Harp Endorses Bartlett For Former Seat

What exactly is the point of this candidacy? In order to win this particular election, an independent candidate would need to have a compelling rationale for why the incumbent needs to be replaced. I don't see that here -- and furthermore, just clicking on Mr. Bartlett's name in the Tags line at the bottom of this article provides a plethora of reasons to be skeptical of his alleged political and leadership skills.

I have many problems with Harp and her cohort; but the one that still sticks in my craw is what she did while being chair of the State Senate Appropriations Committee. We in New Haven (and the other larger cities in Ct) have her to thank for neutralizing the impact the PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) was designed to have for the cities. Rather than see to it that the funds that could have gone to the the cities through PILOT did so, she diverted those funds to her pet projects in the state. As a result, the residents of New Haven and other CT cities have to pay huge property tax bill so that those cities can function. These cities wouldn't have to do that, if so many non-profits, like Y-NHH, Yale University, the University of New Haven, Foote School, etc. were exempt from paying taxes....PILOT was set up to address this inequity. I, therefore, do not look to her for advice and counsel on how to solve problems and to make recommendations on who should represent us.

Oh now this is funny!! Her former employee questioned by the FBI administration gets endorsed by her!! You really can't make this stuff up! Can she and he just go away now? We have important stuff to deal with like all the stuff she didn't deal with! We have years of fixing to endure!

Show me your friends and I will show you who you are. A failed mayor makes a choice of a pal for political office. This alone is reason enough NOT to vote for Bartlett

This is great, I needed a good laugh this morning. Harp's endorsement will help Bartlett as much as it helped Bloomberg. It means nothing coming from someone that has already been forgotten, with the occasional reminder of our City's huge debt and pay for play union contracts.

Toni, it's over.

I actually think that Jason sets up a compelling comparison to Gary. If the race were about getting things done and a track record of that, it could be fairly compelling based upon Jason's evidence that he has done more in New Haven and for New Haven than Gary had. However, the passage of the police reform bill is relatively huge and should not be overlooked. As Jason needs to get on the ballot, he has to make a lot of headway. But a debate between them would be worth watching.

As for Mayor Harp, her "failed time as Mayor" saw the lowest unemployment rates in the City's recent history, massive amounts of development, increased graduation rates, and lower crime rates. If that is a failed administration, President Trump could be so lucky. And that was all while other city's were failing to gain traction in those areas. No other large city in Connecticut saw the improvements she did during the same stretch. And within his first month, the current administration and police chief have almost as many murders by the end of July as the City had in all of 2019. And many more shootings.

The Chief and the Mayor have not done enough and been creative enough to handle the concern of the citizens while doing their job. And the Chief has then imposed blame for the police's failure, on the citizenry even though they have failed to reach out. Look, I get it, if you're painted with a broad brush you want to retreat to your corner and pout. But you've got a job we PAY you very well to do. That's for all officers and the administration. So do your jobs, get creative, and stop complaining.

Atticus Shrugged-Mayor Harp wasn't responsible for the low unemployment rates, higher graduation rates, increased development or low crime rates in New Haven, Mayor DeStefano was the Mayor responsible for almost all of the groundwork that made the positive changes in education, development, community policing, and the other growth that New Haven saw pre-COVID.

Dawnbli...you and others can continue your smear campaign. Fact...never questioned by FBI or any authority. You all lied to win an election. The only thing that factually happened was Elicker campaign teams' rumors and lies. You continue to smear people even when election is over. Shame on you.

Jimjoebob
My case for election? I was a change agent as a State Representative. I was a change agent as a public servant here in New Haven for 6 plus years. I helped thousands of young people. I dealt w people s food insecurity issues, homelessness, created safe spaces throughout the City, improved LGBT young peoples lives and educational climate, increased number of youth getting jobs, mentors and mental health services and increased their opportunities for success by creating vocational and other alternative education pathways. I have a vision to create thousands of jobs, will work to close achievement gap and improve peoples quality of life. I am known as a community person and I am putting a team together to help me make my case. You seem as others do afraid of a little competition and choice for our voters. Guess u always just vote for incumbents and status quo. I believe we need transformational change and can do better.

