Paul Bass File Photos
Kimber (left). Malloy (right).
Dan Malloy had a gift for one of Connecticut’s most politically influential and controversial ministers. The minister had a gift for him, too: backing for his gubernatorial candidacy.
Those gifts — a $1,000 charitable contribution and a public endorsement — were exchanged just three days apart, records show.
In his bid for the Democratic nomination governor, which ended in victory this week, Malloy received help from the Rev. Boise Kimber, the pastor of a Dixwell Avenue church. Kimber is a political powerbroker and vote-puller in the city’s African-American community. He has negotiated with an ever-changing line-up of politicians to bring out the black vote in New Haven for more than 20 years.
Kimber said Thursday that he does not know whether he personally solicited the $1,000 donation from Malloy’s political action committee to a statewide Baptist group he runs.
“I haven’t been talking to the press lately about anything. My wife told me to keep my mouth closed,” Kimber said Thursday.
Malloy campaign spokesman Brian Durand said the donation and Kimber’s support had “absolutely” no connection.
A longtime supporter of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Kimber switched allegiances this campaign season when he showed early support for Malloy. Kimber said he accompanied Malloy to several events around the state. Malloy said he has accepted Kimber’s support, and has visited Kimber’s church “a couple of times.”
Melissa Bailey File Photo
Kimber greets Malloy at a campaign rally at the Lincoln-Bassett School.
With support from a variety of black leaders, Malloy overcame an expected loss Tuesday the city’s African-American wards — and score a surprise victory among voters in New Haven, the state’s largest Democratic Party.
Kimber first publicly backed Malloy on Jan. 9, when he hosted the former Stamford mayor at an event at the First Calvary Baptist Church. At the time Kimber said he was formally endorsing Malloy because “I think he garners the experience of running a city.”
At that rally, Malloy told an Independent reporter that he was not looking for an endorsement yet. He said at that time in his nascent campaign, which was technically in an “exploratory” phase, he could not accept formal endorsements.
Three days later, Malloy issued a show of support for Kimber: a $1,000 donation to the CT State Missionary Baptist Convention, a not-for-profit religious association of which Kimber has been president for the past three years.
SEEC Document
The check was written from Malloy’s political action committee, DanPAC, on Jan. 12, according to a filing with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
Malloy’s PAC also cut an $1,000 check to the Baptist group on April 3, 2009, according to a separate filing.
Malloy spokesman Durand was asked if there’s a connection between Kimber’s support and DanPAC’s contribution to the Baptist group.
“Absolutely not,” he replied in an email Thursday.
“Dan’s PAC had contributed to the CT State Missionary Baptist almost nine months before” the Jan. 9 event at Kimber’s church and “it did so again,” Durand continued. “The PAC is used to support a wide array of organizations and causes Dan believes in. Some other groups the PAC gave to during that same time period include the United Jewish Federation, NARAL CT, Save the Farm, Disability Law Center Inc, the CT Food Bank, the Urban League of Southern CT, the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, Stamford NAACP, and Operation Home for the Holidays.”
Kimber’s endorsement represented a switch in loyalty. In 2006, Kimber backed DeStefano when he ran for governor in a fiercely fought primary against Malloy.
Kimber also supported Ned Lamont that year in his bid for U.S. Senate. This year, Lamont was Malloy’s opponent for the governor’s seat.
Kimber’s support has helped DeStefano win votes in mayoral campaigns dating back to 1989. The alliance has also landed DeStefano in repeated controversies — from a housing scandal that attracted the FBI to City Hall in 1998 (in part related to city loans DeStefano gave to a Kimber-run group), to several cases of alleged racism, political interference and Freedom of Information violations on the fire commission, where DeStefano named Kimber chairman. Kimber’s antics caught the attention of a Supreme Court justice, who cited several of those controversies last year in the high-profile Ricci case about alleged reverse discrimination in the hiring of firefighters. DeStefano testified in court on Kimber’s behalf when the reverend was found guilty of stealing a dead woman’s funeral money.
Kimber was asked Thursday whether he requested the donations from Malloy for his religious group.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I’m not really talking to the press.”
“They request donations from anybody,” he said of his association. He referred further comment to the association’s chief of staff, David Penn.
Penn said the CT State Missionary Baptist Convention is an association of 70 to 80 black churches across the state. Most of the money the group raises goes to college scholarships for students, he said.
He declined to speak about the contributions from Malloy.
“As a religious organization, we do not comment on donations,” Penn said.