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by Thomas MacMillan | May 25, 2010 1:29 pm

(12) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Politics, State, Campaign 2010

Thomas MacMillan Photo Now that New Haven’s Gerry Garcia has made the primary ballot in his quest to become Connecticut’s first-ever Latino candidate for statewide office, his campaign turns to the next big challenge: Raising money. A tie-dyed Grateful Dead alter ego may help.

Garcia, who’s running for secretary of the state, Connecticut’s top elections official, captured nearly 25 percent of delegate votes at last weekend’s state convention. That was enough to defy expectations and earn Garcia a spot on the Democratic ballot. But he also lagged behind two better-known candidates at the convention: state legislators Denise Merrill and Jonathan Harris. (In the photo, Garcia, at center, and his wife, Magda, watched as delegate votes come in at Saturday’s convention.)

The Garcia campaign is leaving the convention with a couple of fund-raising strategies: Hit up newly converted delegates, and capitalize on the popularity of Garcia’s trademark tie-dyed T-shirts, inspired by the fact that he shares a name (with one letter difference) with a certain expired Grateful Dead guitarist.

Now that Garcia has made it to the primary, campaign manager Jason Bartlett has turned his attention to the next challenge. Garcia now needs to raise an additional $50,000 to qualify for public campaign financing.

That’s job number one, said Bartlett (pictured). He was seated on the convention floor shortly after delegates left the building for the year. Behind him, workers walked the aisles and cleared up the detritus of a completed convention: signs, stickers, and flyers from winners and losers.

Garcia made an early commitment to qualify for public financing, Bartlett said. To do so, he needs to raise a total of $75,000 without accepting donations larger than $100. So far, the campaign has raised around $25,000, Bartlett said. That leaves $50,000 to be raised before Garcia can earn his public financing check for about $340,000, Bartlett said.

He identified two ways the Garcia campaign will try to reach that goal.

“Everybody wants this T-shirt,” Bartlett said, plucking his tie-dyed Garcia campaign garment. He said he’s going to consult the campaigning rules to see if Garcia can sell the t-shirts (pictured) to raise funds.

Beyond selling T-shirts, Bartlett said he plans to start asking for fundraising assistance from some of the delegates and Democratic operatives who supported Garcia at the convention. “We’re going to ask some of the people that helped him here today.”

Garcia is coming out of the convention with a bump, Bartlett claimed. “We have huge momentum,” he said. “Because no one expected us to place.”

Garcia’s candidacy has gained viability at the convention, but some delegates may have supported Garcia only for the length of the first round of convention voting. That’s when Garcia got on the ballot. In the second round, many of Garcia’s delegate votes transferred to the other two secretary of the state candidates. In other words, delegate votes to get on the ballot do not necessarily transfer to permanent support.

This was made clear after the voting, as Garcia was speaking to the Independent just outside the convention floor. A delegate came up and congratulated Garcia on making the primary. He said he had supported him in the first round.

As he shook the delegates hand, Garcia asked if he could count on his future support. “So are you with me?”

“I’ll be with whoever’s nominated,” the delegate said.

“Oh,” said Garcia.

The delegate said he planned to support House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, who went on to win the official secretary of the state nomination.

Informed of the interaction after the convention, Bartlett dismissed the case of the fickle delegate. “That’s an anomaly,” he claimed.

Garcia converted a lot of delegates at the convention, Bartlett maintained. As the least known of the three candidates, Garcia capitalized on the greatest potential for growth, he said.

Bartlett explained the strategy that he said led to Garcia’s relatively successful convention this year.

Since the campaign didn’t have a lot of money, Bartlett decided to save it for the convention. “I knew there’d be a lot of undecided delegates,” he said. So the campaign dug into its savings to buy tie-dyed bandannas and T-shirts and Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” ice cream to give away at the convention.

“It was important to demonstrate that you can hang,” Bartlett said. “That you are a powerhouse.” Garcia’s ice cream and t-shirts helped make a splash and give Garcia a higher profile at the convention.

Garcia’s strong convention appearance was also based on months of “shoe leather” campaigning. Before he declared his candidacy, Bartlett had Garcia go to “every wise man and wise woman” in the state Democratic party and sit down for a cup of coffee. And he crisscrossed the state meeting with Democratic town committees. “He worked the process the way you’re supposed to work the process,” Bartlett said.

That’s why Garcia was able to hit nearly 25 percent of votes at the convention, when some had predicted he wouldn’t make it even to the 15 percent he needed to get on the primary ballot, Bartlett said.

Nobody believed he had 15 percent, Bartlett said. Bartlett said he told people repeatedly before the convention that Garcia had the votes he needed. “They didn’t want to believe me.”

