Thomas MacMillan Photo
Fernandez: Your mind’s made up. I came anyway.
After hearing pitches from four mayoral hopefuls, Democratic Town Committee member Seth Poole said he’s still undecided, despite one candidate’s claim that the fix is in on the committee’s endorsement.
Poole was one of about 100 people who gathered at Hill Regional Career High School on Wednesday evening for “Meet The Candidates Night,” sponsored by the New Haven Democratic Town Committee. He heard stump speeches from four of five Democratic mayoral candidates left in the race, and pitches from the two candidates for city clerk.
Caroline Berson File Photo
The Democratic committee will meet July 23 to choose which candidate it will officially endorse as the party’s candidate for office. That candidate will earn an automatic spot on the primary ballot; other candidates will have to collect signatures to get their name on it. The primary takes place Sept. 10.
Poole (pictured), a program director at the Boys and Girls Club and co-chair of the Ward 24 Democratic committee, heard from the candidates in alphabetical order.
Poole didn’t get to hear mayoral candidate Kermit Carolina. Carolina, the principal of Hillhouse High, didn’t show up. He, like candidate Henry Fernandez (pictured at the top of the story), said he believes the town committee’s endorsement has already been decided.
The first mayoral candidate Seth Poole heard speak Wednesday night was East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker (pictured), who said New Haveners want a mayor with “strong integrity” not one who will do political favors.
“I will be that mayor,” Elicker promised.
Elicker deployed his “tree” analogy, saying that although the downtown roots of New Haven are strong, the branches — Grand Avenue, Dixwell Avenue, State Street — need strengthening.
Next, Poole heard candidate Fernandez, a former city development director, declare, “Let’s be honest, this endorsement is already done. … At this time in our city, we have a political machine which has looked to identify a candidate and line up endorsements for that candidate.”
Yale’s labor unions, which have the most election vote-pulling prowess in town, have endorsed state Sen. Toni Harp for mayor. She’s expected to win the backing of the Democratic Town Committee’s majority, as well, although some committee members, like Poole, asserted Wednesday night that they came to the meeting still undecided, eager to hear more. The town committee’s members serve as delegates to the July 23 party convention.
Fernandez said he chose to attend Wednesday night’s affair despite his misgivings because he’s “proud to be a Democrat.”
Fernandez told the committee that he supports labor unions because he was raised by a single mom whose life was saved after she got health benefits from a union job.
“I know I won’t get your endorsement, but I will be the best mayor I can for you,” he said.
After Fernandez, Poole heard state Sen. Harp (pictured) highlight the recent endorsements she has earned from two mayoral candidates who dropped out of the race, Matt Nemerson and State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, the latest of a wave of endorsements she has racked up.
“We are uniting various parts of the community,” she said.
Harp hit a couple of applause lines with talk of bringing more jobs to New Haven, and making every city department “a jobs department.”
Poole then heard Sundiata Keitazulu (pictured), a Newhallville plumber, say New Haven sometimes looks like apartheid South Africa, with crime and poverty on one side, and prosperity on the other. He called for vocational education schools and to stop “giving Yale everything but the kitchen sink,” a line that won him some applause.
The event did not include a formal question-and-answer period. But Democratic Town Chairwoman Jackie James encouraged people to talk to the candidates. “Many of you have not made a decision [on who should be the nominee], despite what folks may be saying,” she said.
After those conversations, after hearing all the speeches, Poole declared himself still undecided. He said he’s looking to see who has the best and most specific ideas.
Poole said he understands why Fernandez might think Harp has the nomination all sewn up, since she’s been racking up endorsements. Poole said he’s been impressed with the endorsements by Harp’s former opponents, by the way she’s assimilated Nemerson and Holder-Winfield’s campaign platforms into her own. He also said Harp “has been most forthcoming” about her ideas for the city.
Other town committee members said they’re for Harp, including Gary Stewart, Poole’s co-chair in Edgewood’s Ward 24. He said he has also been moved by all Harp’s endorsements.
Stewart said Fernandez’s announcement that he knows he won’t get the nomination was “not a good way to approach this.”
“He didn’t win any friends with that statement, for sure,” Stewart said. Many people remain undecided, he said.