New Haven Independent

Thanks to the registrar nomination, get ready for a three-way race this fall that city law offers only one candidate the opportunity to lose.

New Haven’s Ralph Ferrucci (pictured being congratulated by party member Pat Kane, who recently moved to town from Stamford) was nominated to run again this fall against U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro in the Third Congressional District. The nomination took place at a meeting of four party members Tuesday night at the Neverending Bookstore on State Street.

The four present didn’t include two of the actual nominees. Colin Bennett, an environmental activist from Westbrook and graduate student at Southern Connecticut, was chosen to run in the 33rd State Senatorial district; he was attending another meeting Tuesday night.

And Mary Anne Davis, the Greens’ candidate for New Haven registrar of voters, was home Tuesday night because of an illness in the family.

Davis, who lives in Fair Haven Heights, is currently treasurer of New Haven Green Party and works for the state Department of Environment Protection employee.

By running for registrar of voters, she sets up a race in which her opponents can’t lose — but she might.

Here’s why: The law requires that the two major parties each have a registrar of voters. That means Democrat Sharon Ferrucci and Republican Rae Tramantano are guaranteed reelection.

Minor parties have to come in at least second to gain a registrar’s job. So if Davis comes in second, the city will have three registrars on the payroll. If she loses, it will maintain its current two.

All three nominees received unanimous, that is, four votes. Party co-chair Pillsbury (pictured) accepted on behalf of the two absent nominees. Despite the absence of a crowd, however, Pillsbury suggested that serious business was afoot. If Davis succeeds, he said, it might mean that New Haven’s voter registration landscape could change significantly.

The Greens ran a candidate for registrar in 2004, Calvin Nicholson. He received 8 percent of the vote. Ferrucci received 79 percent of the votes cast, Tromantano, 13 percent.

“If Mary Anne,” said Pillsbury, “attracts, say 11 percent of the vote and Rae gets 10 percent, that is, if she outperforms the Republicans, that would mean that the Greens would come in second and deserve a registrar of voters too.

“It’s complicated, but I think, yes, that the work they do — getting the voting machines into every ward, sending out the post cards and so forth — would now have to be split with a Green registrar. It could happen.”

The registrar is a paid position, so that each of the current registrars earns $52,000. Would that mean a Green registrar would cost the city, in addition to the $104,000 being paid to the Republican and Democrat an additional $52,000?

“Well, I’m not sure we want to put it that way,” said Pillsbury. “The point is that if that turned out to be the case, Mary Ann would provide a lot of value added.

“Don’t get me wrong. Sharon and Rae have always been more than fair to the Greens and work hard, but I haven’t seen a real voter registration drive come out of that office in years. I remember the days when there was a kind of assistant voter registrar in each of New Haven’s wards. Mary Anne would, I know, have tables set up at Cross and Hillhouse and register the high school kids as they near graduation. She’d bring in the twenty-somethings too who are underrepresented. Participation in municipal elections has been on a steady decline. A Green registrar would try to reverse that.”

But first she has to be elected. Next step: Pillsbury will file the endorsements of the three candidates with the state Wednesday and, in the case of Davis, with the city. Because of their record in previous elections, the Greens get automatic ballot spots without having to petition this year.

Discussion of the nominees was witty and brief. Roger Uhlin said of Davis’s track record as treasurer of the party: “During her tenure as treasurer of the New Haven Greens, not a dollar has been missing.”

“Of course,” Ralph Ferrucci quipped, “there’s only two dollars in the treasury.”