JAYBART - In my opinion you were a stone around Mayor Harp's neck and contributed to her problems. You have some kind of inflated vision of yourself and describe your accomplishments with meaningless phrases like "change agent" that only you know the definition of. You then bolster your imaginary track record with phrases like "I helped thousands of young people". Really? Because they must have been visible only to you. You dealt with New Haven's food insecurity issues? You dealt with homelessness? Where is the evidence of any of this? What vocational and other alternative educational pathways did you create? Where is the evidence of this? How did you improve LGBT young people's lives? You got a big fat salary, made liberal use of city credit cards with inadequate documentation or explanation, and squandered opportunities to create safe spaces at existing locations opting instead for a compromised location that did not have adequate funding and failed. Your bluster and incompetence finally caught up to you. What actual skills do you actually have besides visions of imaginary jobs?

Actually Old Haven you don't know what your talking about and your remarks are another slime job attempted smear. For starters, I have 5 years of Yearly Reports which document many of our outcomes and demonstrate our effectiveness. Let s start w the Youth Stat program that gave wrap around services to between 500 -700 at risk and disengaged young people a year. Those services included mentors, jobs, mental health services, housing supports, food and other basic needs. We often filled in gaps for homeless youth providing emergency housing at hotels and housing supports for families. Ask BOE and folks at Continuing ED. I started the LGBTQ Youth Task Force that still exists today. Vocational programs included Eli Whitney after school program which did carpentry, plumbing, manufacturing, electrical this helped between 40 and 100 young people a year. I also started the Laborers program that is renowned at Hillhouse. And expanded the Public Safety Academy there for afterschool and opened to Citywide youth. There is plenty more... but you dont really care you just want to throw stones. Also let me address another lie you told
about "my use of credit cards"...I never, ever used nor had possession of a city credit card. In fact I never had any access to city funds period. I gave all financial powers to another Youth Dept employee from day one to protect myself from specious attacks like the one you just launched. Every dollar the Youth Dept spent was approved by like 20 people. The Youth Dept never had a credit card. You obviously have no idea how the City runs or you'd not be making false statements. Correction...you would make false statements because you have a political agenda to harm others you don't like or agree with politically. Nice try.

Heather C.
Amazing how you would flippantly swipe away the achievements of our City's first Black Woman Mayor. A solid record over 6 years and you can't even give her one achievement/accomplishment in all that she has done. Well let's compare character here instead of stats. HARP in her 6 years never once attacked or blamed her predecessor for any problem or situation she faced or City faced as Mayor. Incredible. DeStefano had 20 years as Mayor and how easily she could have blamed crime, unemployment, lack of rainy day fund, housing neglect, youth gangs , you name it on DeStefano. Instead she never once uttered his name and went about addressing and fixing the City's problems and moving the City forward. Next Mayor comes in and he--Elicker --can't stop uttering and blaming Harp and her administration for everything.
The fact he can't lead, collaborate or solve problems I'm sure is Toni Harps fault too. He s in way over his head. Nonetheless Harp wins on class and character. And we only have to look to White House to see how those two barometers have affected us all as a nation.

Jaybart thank you for responding to my comment. I do appreciate the explanation given with more details as to the work you did and the clarification regarding expenditures by the youth department. I do actually care. I can think of so many human service leaders and teachers, parents and community leaders who have worked for thirty or forty years or more doing similar or same things as you attempted/accomplished in the 5 short years you were in the position. How did your situation get so off the track? Blaming it all on Elicker diminishes your credibility. Do you accept any responsibility for how the situation devolved into such a mess? What did you learn from it? How would you overcome the baggage you would carry to Hartford? Why would that be helpful to the City? You are no longer a fresh young face with big ideas and a blank slate. Hashing over all the he said/she said and who dropped the ball and who didn't would be a painful exercise and futile. Why not move on to some other work opportunity and re-establish your track record on a sounder footing before jumping back into the political fray? Nobody knows what is going to happen with the virus, the economy, technology, and climate change. If you want to persist in making a run for the seat, please let us know how you would adapt yourself to the new world that no longer operates as before and where huge shifts in the economy and society will challenge us all in new ways.

