Justin Elicker has finished “exploring” — and is declaring himself an official candidate for mayor.
Elicker, a two-term East Rock alderman, said he is filing papers Wednesday to launch an official mayoral campaign against fellow Democrat John DeStefano, the 10-term incumbent.
Paul Bass Photo
Elicker (pictured) plans to make his official announcement at 7 p.m. Thursday at Manjares coffee shop in Westville Village.
For the past two months Elicker has held some 100 one-and-one and small-group meetings around town testing the waters for a candidacy.
The reaction was clear, he claimed.
“People are hungering for a change,” he said. “They want the next mayor of new Haven to bring some new ideas and new energy” to the job.
Elicker has already put himself behind one new idea: creating a “hybrid” Board of Education, half elected, half appointed by the mayor. New Haven currently has the only fully appointed school board in the state; Elicker argues that elections could help involve more parents in public education.
Click on the play arrow below to watch Elicker make his case for the hybrid board as well as explain the charter revision process through which citizens will vote on the issue. And click here for a story on the subject, in which Mayor DeStefano argues that the change would politicize public education and dismisses Elicker’s stand as “someone political creating an issue.”
As he launches his official campaign, Elicker has resolved a funding dilemma. He plans to participate in the city’s Democracy Fund, which offers public money to mayoral candidates who abide by spending and fund-raising limits. But because of a loophole in the law, he has to spend any money raised by his pre-campaign “exploratory” committee before signing up for the Democracy Fund. (Click here to read about that dilemma.) As it turned out, Elicker said, his exploratory committee raised only around $500. So he said he plans to spend all that money by Thursday, at which point he’ll sign up for the Democracy Fund.
DeStefano, who began his 2013 reelection campaign last year, welcomed Elicker into the race.
“Vibrant mayoral campaigns are a good thing,” DeStefano said Tuesday evening. “I look forward to an exchange of ideas in 2013.” Click on the play arrow to watch DeStefano discuss breaking the record recently for serving the longest tenure as mayor in New Haven history.
DeStefano has been highlighting recent gains in the public schools and community policing. Elicker has argued that citizens don’t feel plugged enough into those campaigns and want their ideas heard more.
Gary Holder-Winfield has been making those same arguments. Holder-Winfield, a third-term Democratic state representative from Newhallville, has an exploratory mayoral campaign set up, too. He plans to announce within weeks whether he, too, will officially join the Democratic mayoral primary race. Click here for a previous story on that; click on the play arrow to watch him discuss his reasons for considering a run.
Elicker’s announcement has no bearing on his own plans, Holder-Winfield said Tuesday evening.
“I’m sticking to my schedule. I’m expecting things to go well and at the end of the month to be filing” for an official mayoral run, he said.