What’s behind the split in the Democratic Party of Hamden?

HAMDEN — It’s sure to be an interesting election year, given a split among Hamden Democrats that, according to politicos, partially mirrors the national divide between the “moderate” and “progressive” wings of the party and also stems from local issues and rivalries.

Most recently, the tensions became apparent in the Democratic Town Committee’s process to field candidates seeking the party’s endorsement to run for mayor. Incumbent Mayor Curt Balzano Leng, a Democrat who has held the post since 2015, is not participating, nor has he indicated whether he will seek reelection or the endorsement.

The DTC asked interested per

sons to fill out a questionnaire and indicate whether they supported the committee’s platform, ratified in January.

At times openly critical of the administration, the platform itself has been a point of tension with the mayor, who called it misleading and disputed its portrayal of how Hamden operates.

Some traced the beginnings of these tensions back to 2016, when both the primary contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and the election of Donald Trump brought out a more “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party and spurred some newcomers to become involved in politics, said Scott McLean, a professor of political science at Quinnipiac University.

In the years that followed, some upand-comers like council members Brad Macdowall and Lauren Garrett “(raised) questions to the more established, you know, members of the town committee,” McLean continued.

And in 2018, membership of the DTC itself began to change, according to Chairman Sean Grace.

The following year, Garrett announced her run for mayor, and while the endorsement went to Leng, she still managed to earn 27 of the DTC’s 61 votes. In the subsequent primary, Leng easily defeated her, however.

Half a year later, an election to decide who got a seat on the DTC — which has 63 members, 7 per council district, according to Grace — turned out differently.

Often, DTC membership is decided via a caucus, but challengers who do not win at the caucus can petition and trigger an election. In 2020, that happened in seven of Hamden’s nine Legislative Council districts, with candidates running as part of a “slate.”

Leng himself ran for a District 6 seat and lost, as did most contenders on slates he openly supported on social media, according to election results posted on the state website.

Progressive vs. moderate?

The New Haven Independent, which reported on the DTC primary, called the winners of the 2020 election the “selfproclaimed

progressive wing.”

It’s a division that finds parallels in the Clinton/Sanders split, or the contest between representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “the Squad” versus the moderate wing of the national Democratic Party.

McLean said he sees the split as partly coming down to “progressives and liberals, and I think that’s the story of the Democratic Party from the national to the state to the local level.”

Does the “progressive” takeover of the DTC mean the farther-left side of the party has won out in Hamden? Not necessarily.

Michael McGarry, a DTC member and president of the Legislative Council, is a self-described progressive. He said he believes the DTC “skews a little left of where the Hamden Democratic Party is and a little more left of where Hamden is in general.”

James Pascarella, who previously served as Legislative Council president and as acting mayor in 2015, is a DTC member who questioned some of the decisions the committee has made.

Running on a Leng-supported slate, he managed to eke out a win in the 2020 primary, even as the remaining members of his slate lost.

“I think it was just a matter of turnout,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t pay attention. … It’s not really an election of the government of the town. … The town committee primary, in my opinion, was not a rejection of the mayor, nor a rejection of the rest of us.”

On the other hand, Grace, the DTC chairman, said the 2020 wins were hard fought.

“Despite being vastly outspent, a strong reform focused message carried the day across Hamden and in some districts by a two to one margin,” he wrote in an email to the Register.

Other divisions

Many say the split cannot be defined only in terms of “progressive” versus “moderate.”

According to Grace, the divide developed from a gradual process of self-education. As Democrats like Macdowall and Garrett closely examined Hamden’s budget, he said, many concluded that the current administration was partly to blame for fiscal problems.

They also demanded more “transparency and accountability,” Grace said.

Abdul Osmanu, who serves as the DTC’s recording secretary but is not a member, said the change in the DTC was about going up against the old guard and being “unabashedly truthful.”

While mayoral hopefuls have expressed support for initiatives such as making all town records easily accessible online, Leng challenged the idea that the administration has not been transparent, saying audits, annual budgets and expense and revenue reports are available online.

Some of the sticking points for those critical of how the town is run financially include a contention that past budgets have been “dishonest,” incorporating unrealistic line items, and criticism of fiscal practices such as capital sweeps.

Leng, on the other hand, has said the town has made real financial progress, is turning a corner and is slated to have the healthiest fund balance in years.

The DTC “(tends) to be more extreme and constantly negative on financial matters and more, when a consistent and moderate approach is more effective and less harmful to people’s wallets,” he said when asked for insights into the differences in the party. “This reeks of politics and is reminiscent of Washington … where people can’t work to compromise and get things done that are meaningful in people’s lives.”

He also accused the committee of being “far less supportive” of police, saying he was “supportive of both police and police reform.”

“Mayor Leng acknowledges that he supports police reform just as all of us should,” Grace said in a written statement responding to Leng’s comments. “A key component in advocating for police accountability and reform is acknowledging that our current practices fall short of what our community needs. The goals established in the DTC platform are based on scientific based research and can be found in President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.”

Regarding the financial issues, Grace indicated there was grounds to worry.

“Our most recent audit, which revealed a fund balance deficit in the millions, confirmed that there is reason to be concerned,” he said.

Inclusion — and competition

McGarry, the council president, said he often feels caught between Hamden’s Democrat factions.

“Personally, I am extraordinarily progressive, but I also take very seriously the fact that I represent everybody in Hamden, that includes Republicans, that includes the … unaffiliated, and so I listen to everyone,” he said. “Building consensus is difficult, and it takes a lot of time.”

As for the DTC itself, McGarry questioned whether it had come to be about “acting against a particular person” — the mayor. He further contended it should be wider in scope,” with room for more voices.

“Instead of fighting each other, let’s get to work,” he said. “That would be my mantra.”

Grace said every Democrat in town was invited to participate in drafting a platform.

“The scope of the issues addressed in our platform is about as wide and inclusive as can be,” he said.

Of the divisions among Hamden Democrats, McLean, the Quinnipiac professor, warned against “(getting) the idea that this is all about ideology.”

“It’s about their personalities, too, and it’s about who they are and the ambitions that they have,” he said. “They’re competing.”

That’s certainly the case for this year, which already has multiple contenders.

Macdowall, Garrett and Peter Cyr all have announced they are seeking the party’s endorsement, which will be decided at the DTC convention this summer. Meanwhile, if Leng does not get the endorsement, he still could petition to be on the ballot, either in a Democratic primary or as a third-party candidate in the general election.

Pascarella, the former council president and current DTC member, said the election will mark a referendum as to whether the majority of Hamden Democrats support the new DTC.

“It’ll be very interesting this September,” he said.

Hamden Democratic Town Chairman Sean Grace