernandez announced his intention not to run in the general election at a post-primary party at Michael’s on Court Street.

“New Haven deserves a run-off between the two top finishers,” he told a group of over 100 supporters.

Carolina delivered a similar message to the crowd gathered at his Dixwell Avenue headquarters.

“I submit to the will of the people of New Haven,” Carolina declared, acknowledging Harp’s ​“resounding” victory. He complimented Fernandez and Elicker for their campaigns, too. ​“I’m excited we ran the kind of campaign we wanted to run,” he added.

In a closely watched aldermanic race, organizers affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35 failed to unseat Downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen in Ward 7. Yale undergraduate Ella Wood, who was supported by the unions, did give him a spirited challenge, with turnout far higher in the ward than in past elections. Hausladen beat Wood 353 to 251. And in Ward 19, which covers Prospect Hill and Newhallville, attorney Michael Stratton won the primary for the open seat against union-backed opponent Maureen Gardner. Both Gardner and Wood have secured spots as independents for the general election. Wood said after the polls closed that she is not sure yet if she’ll continue her campaign.

She said she will ​“talk to my supporters” to see whether ​“we can accomplish more by spending our time doing other work.”

Labor-backed candidates fared better in Wooster Square’s Ward 8, where Aaron Greenberg defeated Peter Webster in a primary for the open seat there, 404 to 152; and in Newhallville’s Ward 20, where incumbent Delphine Clyburn beat back a comeback challenge by former Alderman Charles Blango, 432 to 330.

Other labor-backed incumbent candidates prevailed as well: Frank Douglass in Dwight’s Ward 2; Barbara Constantinople in Bella Vista’s Ward 11; Santiago Berrios-Berrios in Fair Haven’s Ward 14; Jeanette Morrison in Dixwell’s Ward 22; Darryl Brackeen in Westville’s Ward 26; and Angela Russell in Beaver Hills’ Ward 27.

In the race for city/town clerk, Michael Smart (pictured with 2‑month-old granddaughter Ky’Mani) defeated Sergio Rodriguez 52.9 percent to 47.1 percent. Rodriguez has a spot on the Nov. 5 ballot, as does incumbent Clerk Ron Smith, who did not make the ballot for the Democratic primary.

Thomas MacMillan and Allan Appel contributed reporting.