New Haven Independent

From that meeting came the birth of the Hilltop Brigade. Hilltop refers to “Take Back the Hill,” as in taking back Capitol Hill from the Republicans. Brigade refers to the volunteers who went door-to-door on behalf of candidates. However, these volunteers use a new strategy. Instead of campaigning in so-called safe districts, like DeLauro’s in New Haven or John Larson’s in East Hartford, they are deployed to districts in need.

The idea worked. Ultimately, through house parties and other events, the Hilltop Brigade recruited more than 700 volunteers who knocked on doors in the key districts. Two of their three candidates won. Congressman Chris Murphy won in Connecticut’s Fifth District and “Landslide Joe” Courtney won by 83 votes in the Second District. Both were on hand Friday night, this time in Rosa DeLauro’s New Haven living room.

The Hilltop Brigade model has been used at the local level. It was the foundation of the election of Unk DaRos as Branford’s First Selectmen in November. Farber and another key Hilltop organizer, former Branford town counsel Penny Bellamy, were key strategists in that campaign.

This time around they plan to draw more volunteers from Larson’s First District to work in three Democrats’ U.S. Congressional campaigns. The volunteers are divided into teams, with team captains and battalion chiefs to check the progress of the brigade. At DeLauro’s house the other night 180 new Hilltop volunteers showed up. Not bad for a cold, windy Friday evening in March.

Speakers at DeLauro’s house praised the leaders of the Hilltop Brigade, Farber and Bellamy. “The brigade made the difference,” DeLauro declared. “We have a new [Democratic] majority that you helped to create. Let me say this to you: We have a 15-vote margin in the House of Representatives. We have a one-vote margin in the U.S.Senate.”

To the standing-room-only crowd that gathered and promised to hit the streets over the next seven months, she said: “You can be of tremendous help to us. We can expand the majority in the house by 40 seats. We can take 40 Republicans. I have that on good order. We could take 40 Republican seats,” she repeated to cheers.

“If that happens, then we will then defeat the lone Republican in New England. We will dispatch [Fourth District Rep.] Christopher Shays and welcome him home,” she said.

Removing Shays from office won’t be easy. He has served for 20 years, is a member of key Congressional committees, he has pressed hard for good government initiatives, and he knows how to deliver funds back to the Fourth Congressional district, which includes Bridgeport and Westport. He has had two consecutive tough challenges from Democrats, and emerged victorious each time, despite popular discontent over his support for the Iraq war.

His Democratic opponent this time around is Jim Himes (pictured), a businessman and a former Rhodes Scholar eager to enter public life.

Himes said at DeLauro’s house that “this is going to be one of the most challenging, most hard fought races in the country.” He thanked the volunteers again and again for their help.

Congressman Murphy welcomed Himes to politics.

“Let me say something to Jim and Mary. You are going to love the Hilltoppers,” Murphy (pictured) said. “It is fantastic to be here. Two years ago, when we first gathered here, I was nervous. I was a new Congressional candidate. There were so many obstacles, so many people saying it couldn’t be done.

“To be in the middle of a group of people who didn’t even come from our district, who wanted to work for us. I can t tell you how emotionally, psychologically how much that effort helped us early on. It made a difference on the ground.

“What happened here? It was about the number of doors you all knocked on, the number of phone calls that you made, but the message meant so much to our campaign, because what we are trying to sell was a reinvention of how Washington works, that Washington was going to work from the grassroots up again, that the political power was gong to be the people you represented, not the lobbyists. .

“What really mattered was that our message about returning government to the people was backed up by the fact that we had people, that they were knocking on doors, that people were seeing the face of our campaign”

Joe Courtney told the group: “Chris and I are exhibit A and B that the Hilltop Brigade really works. And Stephanie and Penny are really responsible for our being in Congress. Courtney and Murphy, DeLauro and Larson, who is the Fifth Ranking Democrat in the House, are all up for re-election in November.

“So our message is the same as it was two years ago. We changed this country by changing Connecticut , through grassroots activism, through the inspiration of Rosa and John [Larson] and Stephanie and Penny. We did something very special. If you were out there, it felt right. We constructed a way to do a campaign that we think will be a model for the future in Connecticut and around the country. Joe and I are going to return and we are going to bring Jim with us and we are going to export this to the rest of the country so it can change our politics.”

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