An Independent, At Large, Seeks Space Between Democrats & Republicans

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, a 6’6’’ man approached Morse Street residents, motioned towards an empty lot at 560 Newhall St., and asked: ​“What would you like to see built there?”

They responded: Another neighborhood school, Dunkin’ Donuts, affordable apartments, a bike store, ​“I don’t know,” and ​“Who are you?”

The man starting the conversation was Jay Kaye, the only Independent Party member formally running for elected office this year in Hamden. (Al Lotto, also an independent, is running for mayor as a write-in candidate.) He is competing for one of six at-large Legislative Council seats, alongside four Democrats and four Republicans, in Nov. 2’s general election.

The Democratic at-large candidates include Cory O’Brien, Kathleen Kiely, Laurie Sweet, and incumbent Dominique Baez. The Republican at-large slate features James Anthony, Lesley DeNardis, Andrew Tammaro, and incumbent Betty Wetmore.

On Thursday, five of those nine candidates attended an at-large forum hosted by Hamden’s Regional Chamber of Commerce. Dominique Baez was the only candidate representing the Democratic Town Committee who attended; all of the Republicans with the exception of candidate James Anthony, who is a Hamden public works employee, were present, as was Jay Kaye.

Kaye left the Republican party six months ago — two years after serving as Republican candidate for mayor in 2019. Kaye said that he voted for Trump in 2016, but later switched parties because he didn’t approve of the Republicans’ national response to the death of George Floyd or Biden’s presidential win.

“I’m an ardent supporter of the public schools system, of the police department, fire department, the library and arts in Hamden,” said Kaye at Thursday’s forum. He said he wants to lead ​“good decision making that’s timely and uses data” on the council.

He’s not running for Legislative Council to preach the values of a party, he said. He’s running on the idea that town representatives are liaisons that should vote based on the beliefs of the public, not their own agenda.

This year, for example, he served on the Charter Revision Commission, a small group of residents who volunteered their time to help perform a mandatory revisionary process of the town’s charter. The edited document included the possibility of four year mayoral terms, increased pathways for public participation in town government, and structural changes to build a more accountable police commission (read more here).

The Legislative Council — including all of the Republicans and the moderate Democrats — vetoed the document before it could make it onto November’s ballot to be voted on by the public.

Kaye, along with many incumbent Council members and new candidates running on the Democratic party line, gathered about 1,000 signatures in hopes of getting the charter up for election by the people. Though the petition ultimately fell short of signatures, Kaye noted that ​“those were 1,000 people who voted yes — there’s no way the council members talked to 1,000 people who said no [to putting the charter on the ballot].”

“We can’t have people making decisions like that without talking to their constituents,” he asserted, adding that he believed the Democrats who voted against the charter lost their party primary partially because of their behavior during the revision process and vote. The charter fiasco didn’t spur his decision to run, he said, but rather affirmed it.

Kaye grew up behind the North Haven Dairy Queen on the Hamden line. He has long lived in the Sixth District, with 12 years in the fifth before that.

Kaye, who just began his own painting business this year after working for a different painting company, said he’s been busy ​“campainting” rather than campaigning over the past months. That is, he stops and has conversations with individuals passing by him on the street while he’s painting homes around town. He asks them how they feel about local issues affecting their lives and neighborhoods.

Forum Findings

Members of minority parties are guaranteed at least two at-large seats on the council. Hamden’s current Legislative Council is made up of 12 Democrats and three Republicans. The Republicans are Betty Wetmore, Austin Cesare, who is leaving the council next year and instead running for a seat on the Board of Education this Tuesday, and Marjorie Bonadies, the only Republican district representative, who lives in the Ninth.

“We’ve tried very hard to keep taxes low; the Republicans are a minority and sometimes what we want is not what we get,” Betty Wetmore said at the forum. ​“We’ve had 20 years of Democrat rule,” in the executive branch, she said, ​“and we work at a disadvantage on the council.”

Andrew Tammaro, a 23-year-old who grew up and lives in Hamden’s first district and was recently hired as the press secretary for the Connecticut House Republicans, told the story of how he got involved in the at-large race at Thursday’s forum: He contacted Republican Town Committee Chairman Frank LaDore last spring and said, ​“I wanna help, what can I do?”

“If you really wanna help, then run for office,” he remembered LaDore replying. That’s how Tammaro made up his mind to start campaigning.

The question of equitable representation has been a constant trigger for debate during council meetings. There are 19,190 registered Democrats and only 4,065 Republicans in town — but also 12,844 unaffiliated voters. Republicans often say that their voice is squashed and that the council should be divided more evenly between the two parties, while Democrats argue that representatives should mirror the values and ideologies of those who live in the town, claiming that active Hamdenites generally believe in progressive politics, as seen through this year’s Democratic primary results.

If Kaye were to get elected, he could assume one of the minority party seats historically held by a Republican.

Mayoral candidates Lauren Garrett (D) and Ron Gambardella (R) have sparred over perceptions and solutions to spikes in crime around town. During Thursday’s council forum, the at-large candidates drew a line between party and crime once again— the Republicans advocating for a return to what ​“Hamden once was,” and Dominique Baez describing her slate’s vision of a future town with more progressive approaches to education and public safety.

Tammaro, DeNardis and Wetmore advocated for more transparent, ​“classically derived” curricula in the schools (asserting that Hamden’s courses have been ​“infused with values”); a stronger police presence in shopping plazas and frequently populated areas; and tough budget cuts to lower taxes. ​“We’re on a fiscal cliff,” DeNardis said when asked to imagine the town a decade from now. ​“It’s a luxury to think about where we will be in ten years and not sound the alarm… it depends on electing the people to office who are gonna make the tough fiscal decisions.”

