Thomas Breen File Photo
Still rolling: Harp in caravan days before the Democratic primary.
Fernandez-Chavero: Democrat Elicker got “a free pass because he’s a tall, red-haired white guy.”
Mayor Toni Harp made clear Wednesday night that, as far as she and her supporters are concerned, this year’s election campaign is not over.
Harp delivered that message at an event held at the Elks Club on Webster Street, where she and supporters blasted Democratic candidate Justin Elicker and urged attendees to vote and volunteer for her third-party candidacy in the Nov. 5 general election.
The event was billed as a tribute to Harp’s tenure in public office. The three-term incumbent, lost the Sept. 10 Democratic mayoral primary by 58 to 42 percent to challenger Justin Elicker. She then announced she was suspending her campaign — but left her name on the ballot on the Working Families Party line for the Nov. 5 general election.
Wednesday night appeared to be a suspension of that suspension.
“I just want you to know I am still on the ballot,” Harp told the crowd at the event.
The room erupted in cheers: “Toni! Toni! Toni!”
“People can still vote for me. On Line 1C,” Harp continued.
Harp told the crowd she feels it would be “counterintuitive to walk away from all this progress,” from “what has been a successful, successful administration.”
“With the next phase of Downtown Crossing just underway, with the construction on the Q House started, and if you think about it, Yale New Haven Health’s $838 million neuroscience center ramping up, it’s most important for me to pursue my sworn duties as mayor and to continue,” Harp continued.
“It’s a heavy lift to be mayor and then have to run for mayor all at the same time. This year I was challenged by a man who could afford to campaign for mayor full time. In fact he started campaigning last winter. He used his full time year-long campaign to falsify my record. Which if you think about it added a third dimension: I had to be mayor. I had to meet the responsibilities of that office. I had to run for mayor and promote the good progress underway. And correct a non-stop barrage of negative, misleading and false campaign accusations.”
She referred to Elicker’s criticisms of her administration, ranging from controversies over ethics and public spending and lead paint law enforcement to ongoing controversies at the Board of Education. (Elicker’s supporters criticized Harp’s campaign, in turn, for attacks falsely claiming that he was planning to send drones to spy on residents of “our neighborhoods” and that his wife conspired with President Trump and others to have the FBI launch its invesgitation into Harp’s administration.)
“Quite honestly, I have been a good mayor. And we have been a very good team. And there is a laundry list of accomplishments to boast about, as I’ve mentioned. And I will continue to be a good mayor. part of a great team. As long as I’m in office. I’ve served office since the 1980s. It’s been my great pleasure to do and to do right alongside all of you for so many years.”
“It is now up to you, it is now up to the people to decide who becomes mayor.”
Harp closed down her official campaign office after the primary. Now a group of supporters has formed a political action committee to raise money and build support for Harp’s general election campaign. The PAC’s organizers, Emma Jones and Alex Taubes, followed Harp’s speech with a call to the crowd Wednesday evening to get involved in the campaign.
“Bottom line. Vote the bottom line!” Emma Jones, another co-organizer of the PAC told the crowd. “You heard Mayor Harp, what she said. Go to the polls. Bring your friends with you.”
“Continue to stand in solidarity with us so we can win on Nov. 5!”
“It’s a one-on-one race until Nov. 5,” Taubes added.
He directed attendees to a sign-up sheet of names of people to be assigned door-knocking and phone calling to turn out the vote.
“We’ve got to run harder. We’ve got to run faster,” said Probate Judge Clifton Graves Jr.
“If we are going to be true to our roots, we should continue the struggle, the movement, to make New Haven a better place,” said Angel Fernandez-Chavero (pictured), whom Harp appointed to head the city’s equal-opportunity office. “This is about race. This is about class. This is about justice.”
“The press gave Justin a free pass,” Fernandez-Chavero said, “because he is a tall, red-haired white guy.”
Flyers distributed in the lead-up to the Sept. 10 Democratic mayoral primary.
