New Haven Independent

O’Sullivan-Best is running as an independent candidate against Democratic Ward 11 Alderman Robert Lee. The ward comprises the Bella Vista elderly housing complex and a swath of Fair Haven Heights. Voting takes place Nov. 3 at Bella Vista.

Kathleen O’Sullivan, the challenger’s mom, has pledged to make cookies for her daughter’s campaign — but she won’t reveal whom she’s voting for.

“I’m not saying,” said Kathleen O’Sullivan (at center in photo above).

She spoke Wednesday at her dining room table at her home at 54 Foxon St., moments after her daughter left the house to drum up votes in a neighboring housing complex.

An Irish immigrant, Kathleen O’Sullivan moved her family into the home in 1972. Now she lives there with Maureen and Maureen’s two daughters, Marisa and Nora ( at left and at right in photo with their grandmother).

When her daughter told her she wanted to run for alderwoman, O’Sullivan said she was not enthused.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked her daughter. “I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars.”

Her daughter, who’s 43, stood firm. O’Sullivan said that wasn’t a surprise. Of her four children, Maureen was the one she thought would become a lawyer or a politician.

“She knew how to get her point across,” O’Sullivan said. She described her daughter as “not clean” growing up: Maureen was always reading and kept piles of books and papers around the house.

A political science major in college, Maureen O’Sullivan-Best (pictured) is now a community activist, a familiar face at government meetings and the local management team. She’s currently unemployed. She made one foray into politics eight years ago, as a write-in candidate for alderman to fill a vacancy in Ward 11. She got just a handful of votes.

This time, she faces a popular three-term incumbent who last year toppled a mayoral political ally in the local Democratic ward committee. Lee, who’s 52, is believed to have a lockdown on votes in the Bella Vista towers, which are nearly impossible for candidates to access without help from the inside.

Neither candidate has raised more than $1,000, the threshold for reporting campaign contributions to the state. Lee said he is not campaigning because “she’s really not a legitimate opponent.”

“She needs to multiply never 10 times, and that’s the chances she’s got” of winning, he said.

Earlier this month, Lee boasted that “she’s only going to get two votes,” herself and her mother. He added that one of those votes may be his, since he knows Maureen’s mom.

Thursday, Lee hit a more generous tone and boosted his bet. She won’t get more than 50 votes, he said. He said he won’t try to court his opponent’s mother’s vote, though he found it interesting that she wouldn’t say whom she is voting for.

“She Won’t Cancel Me”

Mother and daughter haven’t always agreed on politics. The elder is a Democrat; the younger is unaffiliated.

“I’ve been voting for much longer than her,” pointed out Maureen. Her mother just became a U.S. citizen in 1996. Kathleen O’Sullivan, who still speaks with an Irish lilt after 50 years in the States, said she was brought up not to talk about politics or religion. An accomplished baker, she pledged to provide cakes or cookies for campaign events, but otherwise is staying out of the race.

After some back and forth with her daughter, O’Sullivan agreed to sign a petition to get her on the ballot as an independent candidate. Maureen needed five signatures; she secured nine.

Last election, Maureen and her mom canceled out each other’s votes: Mom supported Lee, while Maureen supported Virginia Ginger McHugh, a City Hall-backed Democratic primary challenger. (Lee won handily.)

O’Sullivan said she knows Lee from block watch meetings. “He’s OK,” she said. She said she voted for Robert Lee in the last two elections and at one point kept a Lee sign in her window.

Of course, “that was when my daughter wasn’t running,” she pointed out.

This time, her daughter said she’s “confident” that her mom “won’t cancel me out.”

“She’s free to make up her own mind,” said the candidate, but “she’s not going to vote for my opponent.”

“I think I can count on my mom’s vote.”

Traffic-Calming

O’Sullivan-Best said she decided to run when Lee failed to support a project she and her neighbors had been working for seven years got get — traffic-calming at Foxon and Essex streets. Lee had promised to push for improvements to be included in the bid, O’Sullivan-Best said.

The $153,000 redo cut off through-traffic on Foxon Street by creating a landscaped barrier (seen in photo at top of this story). The project was completed last fall, but without those improvements Lee had pledged to push for, she charged.

“When he didn’t bother to follow up with that, that was it for me,” O’Sullivan-Best said. “I wanted him gone.”

Lee brushed off the criticism Thursday. “I don’t even know what this young lady is talking about,” he said. He said he’s working hard for traffic-calming measures on Eastern Street.

Two other issues cemented her desire to run, O’Sullivan-Best said: Lee (pictured) nearly blocked a grant to give 10 computers to the city’s senior centers. He quashed the proposal, then called for a redo vote and allowed it to pass.

Lee elaborated on his logic Thursday. He said his real beef was with the city for shutting down the Bella Vista senior center. “If they’re shutting the senior centers down, why would they be sending out computers?”

O’Sullivan-Best charged that Lee made noise about the senior center closing, but failed to come up with a plan to rescue it.

She said Lee is “good at yelling and screaming” in front of TV cameras, but doesn’t take action or collaborate with decision-makers to bring resources for the ward, she argued.

Lee countered that he’s working on a partnership with Gateway Community College to set up a free computer training class for the Bella Vista folks who have lost their senior center.

“Everything in my ward I was asked to do I did, and then some,” Lee said. “She needs to throw the Hatorade away.”