Dominique Baez grew up in the Fourth District, then moved to the Eighth, and now lives in the Third. She said her focus is on increasing food security and drawing businesses and residents to town through using federal dollars for ​“beautifying” Hamden through infrastructural renovations and investments.

She also wants to continue to expand the number of jobs available in townm she said. Baez works for a nonprofit that develops programming for unemployed residents across the state. She pushed during her first term to require contractors to hire town residents for local development projects. It’s about ​“thinking outside our box,” she said — ​“not the box, but our box that we’ve been in the past two decades or so.”

On issues like public safety, Kaye stood in the center of the two slates. The Republicans unanimously agreed that more police are needed in areas like shopping plazas to conquer the concerns of older residents. Baez said that violent incidents have been ​“overshared by our neighbors, and repeated in such a way that they stoke fear in people,” noting social media’s role in sensationalizing expected spikes in violence due to the pandemic. Her solution: More community conversations alongside job opportunities, food security, and basic resources.

Kaye reflected on what has become one of the biggest debates between the two parties: ​“I don’t want to call it fear mongering, but telling people they can’t go shopping is the wrong message to send,” he said. ​“We shouldn’t rely on our police force patrolling private property,” he said. But, the town could encourage businesses to amp up their security systems in order to incentivize shoppers to return to local centers.

All of the at-large candidates did collectively reiterate at least one shared idea: Local government should be more accessible and approachable for all residents.

Tammaro said he wanted to ensure that ​“townhall doesn’t feel like a castle on the hill… you shouldn’t have to climb through corridors of red tape just to get a question answered.”

Baez agreed: ​“We have to empower residents to be part of our town government… they shouldn’t wait on an official knocking on their door to let them know that a porta-potty has been knocked down at Ridge Hill School for years.”

Kaye was the only candidate to use his closing statement to rally those watching to engage more deeply with the local community.

Though he lost his mayoral run in 2019, he pointed to his time on the charter commission and work as a mentor with Hamden Youth Connections as two ways he’s been able to stay directly involved in town. His wife, Karlen Meinsein, a New Haven public school teacher, is also a member of the Hamden Schools’ Diversity Advisory Council, and on a steering committee for establishing universal pre‑k in Hamden.

“These are all things you can do without being elected,” he said. ​“Ultimately, the residents are what’s gonna change this town.”

Back On Newhall…

On Tuesday, Kaye drove to Newhall Street, located in the Fifth District where he used to live, to get public input on a decision he would have to make if he’s elected to council in November.

“Do you know what’s going on at the old middle school?” he asked passersby and homeowners.

“No, what are they doing over there?” most replied, including Natasha Belle, who moved to her house on Morse Street from New Haven two years ago.

Kaye explained the story: The council contracted with an affordable housing developer to build apartments on the site of the abandoned school six years ago. The council was waiting to push the project proposal forward until January, after community members expressed disapproval over the plan. A vote to postpone the sale of the property to the developer had just taken place the previous night during a council meeting.

“Residents are concerned about traffic, flooding, lowering of property values,” he summarized.

“Well, what do they want there instead?” Belle asked concerning her neighbors.

A supermarket, for one, Kaye recalled.

“Well, that increases traffic as well,” Belle said with a laugh.

Belle said she wishes there were still a school in the area, but that ​“affordable housing sounds excellent, too — there’s not so much of that in Hamden.”

“What do you want there?” Belle asked, turning the question back towards Kaye.

He said he could imagine lower-density housing with some light retail and a co-op market, based on the feedback he’d already heard residents provide.

“A coop!” Belle exclaimed. That made her think — about her preference for a close-by drive-thru fast food option. Belle said her daughter, a student at Quinnipiac University, often complains that there’s little to do nearby in town. Placing a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru on site, she said, could bring students — and their wallets — to Hamden, rather than North or New Haven.

When her younger son poked his head out the door to see what was going on, another idea popped up: ​“He loves bikes. What about bringing a bike store to the area?” Belle suggested, given the neighborhood’s proximity to the Farmington Canal Trail.

Finding ways to celebrate and grow the area’s natural resources could ​“boost neighborhood morale,” she said.

Over the summer, Belle said, someone was shot right in front of her yard.

In addition to new construction, additional lighting in the area would make her feel safer, she said. ​“It’s dark here.”

“Pretty, big flower pots” and additional arts and cultural programming could also brighten the neighborhood and the town more broadly, Belle reflected. ​“We haven’t gotten to engage,” she said of her family, who moved to town two years ago — right when the pandemic spurred mass social isolation. The town’s October drive-in movie nights and summer food trucks had been some of the most meaningful ways her family had met their neighbors during a tumultuous 24 months.

Some people view those events as ​“frivolous,” Kaye remarked, agreeing with Belle about the importance of community programming. He talked about Hamden’s struggles to cut costs, arguing that getting rid of offerings like movie nights would have virtually no impact on Hamden’s budget.

“So…” Belle finally questioned. ​“What are you… actually doing here?”

“Oh! I’m Jay Kaye, I’m running for council at-large,” he said.

“I thought you were with a solar company!” she joked. ​“Where’s your pictures? I didn’t know you were running.”

“Well my name is memorable,” Kaye said. ​“It’s just ​‘J’ and ​‘K.’”

He handed her a home-printed flyer with his name and information about the Nov. 2 race. ​“See?” he said. ​“I operate on a low budget.”