Now that Garcia has earned some more attention, Bartlett said he plans to spread the word about his “progressive” platform, which focuses on reforming the election system. Garcia is going to advocate for early voting and other ways to bring more people out to vote, Bartlett said.

Connecticut shouldn’t have such an “archaic” voting system, he said. People should be able to vote over the course of a week, rather than just on a single day, he said. Such a change would mean that more Democrats would win and single mothers and working people would vote in greater numbers, Bartlett said.

As the first Latino to appear on the ballot for a constitutional, statewide office, Garcia will be aiming to boost turnout among Latino voters, Bartlett said. The Latino community is the fastest growing in Connecticut, “but has not demonstrated their political power yet.”

Comments

posted by: Cedarhillresident on May 25, 2010 3:28pm

hmmm I already own a tie die tee that says Garcia :) Had it for a decade or two :)

posted by: observer on May 25, 2010 3:56pm

Jason’s a good campaign person, but even he knows it takes more than ice cream and tee shirts.

posted by: Bill Saunders on May 25, 2010 4:48pm

People are forever calling me Jerry Garcia on the street.
If the campaign is looking for a guest look-a-alike, my services are available for a contribution to the charity of my choice.

posted by: cedarhillresident on May 25, 2010 8:48pm

Observer
this is state wide. I know the first thing I did when I heard he was running was got the word out on the dead head boards :0 Despite what people think they are people of all ages and most are voters and politically active! Ages ranging from 15 t0 70. All though it is not an election winner it is name recognition. And it can’t hurt. Gerry has to do the rest He is a fantastic candidate and I am sure people will see that.

posted by: Threefifths on May 25, 2010 9:49pm

posted by: observer on May 25, 2010 4:56pm
Jason’s a good campaign person, but even he knows it takes more than ice cream and tee shirts.

A good campaign person.Give me a break.The only thing he is good at is this.

http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/State-Rep-Bartlett-arrested-for-suspended-license-256480.php

posted by: staven on May 26, 2010 2:43am

people fell for obama’s ripped off pepsi logo and look what happened. hopefully they won’t make a similar mistake this time.

posted by: John Tulin on May 26, 2010 8:20am

But can he jam like Jerry?!?

posted by: 2Unique4u on May 26, 2010 10:48am

Gerry’s a good guy, but I’m not sure what kind of SoS he’d make. I’d be interested to see the details of how he’ll get 90% of the CT vote out in presidential election years and 80% for the even-year senate/house/governor’s races. ...

posted by: Uncle Egg on May 27, 2010 8:10am

I wish Gerry good luck. I haven’t followed his political career too closely, but I knew him way back in the day, going back to high school. He was a smart, hard-working, stand-up guy back then, and from what I can see he’s the same guy now.

posted by: Uncle Egg on May 27, 2010 8:12am

@JohnTulin Don’t know if he can jam like Jerry, but he used to play a pretty mean jazz bass.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on May 27, 2010 12:42pm

I lived near his mom and dad for years..someone in his house plays a mean bongos….I would sit out on my porch at night to listen. But then again it could of been another neighbor. He comes from good people!

posted by: Gerry Garcia on May 28, 2010 6:59am

Hi all. I’m not much of a blogger, but have been reading your comments and wanted to say hi. Wow! What a Convention!!!
@CedarHillResident Thank you for your kind words (and for honoring my mom in a previous post) and for your support. And, yes, you remember my family well ... occasionally bongos outside, but usually the source was one of several tenants over the years who played their Latin and Afro-Caribbean music really, really loud. :)
@3/5ths, was great to meet you in Hartford some weeks ago. Yes, of course it takes more than ice cream and t-shirts. You know it’s tough to get people’s attention on just the issues when you’re not starting from strength like my opponents had. Despite that, we got 1 in 4 people’s vote at the Convention! Ice cream and t-shirts alone didn’t do that for us, they made us accessible. What did it was focus on real issues (early voting, election transparency, ramped up business support), hard work, team work and passion. We were outnumbered and overpowered, as we will continue to be. But we got people’s attention. Now, we take it to the streets.
@2Unique4U Many other states offer early voting. In a typical referendum in CT, we get 7-8% participation of registered voters. In Oregon this year, where they do 100% voting by mail, their SOS office told me they were disappointed by turnout for a referendum. Participation was “only” 62.5%. My point: we can—and will—get much higher participation by taking voting seriously and not settling for the mediocrity we have today. If we make it easier and give people a stake in the process, people will participate in much greater #s.
@Uncle I think I’m pretty much the same guy you remember ... with more weight and less hair. ;)
Again, thank you all for your comments. I have been reading them and will continue to do so.

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