Six candidates hoping to become the 94th General Assembly District’s next representative have until Monday at 4 p.m. to turn in petitions to get their names on the ballot for an upcoming special election.
The special election takes place April 24. The winner will replace Gary Holder-Winfield, who stepped down to become the new state senator from the 10th District.
The district covers portions of New Haven’s East Rock and Newhallville neighborhoods as well as parts of southern Hamden. A Democratic Party nominating convention is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the parish house next to Betsy Ross Arts School on Kimberly Avenue. (It will be coterminus with a city Democratic Party Town Committee convention to choose a new chairman.) The winner of that convention will automatically get his or her name on the election ballot, assuming party leaders turn in the paperwork on time.
Candidates can also petition their way onto the ballot by collecting the signatures of 84 registered voters by 4 p.m. Tuesday. Former Newhallville Alderman Charles Blango turned in 113 qualified signatures on Friday, according to Deputy City/Town Clerk Sally Brown.
Newhallville barber Charles Ashe and Robyn Porter, who lives in Newhallville and works as an administrative assistant for the Communications Workers of America, have also turned in some petitions, but not with enough signatures to qualify yet for the ballot, Brown said Friday afternoon. They are expected to seek more signatures this weekend. Brown told them her office will stay open on Saturday (because of a special election Monday for alder in the 7th Ward), so the candidates can turn in petitions then if they’d like.
Three other candidates have taken out petitions for the state representative special election: Jerome Dunbar of Bassett Street; Reynaud Harp of Hamden, brother-in-law of New Haven Mayor Toni Harp; and Berita Rowe-Lewis, an at-large council member in Hamden.
My,My it's amazing the people who decide to run for office..there should be a competence test ...especially the ones who insist they have the best interest of the people in their community.. All of these candidates need to be vetted properly by the people before they decide to run for office so there want be any surprises .... Just saying...