With momentum at his back, a gubernatorial candidate took his campaign into a neglected stretch of New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood — and people unaccustomed to seeing politicians took notice.
Dan Malloy, who’s running against Ned Lamont for the Democratic nomination for governor in a primary next Tuesday, rolled into the heart of Newhallville, a low-turnout area that’s not exactly prime territory for statewide political campaigns, in a Vista Cruiser RV emblazoned with campaign signs.
He showed up Thursday afternoon as a new poll showed him closing within five points of Lamont, a self-financed candidate who’s outspending him two-to-one in the campaign. He was accompanied by black activists who in recent weeks coalesced a campaign that had once been considered a long shot in New Haven, where the Democratic machine has coalesced around his opponent. Malloy predicted on the stop that he’ll not only compete in the city, but win it.
Malloy, Stamford’s longtime mayor, and running mate Nancy Wyman, ventured onto Read Street — a street that’s been plagued with violence over the past year.
Sajib Mitchell, who’s 20, was hanging out on a porch near the intersection of Read and Newhall, deep in the city’s African-American community, when Malloy and Wyman came by.
“That’s different,” said Mitchell. He said he never sees politicians on the street, not even New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.
Melissa Bailey Photos
Wanda Tyson (pictured), who was sitting near Mitchell, took a handful of pamphlets from Malloy. After he left, she kept them in her hand, using them to fan off the sticky heat. She said she still didn’t know whom she’d vote for, but Malloy just “took a step” up in her estimation — and improved his odds of getting her vote to “over 50 percent” — by showing up on her porch.
Nearby, a group of kids were dribbling a basketball in the street, and shooting it into two makeshift hoops — milk crates nailed to trees. Malloy caught a stray ball and bounced it back to them. He didn’t stay to play — “shooting hoops is not my strength,” he confessed.
He did say his ground game is getting stronger.
“I have great support here,” he said.
Malloy said while Lamont has the money, “I have great human capital,” built through visits like the one to Read Street. (He’s pictured explaining to a Read Street girl what the governor’s office is.)
“Some people say this is one of the toughest neighborhoods,” he said. “I came.”
Then he upped the ante: He laid claim to a city once considered his competitor’s territory.
“I have wider-spread support in New Haven than anybody else,” Malloy asserted.
Malloy made that claim on a day where a new Quinnipiac Poll showed momentum behind his campaign — he gained three points on Greenwich businessman Lamont, who after leading by double digits in past polls now was ahead 45 to 40 percent amongst likely Democratic primary voters.
Malloy made small inroads into the city over the past few months, culminating in a grand opening of a new regional headquarters on Whalley Avenue. While Lamont has snagged the endorsement of the state’s Hispanic caucus, Malloy has gained support from many (not all) the city’s African-American leaders, including those on the outs with City Hall.
“New Haven is an important town,” Malloy said as he walked down Read Street. “I got 35 percent of the vote here last time, and I’m trying to do better than that.”
Last time around, Malloy faced DeStefano in a 2006 gubernatorial primary. (DeStefano won, but lost the general election to Gov. M. Jodi Rell.) This time around, Mayor DeStefano came out early in support of Lamont, and helped deliver nearly all of New Haven’s 81 delegates to Lamont at the state party convention. Lamont set up his statewide headquarters downtown. Many considered New Haven to be his turf.
Malloy said Thursday that’s not the case. “The mayor doesn’t have a hood,” Malloy said. “The mayor has the right to support who he wants, and other people have the right to support who they want.”
The Lamont campaign dismissed Malloy’s claim to greater New Haven support.
“There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to comment on every ridiculous claim that Dan is making,” wrote Lamont campaign spokeswoman Justine Sessions in an email. “We have a robust field operation here in New Haven and across the state that has made more than two million phone calls and knocked more than 150,000 doors to get Ned’s message out, and we’re ready to get our voters to the polls on election day.”
Lamont canvassers swept through parts of New Haven Thursday, including East Rock, leaving behind more flyers in voters’ doors.
In Newhallville, Malloy was escorted by a local politician, State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield. Wyman followed a few steps behind, wearing three-inch heels.
Holder-Winfield said the Malloy campaign called him and said the candidate would like to walk through his district. So he sent them to Read Street. Along the path, the struggles in getting voter turnout were evident: One elderly couple said they were not registered to vote. Others said they didn’t know there was an election.
Holder-Winfield was one of many African-American leaders who helped welcome Malloy to the neighborhood. The candidate kicked off his hour-long visit with a rally at the Lincoln-Bassett School. Rev. Scott Marks led a call-and-response chant of “Can we? Yes we can!” then pushed Wyman up on the makeshift stage to dance to the beat set down by the Fusion drum squad.
The Fusion (formerly called the Soul-o-ettes) drill team then kicked in with a performance.
After they performed, Malloy gave a brief stump speech to the crowd of 75 people gathered outside the school. He stressed the bad economy, the need for jobs, and a plan to convert “brownfields,” or polluted sites, into developable land.
Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to watch his one-minute stump, as well as some coordinated drumming between candidate and teens.
Among the crowd of supporters were Aldermen Darnell Goldson, Jackie James-Evans and Charles Blango, Edgewood activist Eli Greer, former mayoral candidate Jim Newton, Dixwell activist Lisa Hopkins, and political powerbroker Rev. Boise Kimber (pictured). Malloy said he has visited Kimber’s church several times, and that Kimber is supporting his candidacy.
Holder-Winfield introduced the candidate to those who didn’t know him.
“We have a lot of people who talk to us about our community, but they never show up,” said Holder-Winfield. “Dan is coming today to talk to you and some other people in places where nobody ever goes.”
With those words, Holder-Winfield led him down Butler Street, where the candidate met a woman named Ramona Knox (pictured). The two chatted briefly.
After the candidate left, Knox said Holder-Winfield had swung by her house earlier that day to see if she’d be home, and asked if he could bring Malloy by.
“I don’t know who to vote for!” she recalled telling him. After that visit, she started to prepare. She went to the trash bin, where she had placed all the campaign literature that flowed in her mailbox over the past week. She took out a few pieces from Malloy.
“I went back in the trash and I got it out,” she said.
Now, she said, she’ll start figuring out whom to vote for on Tuesday.