Aliyya Swaby Photos
Michelle Obama delivers keynote at Thursday’s rally.
Michelle Obama dispatched diehard Democrats like Tina Downing to New Haven’s streets Thursday afternoon with a jolt of extra inspiration for a final four-day burst of energy in order to reelect Connecticut’s governor.
Downing (at right in photo) was among the 2,000-plus party loyalists who scored a ticket to see the First Lady address a jam-packed rally at Wilbur Cross High School.
It wasn’t a classic get-out-the-vote rally. The crowd, which began filling the blocks outside the school in the morning, can already be counted on to pull the lever for Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in his too-close-to-call rematch election next Tuesday against Republican Tom Foley.
To win, Malloy needs New Haven’s vaunted vote-pulling operation — which, he acknowledged at the rally, won him his first term — to work its magic again. And then some.
Paul Bass Photo
“We’re in New Haven for a reason,” Malloy told the Wilbur Cross crowd, speaking before Obama and after two U.S. senators, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
Malloy was three points behind Foley in the polls on Election Day 2010. Then New Haven turned out the votes — giving him a stunning 18,606-vote victory margin in the city, almost three times the miniscule 6,404 statewide plurality. Now Malloy has been behind or dead even in the polls again, and he’s aiming for a 20,000-vote New Haven victory margin to get him over the top.
“If you want to know why I’m on this stage,” Malloy told the cheering crowd Thursday afternoon, “people like you never stopped. …
“I’m asking that you do it again. We’ve come through a hard time. Imagine what we can do in four improving years.”
Michelle Obama urged those present to spend the remaining days until Tuesday “knocking on doors,” “finding your neighbors,” “making phone calls,” all in the service of rounding up that vote.
Earlier speakers stuck to the same theme. “This is the seventh game of the World Series,” and “so much is at stake,” DeLauro declared. “We have to win this election.”
She and other speakers offered canvassers talking points: Malloy signed the country’s first paid-sick day law. Under Malloy, the state passed the country’s first $10.10 an hour minimum wage, ran the most successful Obamacare exchange, cut crime, closed an inherited budget deficit, and passed the country’s strictest gun-control legislation in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.
Wyman (pictured at right) channeled the late Ann Richards and Joan Rivers in her speech, as she depicted GOP candidate Foley as a potential union-buster in the mold of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
“I offered to buy him a one-way ticket to Wisconsin,” she said of Foley. “But you know what? He’s never ridden coach. So he wouldn’t take it.”
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Tina Downing (pictured at left with DeLauro) took the pols’ message immediately to the streets after the event, joining fellow members of the activist group New Haven Rising on a neighborhood canvas.
Downing, a retired city worker, was drawn into the current about a month ago, when a good friend persuaded her to help get out the vote with New Haven Rising. About 40 people from the group attended Thursday’s rally.
“I’m going back to knock on doors, getting people to vote on all the [referendum] questions,” Downing said. So far, she has managed to recruit 10 people to canvass with her, including a few who have become very dedicated to the cause.
In fact, she managed to get through to her friend Denis Wright just this week. Wright (pictured with her at the top of the story) is a retired postal service manager and Marine Corps veteran. Malloy has “been good” to him, he said. He plans to start knocking on doors and spreading that message soon.
Yale junior global affairs major Christine Houle (pictured) went straight from the rally to knock on doors on Edgewood Avenue.
As she canvassed, a point Obama made stuck in her mind: In 2010, Malloy’s victory margin represented just four voters per precinct.
“I was glad the First Lady stressed how close the race is,” Houle said. “Because it’s the most competitive governor’s race in the country.” She wanted voters to know how much their vote will count.
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Now in her 60s, Leonora Henderson, who stood at the back of the gym during the rally, has been getting out the vote since she was 16 years old. She has not missed an election since 1970.
A retired public school teacher, she said her union — the Connecticut Education Association — supports Malloy, since he kept his promise to protect retiree benefits.
“If I could go door-to-door, I would. But I’m too old now,” she said.
But not too old to heed Michelle Obama’s call: When picking up her tickets for Thursday’s rally the day before, Henderson signed up to work the phones Sunday at the party’s Fitch Street campaign headquarters.
It’s impossible to calculate how many more voters crowd members will pull as a result of the rally. The emotional impact of the event was unmistakable.
Paul Bass Photo
“Catch the glow?” New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter remarked after having her picture taken with the First Lady. (She’s pictured here with DeLauro as they awaited Obama’s arrival.)
Porter was among the elected officials with whom Obama posed backstage between the warm-up speeches and the governor’s and the First Lady’s keynotes.
“I feel blessed!” Porter said. “She’s the epitome of womanhood. With all she has to deal with, [she does so] with strength and character. She’s genuine.
“I had to rein it in [while posing]. I was like, ‘Rein it in! Rein it in!’ I was bubbling over.”
Porter predicted that the visit will boost the canvassing and vote-pulling effort. “People feed off the energy,” she said. “It’s electric.”
Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting.
Ah, Rosa DeLauro. I remember approaching her almost one year ago to the day at Union Station (I assume she was waiting for the Acella back to DC). I introduced myself and expressed my frustration and dismay at how democrats (of which I am one) from DC and Hartford had poured into New Haven to support Toni Harp. She looked at me dismissively and then replied "that's the way things are." And now they expect us to fall in line because we have no alternative, really. Because "that's the way things are". I'm very tempted to stay at home just to give Rosa DeLauro a message "no, that's not the way things are, anymore."