Old Haven,
Now you are interested in my welfare? Curious. But I will for now assume you are being genuine. For starters, what is it that you think I have done wrong? I was put on leave. Another City employee stole from the City for whatever her personal reasons. That put the entire administration under a microscope. I was a natural target because I was considered the most political person and closest to Harp. They succeeded in getting me out of the way during a campaign. I leave for you to conclude the lesson of that. In the meantime I came up clean. In terms of going forward I was a legislator for 4 years and led on closing the achievement gap and making real education reforms in the State. I believe I can make a change by using my experience as a past legislator and as a public servant on the ground here in New Haven. I welcome everyone to check out my platform and views at 2020Bartlett.com. I am running because I have a real passion for people. I am a former foster child, an adoptee, a Black man who is also Gay, and a dad and grandpa. I've had an interesting journey which has prepared me to fight for justice, fairness and change when it comes to my community. I'm not going to not run because people have some misperception of who I am. The challenge is to engage people and demonstrate what we can all accomplish together. I am up to that challenge.

Mr. Bartlett, I don't think you realize that your comments in substance and tone are undermining the message you appear to be trying to make. FYI: Toni Harp was/is a huge disappointment for everyone who wants to support women--of all background, in government. In my personal experience with her, she actually did very little of the work of the positions she held. Rather she surrounded herself with others who covered for her lack of real knowledge, efficacy and vision. She always seemed to me to be someone who loved the perks of her positions and wasn't someone who actually was able or cared to do the work those jobs required. She left a big mess in New Haven--granted it wasn't entirely of her own making; but there is no doubt that Justin Elicker has hit the road running and is making thoughtful and important efforts to address the huge financial and cultural problems that face New Haven. My advice to you is to stop digging yourself into a bigger hole....Your "record" isn't in the same league as Gary's....

You realize that you're not running against Justin Elicker, right? Convincing the electorate to dump Sen. Winfield for anyone else is a steep hill to climb, and trying to win votes by praising Harp and denigrating Elicker is unlikely to get you there ... especially when you spend so much time insinuating that your city-employment difficulties were the result of an anti-Harp conspiracy.

I appreciate you making an effort in this thread to lay out your credentials and accomplishments — at face value (though you surely know that others will dispute you), you make a decent argument for election to some office. But trying to wrest this particular office from a popular incumbent requires a more compelling argument that the incumbent must be replaced.

I'm not arguing that you shouldn't run, or that Winfield should not be opposed, but rather that so far, your campaign is a highly quixotic effort that (to me) seems to lack a rationale or platform that could peel off any of Winfield's support, much less a majority thereof.

Maybe if Sen. Winfield had failed in his effort to get the Police Accountability bill passed, you might have an opening to argue that you would be a more effective senator ... but that's not what happened last week.

I'm amazed at how many critics opine about Harp being a failure as Mayor. As has been stated, she actually checked several boxes well during her tenure. High tax increases and her inability to market her accomplishments did her in.

Under this current Elicker administration, I've seen utter failure thus far. E.g., minutes after he was sworn in, he raised taxes on top of the same tax hike he blasted Toni Harp over. In my view, that was the beginning of his hypocrisy. In essence, Harp's tax increase was not enough. Ellicker now owns both tax increases. But rather than explain to the voters in a convincing fashion as to why he ushered in an additional tax increase, he pacified them by with meaningless words. It's the working poor who will be footing the bill of this disastrous "Ellicker City Killing" tax hike.

Not to mention the amount of taxpayer's money he is wasting on attorney fees to try and stop from having to pay Nicole Jefferson the money that she should have been paid over the last two years.

Jason, why do you do this to yourself? You're getting thrown through the wringer already it's time to find a new occupation.

Bartlett is so quick to respond to people rehashing battles from last year, but offers no response to those who ask, "Why vote out Winfield?" All he has to do to be taken seriously is to address this question. But he refuses to do so.

To be taken seriously, you have to take other people seriously. Especially if you are trying to win their vote!

He has the chance to do so in this comments section. Jaybart: What is your case for unseating a state senator who is one of the more responsive senators to constituents in his district, and who just achieved a major legislative win?

Elmurbanist,on the contrary, I am more then happy to answer why vote for Jason Bartlett as the next State Senator. Unlike many here who trash those who they disagree with I prefer to not be goaded into being negative.

For starters please check out my website 2020Bartlett.com. I articulate my positions on social justice reform, education, the enviornment, jobs and budget issues. I have put forward an innovative idea such as tax increment financing to redevelopment Long Wharf and create thousand of jobs, insisted we pass a school construction bill that insures every.child gets a chromebook and free internet access, I've talked about free busses and electric busses, a CT green new deal, and public option for CT healthcare.

I am proud of my track record as a Legislator and as a public servant in the City of New Haven and will put all my experiences together to be a change agent for our City and Community.