Melissa Bailey Photo
The politician most feared to unseat Mayor John DeStefano threw her support Tuesday behind attorney Clifton Graves, lending him a popular ally for the two-week sprint to the primary.
State Sen. Toni Harp gave Graves her official endorsement Tuesday at a rally in the basement of the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church at 217 Dixwell Ave. The event drew about 85 supporters to the church in the heart of the city’s African-American community.
Graves, along with Anthony Dawson and Jeffrey Kerekes, is one of three Democrats challenging nine-term incumbent Mayor DeStefano in a Sept. 13 primary.
In a six-page written speech, Harp emphasized the need for transparency and for answers to the violence plaguing the city, which has seen 23 homicides so far this year.
“We need leadership that has the courage to look upstream and to find out why the bodies are floating down the river,” Harp said.
“New Haven needs Clifton Graves.”
Harp, a 10-term Democratic incumbent and the city’s most popular African-American officeholder, was the opponent Mayor DeStefano’s allies feared most as he set out this spring to seek re-election. A voter survey conducted by DeStefano’s campaign focused on Harp’s chances of winning the race, even though she wasn’t running.
Harp, who entered politics as an alderwoman in 1987, has consistently topped internal polls of potential mayoral opponents, according to a former DeStefano aide.
Graves called her endorsement Tuesday the “biggest moment” in his campaign besides making it onto the ballot for the primary. The endorsement should lend him a competitive edge over Dawson, the only other African-American candidate in the mayor’s race. It comes on the heels of one of the toughest weeks for the Graves campaign, when questions about past legal problems surfaced in the media.
Three Harps ran the show Tuesday. Toni Harp’s husband, Wendell, has already been working hard on Graves’ campaign, including training volunteers for a successful petition drive. Wendell’s brother Ray emceed the event. The Harp stamp of approval helped draw a string of endorsements, including that of former Hartford Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry, the first female African-American mayor of a major American city. “I don’t know Attorney Graves except for what Wendell said of him,” she said before announcing her support.
Former Hartford Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry and West River’s Kevin Ewing.
Toni Harp’s appearance drew politicos like Deputy City/Town Clerk Sally Brown, who said she was just there to support Harp, not to take sides in the mayor’s race.
Harp began by saying life “should be good for everyone” in New Haven: The state has paid over $1 billion to rebuild the city’s schools; new buildings are rising at Yale, Yale-New Haven Hospital and Gateway Community College; and the city’s population grew at the same rate as the state for the first time in 80 years.
“Yet, much of New Haven is under siege by fear and distrust,” she said. “Every day we hear about someone being shot, maimed or killed in the streets. … No neighborhood is exempt from the fear that this violence breeds.”
“This year we can even say that this violence and fear has slipped into our middle-income neighborhoods and can no longer be written off as a problem of the poor communities. The fear is pervasive and impacts every resident of the city.”
Harp said state representatives and senators from the area asked the city 10 years ago to come up with solutions to address the disproportionately high number of prisoners in the state that hail from New Haven. She said DeStefano failed to take responsibility for that problem then, and is now declaring that the city’s violence “is a re-entry problem,” with 25 people returning from prisons to New Haven each week.
She accused DeStefano of pinning the re-entry problem on the state instead of taking initiative at the city level.
“We need leadership that has the courage to look upstream and to find out why the bodies are floating down the river,” Harp said. “We need local policies that will stop the killings now.”
Harp said New Haven needs leadership that is “open and fair.”
“Who among us has not worried that favoritism has kept our streets unpaved, snow unplowed, and our sidewalks broken and in disrepair?” Harp asked. “We need leadership we can trust in our city.”
Harp also said the city needs a leader “who understands that New Haven is a big tent with many different people from many different backgrounds, all of whom deserve a place at the decision-making table.”
“I wholeheartedly endorse Clifton Graves’ candidacy for mayor of the great city of New Haven,” she concluded.
Asked what her support will mean for the campaign, Harp said the association may help some people who are “on the fence” decide whom to vote for. “Oftentimes if they know the person” who is endorsing a candidate, they may give that candidate a second look.
“I’m hoping that people who support me will support Clifton Graves. I think he’ll be a great leader for the city,” she said.
Harp said she’s willing to go further to show her support: “If he asks me to, I’ll go door-to-door with him.”
After the endorsement, Graves said he will take her up on that offer.
“We’re going to walk together,” Graves said. He called Harp one of the most respected African-American legislators in the state, and a high vote-getter to boot. Associating himself with her may encourage voters to give his campaign a more serious look, he said. He said he hoped to use her endorsement on flyers or other advertising “to help boost our campaign in the last couple of weeks” before the primary.
Reached after the event, DeStefano spokesman Danny Kedem defended the mayor’s record this way:
“The Mayor believes that the best way to keep our families safe is to give our kids a real opportunity to attend college. It starts with the city’s universal pre‑K, world class school facilities, and a scholarship program that allows for every child to earn free tuition for college.
“Crime is a real problem in the city. The overwhelming majority of violent crime is committed by or against people who came out of prison. Giving the re-entry population opportunities to succeed is a priority for the Mayor. That is why he has committed an entire city department to helping provide housing, jobs, and emotional support to folks coming out of prison. This program is one of a kind in Connecticut. It is a positive investment that the city has made to help some of the most at-risk individuals. No other city in Connecticut takes on this responsibility.”