Melissa Bailey Photo
Ashe grabs a campaign sign for a supporter.
A man who inherited a pulpit and a barber shop from his dad is making his debut in politics with a vow to restore Christian “family values” to schools and society.
“When we expel God from our schools, dismiss him from our court and evict him from our culture, then we have problems,” said Charles Ashe III (pictured). He said if elected he would support prayer in schools.
Ashe, a Democrat from Newhallville, is one of five candidates whose names appear on the ballot in a special election this Thursday to fill an open state representative seat in the 94th General Assembly District. The district spans of parts of Hamden, New Haven’s Newhallville and Prospect Hill neighborhoods, and a slice of Yale.
Ashe, who’s 54, owns Ashe’s Barber Shop on Dixwell Avenue, which he started with his father in 1981. He inherited full ownership of the business after his father, the Rev. Charles Ashe Jr., died about 10 years ago. Ashe III also inherited his father’s role as pastor of the First Pentecostal Church of Christ on Whalley Avenue in upper Westville.
Ashe, a lifelong New Havener, framed himself as a grassroots, homegrown candidate who would bring his experience as a street minister at the barber shop, and a pastor at his church, into the state legislature.
Ashe said he would be unafraid to take a “tough stance” in support of “family values.”
“There’s nothing wrong in having someone from God’s house in the state’s house,” he said. At least two state representatives, Bruce Morris of Norwalk and Charles Stallworth of Bridgeport, are men of the cloth.
Ashe made those remarks in a recent interview at his mother’s house at 335 Shelton Ave., across the street from his barber shop. Ashe grew up in the McConaughy Terrace housing projects in West Hills. He and his wife, whom he has been with since age 16, have four biological kids and five grandkids. They have also raised foster children, the eldest of whom is now 24.
Ashe conducted the interview in his mother’s home, which he co-owns. He picked that spot because he discovered this year that his home at 407 Dixwell Ave. was cut out of the 94th District in the most recent redistricting; he said if he is elected, he would move to his mother’s house, or to the apartments over his barber shop across the street in order to establish residency in the district.
Ashe, a big, 6‑foot former basketball player, spoke from a stool at his mother’s kitchen counter, which Ashe said he built by hand. He was asked if he supports Pastor Eldren Morrison’s plan to open the Booker T. Washington charter school in the fall. The school aims to serve kids from Dixwell and Newhallville.
“It’s a wonderful initiative,” Ashe replied. “Everyone deserves a choice” as to where to go to school.
Ashe said he further believes that Americans have gone too far in “expelling God” from schools, courthouses, and from “our culture.”
“The framers of this country” built the U.S.A. on “Judeo-Christian values,” he said. There is “nothing in the Constitution that supports” separation of church and state, he argued. (The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”)
Ashe said as legislator, he would seek to bring back “family values” such as “marriage, family, community, empathy, respect, love, respecting other cultures as well as your own.”
“We don’t place a high emphasis on values. We seem to have a lower standard,” he said. “If someone takes a stand on values, they’re criticized for doing it. We need to put God first, and then family and then community.”
Ashe said he would support legislation promoting prayer in schools. “I don’t see how it would hurt. I think it would help,” he said.
“I would like to have some discussion around it,” he said. If people don’t want prayer in schools, he offered, schools could establish “a moment of silence.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that school districts cannot require students to pray in school, nor even require a moment of silence, if the moment of silence is intended for prayer.
Ashe painted himself not just as a minister of the pulpit, but also a minister of the streets who advises and listens to young men from the neighborhood through his barber shop. He said his top priorities would be to address gun violence and to support economic development in urban neighborhoods.
On other issues, Ashe said he “wholeheartedly” supports a proposal by state Sen. Martin Looney to guarantee that cities like New Haven receive at least 50 percent in PILOT reimbursements for not-for-profit-owned properties that it can’t tax. State law calls for 77 percent reimbursement, but the state reimbursement rate has been closer to 32 percent.
He said he supports universal prekindergarten, though he believes that “the most influential classroom is still the home.” He supports the recent move to raise Connecticut’s minimum wage to $10.10.
Ashe was also asked about a proposal by Gary Holder-Winfield, who vacated the 94th District seat to become a state senator, regarding the “drug-free zones” that raise penalties for drug-dealing. Holder-Winfield has raised concerns that people in urban areas suffer disproportionately from those penalties because in dense cities, there’s almost nowhere that isn’t in one of those zones. He proposes shrinking the zones from 1,500 feet to 250 feet.
Asked about the proposal, Ashe first said he supports the bill and did not know what its impact would be. “Gary has done a great job,” including in drafting this bill, he said.
Ashe later sent a clarification by text message: “You asked a question regarding [a] drug-free zone bill. I believe I said I supported it without knowing all the specifics. After further review, I support the bill because of the density issue and can see how urban residents would be more prone to the mandatory sentencing law as opposed to other communities.”
Ashe in his barber shop.
Asked how he would address neighborhood blight in Newhallville, Ashe said the answer is economic development. He said he would create jobs by sending more money to support small minority-owned businesses.
Ashe was asked how he would serve the parts of his ward in New Haven as well as Hamden. He noted that his barber shop is just two blocks away from the Hamden town line.
“I do business constantly across those boundaries,” he said. He vowed to be accessible to people in the neighborhood.
“I’m in the community. They’re going to be able to touch me,” he said.
Ashe said he is running as an “outsider” candidate with no experience in politics and no endorsements from “special interests.”
Ashe said his inspiration for running for office comes in part from the basketball court. As a freshman at Hillhouse High School, he didn’t make the cut to play on junior varsity. He rose up to become the captain of the varsity team his senior year, leading the state in scoring, he said. In his senior year, in 1977, he averaged 24 points per game and set a school record of scoring 40 points in three quarters — without a 3‑point line, he said. He went on to play basketball on a DII team at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.
“I bring that same mentality” as a hard-driving point guard “in working for the working class,” Ashe said. “I’ll go in being a freshman, being green, but hopefully one day I’ll come off the bench, be a star.”
Previous coverage of this campaign:
• Map Discovery Throws Convention Into Disarray
• A Candidate Un-Draws The Line
• Candidate Encounters 2 Worlds On Huntington St.
• She Has A Vote Ready
Pushing his religious ideology and trying to indoctrinate students should disqualify this guy from office.