Shirt Says ​“Support McMahon.” Wearer Doesn’t

Natasha Parker made money Tuesday handing out flyers urging East Rockers at the polls to vote for Linda McMahon — even though she wasn’t planning to do so herself.

Parker (pictured) was part of a paid army of African-American poll workers dispatched to urban polling districts across Connecticut by the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Linda McMahon.

Their mission: To urge voters to split their tickets for McMahon and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Parker wore the group’s uniform: a purple T‑shirt pushing the Obama-McMahon ticket. She handed out a ​“sample ballot” instructing people to choose McMahon on the Independent Party line. Nowhere did the materials mention McMahon’s Republican affiliation. Or the fact that she in fact supports Republican Mitt Romney for president.

Parker, who is 25 and lives on Goffe Street, said Linda McMahon’s campaign is paying her to stand at the polls from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (She said she didn’t know how much.)

However, Parker said, ​“that doesn’t mean I have to vote for her.”

Parker said she’s definitely voting for Obama, and she’s unsure about the U.S. Senate race. She said McMahon does not support the social services she relies on: ​“She’s not for food stamps and stuff.”

“I’m undecided,” Parker said, ​“but Obama supports [Democrat Chris] Murphy. I think I might go for Murphy.”

Parker was finding that the voters she encountered were equally unimpressed with the idea of voting for McMahon.

“Obama doesn’t support Linda McMahon,” some voters told her, Parker said. Her reply: ​“Well, she supports him.” (She didn’t know that McMahon actually supports Romney.)

Most East Rockers refused to take the pro-McMahon flyers, Parker reported.

“I’m getting a lot of people saying no. People don’t like her.” Parker said she had more luck earlier in the morning, when she stood at the Nathan Hale School in the East Shore.

At the Truman School in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood, at least one African-American voter left the polls still confused by all the messages.

Asked whom she voted for, the voter, 49-year-old Rovella Weeks, stammered, jumbling up McMahon’s and Murphy’s names.

“Linda McMahon,” she finally said, then corrected herself. ​“Chris Murphy!”

“She [McMahon] confused me when she said, ​‘I’m down with Obama,’” Weeks said. ​“This is the worst election for craziness.”

She said she just ignored all the attack ads and voted for the party: Democratic all the way across. ​“I blocked them all out.”

Asked to described McMahon, Weeks said, ​“Very cunning.” McMahon had ​“slick” ads, she said. ​“She’s a smart lady.”

Asked to describe Murphy, Weeks said only, ​“He’s Democratic.”

Deceitful?

The scene at New Haven’s polls was mirrored in other cities, where the McMahon camp hired African-Americans to wear the same purple ​“I Support McMahon & Obama” T‑shirts and hand out leaflets making the pair appear to be running on a joint ticket. The tactic outraged the Service Employees International Union, which is working for Democrat Murphy. In a release, it claimed the McMahon camp stole the design in order to deceive voters.

“This is a cynical and phony attempt to further confuse voters. SEIU is well known around Connecticut, especially in the cities, for its member activists, always clad in their purple T‑shirts,” said SEIU CT State Council Director Paul Filson stated in the release. ​“SEIU has enthusiastically endorsed Chris Murphy and Barack Obama. I’ve received numerous calls telling me that they were initially confused by the McMahon T‑shirts.”

McMahon’s campaign manager, Corry Bliss, defended the shirts in a conversation with the Independent.

“Thousands of Democrats across Connecticut are today are voting for Barack Obama and Linda McMahon. Those Democrats deserve to have their voice heard,” Bliss said.

He was asked if the campaign deliberately designed the shirts to mirror the SEIU’s.

“We designed the shirts to reflect the fact that there are thousands of Democrats across Connecticut who support Linda McMahon,” Bliss said.

Click here and here for related stories about McMahon’s urban strategy.

Murphy’s Vote Is Turning Out

For Murphy’s part, New Haven’s vaunted Democratic vote-pulling operation appeared to be in gear Tuesday. It ramped up the number of registered voters to the highest level in town in decades in a late-campaign drive. And while polling places may be lacking the celebratory history-making air of 2008, the lines were long and early signs pointed to a turnout as large if not larger than last time.

Meanwhile, Murphy supporters aimed to respond to the McMahon Obama pitch with signs like the one pictured.

McMahon’s split-the-ticket tactic prompted much debate at the polls and on Facebook, including this thread on the page belonging to Kevin Ewing of the West River neighborhood (excerpted here):

“Kevin C. Ewing: Spoke with a couple folks working the polls wearing Obama McMahon t shirts and passing out campaign cards. So I had to question them. McMahon is paying them $300 each to do it. ​‘Do you know who she is or what she thinks?’ I asked. ​‘I know my rent is due and she offered me easy money,’ they replied. ​‘I ain’t mad at you,’ I said.

“This is where we are, folks.

“Gary Doyens: It’s just marketing. Those who get paid to help a candidate should do it altruistically? If they had a job, or really believed in the alternative to Linda McMahon, they might. In the meantime, it’s a job and it pays the bills. That’s more than they will have tomorrow. And by the way, Democrats are paying people too.”

“William Kurtz: The problem is not paying people; it’s trying to link her name to an expected Obama victory. But in the end, voter beware. It shouldn’t fool anyone with a clue.”

Voters lined up early and waited in line to cast ballots across New Haven. One voter showed up at 4:20 a.m., a full 100 minutes before the polls opened, at Jepson School in the Heights. A line was already forming by 5:40 a.m. at the Ellsworth Avenue polling place in the Edgewood neighborhood. In the hectic pre-work hours, voters reported waiting as long as an hour in lines with as many as 300 standees at Wilbur Cross High School in East Rock; as of 1:05 p.m., 1,121 people had voted in Ward 10 and 750 in Ward 9.

The line was still out the door at Edgewood School at 9 a.m. State Sen. Martin Looney (who is running unopposed for reelection) waited 45 minutes to cast his ballot at Nathan Hale School in Morris Cove.

Even after the morning rush, voters were still waiting a good half hour at Lincoln Bassett School in Newhallville. Same with Berger Apartments in West River, where the line was reported still out the door.

Energetic registration drives — by the Democratic Town Committee, by the state party campaign, by the Central Labor Council, by some Yalies — brought the number of eligible voters in New Haven above 71,000, more than 6,000 above the total registered in 2008. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 of those new registrations occurred since early September.

Allan Appel, Michelle Turner, and Gwyneth K. Shaw contributed to this story.