New Haven Independent

Brian McGrath (pictured at left), former director of traffic and parking and aggressive Democratic vote-puller, and Deserine Thomas (pictured at right) knocked on doors in the Hill to bring voters to the polls for DeStefano, a Democrat making a long-shot bid to oust popular Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. The two also pushed support for other Democrats, as well as for U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Dem-turned-third-party-candidate whom the two support.

“Knock knock,” rapped McGrath on a Greenwood Street home at about 10 a.m.

“Who’s there?”

“Democrats!” called out McGrath. “It’s time to vote!”

“I can’t, I’m a felon” a woman yelled back through a second-floor screen window.

“That doesn’t matter, you’re on the list!” responded McGrath, checking his spreadsheet of registered voters. The woman promised to get dressed and walk the two blocks to Career High School to vote.

Up the street, Lakiesha Saunders, 22, answered the door. Disgruntled about the state of the neighborhood, she didn’t want to vote for DeStefano, because “he don’t do nothin for us.” Click on the arrow to watch the pair’s rebuttal.

Saunders took a while to be convinced. What about all the crime? She lives a block away from Sylvan Avenue, where 13 year-old Justus Suggs was shot to death, and several other shootings have taken place in recent months. Saunders held the mayor to blame for the problems. Thomas contended the “don’t snitch” mentality was a worse threat to crime. Click on the play arrow below to hear what she had to say.

As the two walked away, Saunders said she would, after all, vote for DeStefano.

Two houses down, the vote-pulling momentum hit a wall. A young Jamaican-American man, Gary Fraser, stood outside his home smoking a cigarette. He said he wasn’t going to vote because “it don’t make a difference.” Besides, he wanted to “catch some fresh air” outside before heading to work at St. Raphael’s Hospital. Despite the pair’s pleading, Fraser wouldn’t be swayed. He said he’d spend his last 15 minutes before work getting coffee, not going to the polls.

“Make you so mad when you see someone who can vote, but just doesn’t want to do it,” said Thomas, who isn’t eligible to vote in the U.S.A. “Please. In Jamaica, Election Day, everybody’s voting.”

Around the corner, two middle-aged men walked back up Sylvan Avenue from the polls. One turned out to be Fraser’s father, Levi Fraser. “You’re Jamaican?” asked Thomas. The man concurred, and agreed to coerce his son into performing his democratic duties. Click on the play arrow to watch their exchange.

With only 10 remaining minutes before Kevin Fraser had to go to work, it seemed unlikely he would have time to vote.

“That’s why no mayor has been elected governor,” remarked McGrath after his experiences on Greenwood Street. Mayors get blamed for urban problems, and their constituents often just don’t vote.

Throughout the Hill, “I don’t make a difference”s and unregistered voters sprung up on nearly every street.

Earlier that morning, Carlos Eyzaguirre (pictured at right) and Andria Matthews (pictured at left) shuttled seniors to the polls from the William T. Rowe apartments on Howard Avenue. Eyzaguirre has been working in the ward for several years. This year he’s running the get-out-the-vote operation in the Hill. He knows all the seniors by name, and patiently holds the door for them or runs back upstairs with them when they forget their IDs.

The pair shuttled four voters to the polls within an hour. Several others refused. “I don’t elect nobody,” retorted one resident.

“DeStefano is not taking Gov. Rell out, and I’m taking that straight to the bank!” wagered this man, who declined to give his name. Click on the arrow to watch him.