New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
School problems, taxes and subpoenas worked against Harp
NEW HAVEN — Delphine Clyburn was heartbroken and like other longtime supporters, felt blindsided when her candidate, Toni Harp, decisively lost the Democratic primary fight to Justin Elicker.
Democratic voters broke 7,198 to 5,150 for Elicker over the threeterm mayor —a that was incomprehensible to Clyburn.
Alder Jeanette Morrison, D22, in Dixwell said she had to be told a few times before it sank in. The mayor won there by 21 votes with only 363 people reporting to that poll. In 2013, in the first contest between Harp and Elicker, her total votes alone were 343.
Harp still won in Newhallville’s Ward 20 where Clyburn is a popular alder, but it was less than expected, although the alder said she hit the streets as she always does campaigning for the incumbent. But it was still the highest votepulling black ward with 348 for Harp to 163 for Elicker.
In most races, there would be a mourning period for the loser, but the party would then come back together.
In New Haven, almost a week after the vote, the Democratic Party’s leadership is in a holding pattern as it waits for Harp, a successful candidate for office for the last 32 years, to decide whether she will shoulder on and run for mayor on the Working Families Party line, a labor affiliated group that often crossendorses Democrats seeking office.
This endorsement was more than an asterisk in the race. It was a lifeline that gives her a platform, if she chooses to use it, on which to run. In 2013 she criticized Elicker for petitioning to get on the ballot as a backup, something he has done this year as well.
In the event he did not win Tuesday’s primary, his chances of winning in the general election when 16,402 unaffiliated voters and 2,455 Republicans join the voting pool in November, are even greater when you start with a base of 7,000 Democrats.
In interviews with Democrats, who did not wish to be named, there were a variety of reasons offered for Harp’s loss and a drop in participation than what was projected, given the turnout in 2013 in the first race between Harp and Elicker.
Harp easily won in a fourway primary fight in 2013 against Elicker, Henry Fernandez and Kermit Carolina, gathering 7,327 votes to the 7,394 total earned by the four challengers.
In the general election in November 2013, however, Harp, then the retired powerful cochairwoman of the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee, beat Elicker by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Both the Elicker and Harp camps thought the turnout Tuesday would match or exceed the 14,781 voters participating in the primary fight in 2013. Having four separate campaigns working to excite the voters might have helped with those higher numbers. The total Tuesday was 12,382 and there was somewhat nervous watching as the predicted long lines did not materialize.
Elicker won several African American and Latino wards, which included Ward 6 in the Hill; Ward 14 and Ward 15 in Fair Haven and Ward 21 in Newhallville.
The more diverse wards in the city also went for Elicker, such as Ward 8 in Wooster Square; Ward 13 in Fair Haven Heights; Ward 26 in Westville, Ward 19 and Ward 17; he lost Beaver Hills by just 8 votes. Elicker kept the less diverse wards with the greatest voter participation, such as downtown, East Rock, Ward 18 on the East Shore and Westville’s Ward 25. The mayor had won Wards 13 and 17 in 2013.
Bottom line, former Harp supporters either stayed home or voted against her, while Elicker had a representation across the city.
One big factor was the slow start to the Harp campaign, with Elicker in the race by January and Harp not making an official announcement until months later as she had to first fund raise to clear a debt from her 2017 campaign.
It then became apparent that multiple filings from that race were months late and the numbers showed between $80,000 and $100,000 with no identified donor.
That resulted in the first complaint the Elicker campaign filed with the State Election Enforcement Commission. A second one was filed in August when the names were missing from another $5,700 in donations, in addition to other problems.
Elicker by September had raised $301,208 to Harp’s $226,398 , even after after being capped at $390 per individual under the Democracy Fund, the city’s public financing mechanism, to the $1,000 cap for Harp. She was never able to catch up after her poor showing in the first quarter.
Elicker has said he knocked on a 1,000 doors in the 9month runup to the election, with a core group of 100 volunteers, many still committed six years after his first run for mayor. The Harp campaign appeared lackluster compared to previous less competitive races.
Elicker has said that while waiting for Harp to officially announce whether or not she will continue in the race, he doesn’t want to answer questions on what his administration would do in its first months as it would look presumptuous, but he reiterated his campaign commitments.
Beyond the fundraising issues, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for Harp was the 11 percent increase in the tax rate put into effect in fiscal 2019 after the state cut funds. She openly blamed the state delegation, the beginning of the split with the majority of the city’s six representatives and two state senators, who will say she was warned of the need to cut her budget.
“You saw it every month in your mortgage payment,” one resident said of the impact of the tax hike.
Tied for first in missteps was the hiring of Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks — the mayor’s choice — but not the favorite of parents and teachers.
Monthly there was coverage of fighting among school board member, moving estimates of how big was its debt and an uproar over layoff notices sent to teachers, counselors and librarians, which in the end were rescinded.
The final act of dysfunction was failing to tell parents of bus changes that involved both the routes and half the usual stops until shortly before school opened.
The complaints immediately rolled in and reached a crescendo just before the primary, totaling some 3,000 by that week. They included failed accommodation for some students with special needs and walking routes past liquor stores and across dangerous intersections.
Sorority sister or not, Harp has not come to Birks’ defense, except to say she needs a formal review — set for this month — before anything happens. At other times she has bluntly said the city can’t afford to buy out her contract.
The lack of a police contract for three years which resulted in more than 80 officers retiring or going to better paying jobs in the suburbs was also a sore point. There is now an agreement reached shortly before the election.
The Harp campaign also ran negative ads, accusing Elicker of wanting to send drones to spy on minority neighborhoods under the guise of tracking dirt bikers. It also falsily accused his wife, an assistant U.S. attorney, of instigating an FBI investigation into the use of grants by the Youth Services Department, an inquiry that is ongoing.
The Elicker campaign has said such ads would often result in a boost in their own fundraising.