New Haven Independent

It was DeStefano’s crowd at the state AFL-CIO convention Tuesday. Union leaders delivered an important endorsement for DeStefano against Malloy in their race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in an Aug. 8 primary.

The 180,000-member federation’s endorsement carries a lot of weight, for two reasons. Labor is a key vote-pulling bloc in Democratic primaries. And the AFL-CIO endorsement means the statewide federation can pour money into the race and coordinate individual unions’ vote-pulling operation.

It could have been a worse day for Malloy.He and his campaign worked hard to create a sense of, if not victory, energy and support behind his candidacy. Malloy will need that energy and support if he wins the primary and takes on a popular incumbent in November. In contrast to Senate candidate Ned Lamont’s lackluster performance at the convention a day earlier, Malloy and his team salvaged their time at an event that was stacked against them before they arrived.

The maneuvering began as Malloy entered the hall to speak slightly after 10:30 a.m. Malloy’s campaign (unlike Lamont’s) had more than a dozen sign-bearing supporters ready to march in with him.

Then they ran into Ray Soucy of the state government workers’ union, a tough guy standing sentry by the hall entrance. He’s the man in the photo at the top of the story. Soucy wore a “sergeant at arms” armband, and a fearsome puss. He barred the supporters from the hall — even though for the previous day and all morning people passed through the hall at will, with or without delegate badges, with or without candidate signs. Soucy told them they needed delegate passes.

“These guys are kids!” objected Malloy campaign manager Roy Occhiogrosso. “They just want to come in here with signs.”

“I don’t make the rules,” Soucy responded, stone-faced.

“Apparently you do,” Occhiogrosso shot back as he slipped off in search of help.

Watching the scene was Henry Fenrandez, campaign manager for John DeStefano. DeStefano was scheduled to appear a half-hour later “We’ve got to get guest passes,” he told an aide.

Moments later the AFL-CIO’s Ed Sasso showed up and pulled rank. He told Soucy to let the Malloy crowd in. Soucy said no.

“I’m running the show,” Sasso insisted. “Not you!”

As Sasso and Soucy dickered, Occhiogrosso waved to the waiting sign-bearers. “Guys, come on in!” he called. They followed.

The Malloy troops positioned themselves along the walls of the hall, hoisted their signs, cheered on cue as their candidate gave a forceful, confident pitch for his candidacy. He devoted his time not to attacking DeStefano, but rather to focusing their attention on November, the race which the eventual Democratic nominee will wage against Republican Gov. Jodi Rell. He spoke of his mother’s history as a union organizer. He made sure that he came across as someone labor could rally around if Malloy defeats DeStefano on Aug. 8.

“The years of corruption and inaction will end Nov. 7 when we elect Dan Malloy!” he declared.

Malloy acknowledged that the body would probably back DeStefano later in the day. “I wish we were all together now,” he said. “But I want you to know we will be together Aug. 9… I will win the primary… When times get tough, you’re going to want me at the helm.”

After his speech, as he spun his speech for reporters (pictured), Malloy worked to buttress the story that he’d salvaged his appearance by winning new support. “As the speech went on,” he claimed, “more and more people were wondering, ‘Why am I not with Dan Malloy?’”

How’d he know that?

“I could see it on their faces.”

A Rousing Speech

By the time DeStefano showed up at the Omni to speak, no one was barring the door to his supporters. Soucy was still by the door, standing next to DeStefano. He wore a DeStefano sticker on his shirt. He no longer wore the velcro sergeant-at-arms armband. He’d turned that in.

“They changed the rules on me, so screw ‘em,” he said. “Eddy Sasso got big balls and gave me shit in front of the press. I told him, ‘Here’s your sergeant-at-arms banner.’”

DeStefano gave a rousing speech to the delegates. The campaign lined the dais with 14 rank-and-file union workers. They stood behind DeStefano as he spoke about how he’d arrived there because of the hard work of people who, figuratively, stood behind him.

After speaking of his father’s history as a unionized cop, and the role unions played in helping immigrants build better lives in America, DeStefano took the crowd through a greatest-hits tour of the victories he helped deliver for organized labor as mayor of New Haven. The workers standing behind him served as props to illustrate those victories.

Ovella Watts was on the dais, for instance. She just retired after 30 years working at the Omni. As mayor, DeStefano brokered an arrangement under which the hotel’s new owners agreed to a card-check neutrality election that preserved a unionized workface.

“I stand for Ovella Watts,” DeStefano said, for “a place where you could work for 30 years, make a decent living, retire with a decent living. This hotel hasn’t fallen into the ground” as a result. In fact, it’s profitable, he said.

The appearance also offered DeStefano an opportunity for payback for all the heat he took earlier in the campaign, when he insisted that union concerns be considered in any approval of a new $430 million cancer center at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

He mentioned the flyers sent to active Democrats statewide by the hospital before it came to his office to reach a landmark compromise with labor and community groups to enable the cancer center to proceed. The mailings spoke of how candidate DeStefano was showing he was beholden to “outside influences.” DeStefano told the crowd that it was those “special interests,” and that he stood by them.

He also noted that, prior to the cancer center agreement, opponent Malloy invoked the controversy as a reason to back him instead of DeStefano. He quoted Malloy, who is Stamford’s mayor, saying, “What’s the problem with the mayor of New Haven? That wouldn’t happen in my city.’”

“He’s right,” DeStefano concluded, to applause. “That wouldn’t happen in his city.”

Malloy’s forces held some hope of blocking the endorsement. The hopes rested on the United Food and Commercial Workers; that union remained neutral in the governor’s race. If its delegates had shown up and voted “present” on the gubernatorial endorsement, it’s possible that the DeStefano camp would have failed to win the two-thirds vote it needed.

Malloy’s campaign charged that AFL-CIO leaders pressured the UFCW to stay home. Olsen denied it. He said he had a conversation with the union’s leaders in which he asked, “What message do you want to bring to the convention” — one that blocked the AFL-CIO from making an endorsement? They stayed home.