Mayor’s Done With Public Financing

(Updated with correction.) As potential candidates lined up to consider opposing him, Mayor John DeStefano said he has chosen to run for reelection this year without participating in the clean-money campaign system he birthed.

Democrat DeStefano, who has already served longer than any other popularly elected mayor in New Haven history, plans to seek a 10th two-year term this coming fall.

Three potential Democratic primary opponents have been meeting with people around town to discuss mayoral runs, as well. All three — Wooster Square Alderman Michael Smart, lawyer and civil rights activist Clifton Graves, and former Hill Alderman Anthony Dawson — told the Independent this week that they plan to make a decision within the next month or six weeks. In New Haven, mayoral elections are usually de facto decided in Democratic primaries, not general elections. A Republican last won the mayor’s office in 1951.

(An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Downtown?Wooster Square activist Douglas Hausladen had filed papers to form an ​“exploratory” committee. He did, but he didn’t specify an office, and people close to him say the intention is not for a mayoral run. Hausladen couldn’t be reached for comment.)

Meanwhile, a leading source of Democratic vote-pullers, organized labor, is openly courting DeStefano administration opponents for mayoral and aldermanic campaigns.

The Democratic primaries are scheduled for Sept. 13.

DeStefano said in an interview this week that he has decided to forgo the city’s Democracy Fund in the upcoming campaign.

The mayor and aldermanic allies created that fund to try to limit the influence of big-money special interests and to enable more non-incumbent challengers to afford to run for office; DeStefano first embraced the concept in 2000 after a corruption scandal and after facing criticism for his team’s campaign shakedowns of city contractors. The Fund offers a $17,000 grant plus matching money to candidates who raise a minimum of donations — at least $10 each from 200 local voters. A candidate who raises just $2,000 can obtain up to $21,000 if her opponent has raised at least $5,000.

The system has been in place for the last two mayoral elections. As it turned out, only the incumbent — DeStefano — has qualified to participate in the program in those elections. He collected $11,850 in 2007 and $11,390 in 2009 from the Fund, according to Fund staffer Robert Wechsler.

He also ran into some static. The Fund fined his campaign $500 for late filings. It also criticized him for ​“flying in the face of” the spirit of the clean elections law by moving cash into a political action committee to support aldermanic candidates. (Read about that here.)

DeStefano said he decided to pass this year because the process has proved more trouble that it’s worth.

“My experience with public financing is that it has had no impact on generating candidates” to make campaigns more contested, DeStefano said. ​“It doesn’t make sense to me anymore. I tried it for two other cycles.”

He added that he has found the Democracy Fund’s ​“conduct” to be ​“baffling,” and consumed with ​“bureaucratic nonsense.”

It was noted that he appoints the Democracy Fund’s members. DeStefano noted in return that ​“just because you appoint somebody” to a board, the board’s members still ​“have their own” opinions about how to proceed.

“He’s been a pretty outspoken supporter of the idea from the get go. So it’s news to me that he doesn’t plan to participate. I hope he changes his mind,” said Democracy Fund Chairman Caleb Kleppner (pictured).

Kleppner defended his board’s record.

“We’ve been implementing the ordinance as it was written. There are a lot of technical details involving campaign finance. We’ve been addressing the issues as they’ve come up.”

Labor Leaps In

In addition to money, vote-pullers are crucial currency in local elections. Among the interest groups being courted by potential DeStefano opponents: organized labor. Local union activists helped turn out the vote that enabled Daniel Malloy to sweep New Haven — and therefore win the governor’s office—last November. Local UNITE HERE union President Bob Proto said the crew is gearing up to influence this fall’s mayoral and aldermanic elections.

And while they haven’t chosen a mayoral candidate, they may well be looking for an alternative to DeStefano, an historic ally.

“There’s no doubt that we’re going to be a major presence in New Haven politics from this point forward,” Proto said. ​“We’re evaluating the whole field. We want to make sure the decisions of the Board of Aldermen are no longer rubber-stamp decisions of the city administration.”

In the past, DeStefano has helped Proto’s union win a collective bargaining agreement at the Omni, settle a strike at Yale, negotiate a community benefits agreement with Yale-New Haven Hospital. This year, however, the city’s budget crisis may be pulling the traditional allies apart. DeStefano this week called on aldermen to resist public pressure and support his call for significant municipal labor changes. (Read his pitch here.) Proto Tuesday criticized that approach: ​“I don’t like the direction that the mayor seems to have planted himself in.” Proto also cited the mayor’s call for privatizing school custodial jobs, for widespread health care and pension givebacks from municipal workers, and cuts to school cafeteria budgets. ​“The Board of Education administration is trying to roll the clock back,” Proto argued. ​“These ladies aren’t making a lot of money. A lot of them live in New Haven. Making $18,000, $19,000 a year and paying New Haven taxes and paying the UI bills and the Comcast bills and the rent or mortgage and car taxes, there’s not much left.” (Click on the play arrow to watch and here to read what happened when cafeteria workers stormed DeStefano’s office last September.)

“Explorations”

Only twice has DeStefano ever run for mayor against an opponent who has previously won an election in a district bigger than one of the city’s 30 wards. The first time he faced then-State Sen. John Daniels in 1989. (Daniels won.) The second time, in 2001, he faced State Sen. Martin Looney. (Looney lost.)

This year no state legislators has expressed any inclination to mount a mayoral challenge.

Clifton Graves, an attorney who has held leadership posts in the NAACP and Amistad America, said he will decide this month whether to run.

Wooster Square Alderman Michael Smart (pictured)—who championed the cause of angry taxpayers last year—said he expects to decide ​“in the next 45 days.” He said he would campaign on more budget ​“transparency,” slashing Board of Ed administrative positions, a freeze on city hiring, and ​“really looking at working with the unions to reach a good budget deal. I’m hearing two sides. The folks I speak with at the unions say they don’t want to lose their jobs. They want to work with the administration.”

Tony Dawson said his campaign would focus on how his history of community involvement could help him lead the fight against crime and for engaging young people in trouble. Dawson, who’s 51, grew up in the Hill and has lived there his whole life. He bought a government ​“dollar house” (abandoned and in need of repair) on Ann Street and fixed it up at the age of 16; he still lives on the street. He served on the Board of Aldermen for 16 years, through 2001. He retired as a Yale-New Haven Hospital constable seven years ago and has worked in the hospital’s protective services force since then.

“People are asking me” to run, Dawson said. ​“I would love to be the first mayor from the HIll.” He said he supports the school reform movement in town but would like to reach people for whom that effort is ​“far too late.” He also said he’d like to see a much wider pool of African-American mayoral appointments to city commissions; he said that ​“a few” favored people, like Pastor Theodore Brooks, ended up cycling through different boards.

Asked about potential challengers, DeStefano said, ​“I can’t speak to other people’s motivations. I look forward to talking about school change. I look forward to engaging about the challenges in our city.”