In New Haven, Rs and Ds can work together

Last week I met with faculty colleagues at a popular New Haven restaurant for dinner. Since I was coming after night class, I was the last one to arrive. The moment I entered, I discovered that they were seated next to a table full of New Haven alders. Both tables warmly greeted me, but my colleagues laughed at the fact that they chose to sit near the legislative officials. I joked to the alders that we were having a local Republican Party committee meeting, but then admitted it was a faculty dinner outing.

For those who don’t know, I am New Haven’s former Republican Party chairman, and I also teach and study state and local government. I even helped recruit a couple of candidates to run against a couple of the alders at the restaurant. While our candidates weren’t elected, we Republicans raised significantly more campaign donations than in the past. We also got committee members on various local boards and commissions because the city’s charter requires more than one political party being represented. New Haven might have 14 registered Democrats for every 1 Republican, but the city has more than 16,000 unaffiliated voters.

As local Republican Party chairman, I was often struck by some voters’ and officials’ anger toward me. From raging social media posts to accusatory charges during public meetings, I’ve heard and seen the worst. But some New Haveners, even Democrats, were appreciative that there were candidates and board appointments from the opposing party for competition’s sake.

That evening at the restaurant, we exchanged hugs and pleasantries. This reminded me why I study and prefer local politics.

When you get to know someone, even your supposed enemies in the opposing party, you actually get to know them for good or bad. There’s no cable news reminding you that you are antagonists. There are no operatives forcing you to publicly loathe your opponent. It’s more collegial when there’s little media or political noise and there’s direct communication.

That evening, I had a chance to discuss with the New Haven alder president how both parties had offered input on alder district mapping. It was another reminder that knowing local officials matters and that local politics are different from the political dystopia in our nation’s capital.

Unfortunately, few policies are negotiated in Washington. Experts such as Robert Putnam stress that America embraces “political tribalism” in our politics. But I would counter this is not the case in every instance.

As the alders were leaving, a couple of them said they missed seeing me around town, and I reminded them I still work at Southern Connecticut State University. They asked if I missed being engaged in the city’s politics. I admitted that I missed being on New Haven’s City Plan Commission the most because teaching and writing about urban redevelopment meshed so well with serving on an impactful city hall body.

This is why local government matters and why we need to connect more with our public officials. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of having face-to-face exchanges to make politics more personal than partisan.

As our state and local governments begin to hold in-person meetings again, we need to relate more to each other and not get stuck on political party bickering. Communicating with public officials is a necessity for our governments to flourish, but actually knowing one another can make all the difference.

Jonathan L. Wharton is the School of Graduate and Professional Studies associate dean and teaches political science at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.