Paul Bass Photo
Mattei surrounded by city endorses Sal DeCola, Rosa Santana, Michael Smart, Tyisha Walker-Myers, Aaron Greenberg, Michelle Edmonds-Sepulveda, Brian Wingate, Jody Ortiz, David Reyes, and Frank Douglass.
William Tong rolled out the mayor.
On Thursday, Chris Mattei rolled out the artillery.
The two candidates for the Democratic nomination for attorney general will now put to the test which kind of political endorsement makes the biggest difference when it comes to rounding up votes.
Mayor Toni Harp recently endorsed the candidacy of Tong, her former colleague in the state legislature. (Click here to read about their joint press conference in favor of Tong’s current bill to ban ghost guns and bump stocks.)
Mattei, a former federal prosecutor and union organizer, assembled 10 alders plus City Clerk Michael Smart in front of City Hall’s Amistad statue Thursday afternoon to demonstrate his success in lining up New Haven support. A total of 25 of the city’s 30 alders have now endorsed his campaign, two weeks before the state party nominating convention.
That will help at the convention; all the alders are delegates.
That will probably help even more in the event of an expected party primary. Many of the alders present are part of the UNITE HERE-backed coalition that is considered the city’s, if not the state’s, leading vote-pulling force.
“Nobody,” noted Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, hits “the doors like we do.”
Mattei, Walker-Myers at Thursday afternoon’s presser.
Mattei’s endorsers Thursday included Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers. She said after the event that she had met with both Tong and Mattei. “I think he’s a great guy,” Walker-Myers said of Tong. “I think he has a lot to offer.”
She said that Mattei’s bio and career choices ultimately convinced her to back him.
Mattei has worked as an organizer for the Services Employees International Union. As an assistant U.S. attorney, he prosecuted gun traffickers, lenders accused of illegally profiting from securitized home mortgages, and investment advisers accused of fleecing seniors. (Click here to read and listen to a previous interview with him on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program about his candidacy.)
“The type of work we choose says a lot for a person. It says a lot about their values,” Walker-Myers said. “I represent people across the city — elderly, homeless, youth, transgender. I feel [Mattei] has serviced the under-representated population.”
Walker-Myers said she never met with Clare Kindall, the third Democrat seeking to replace retiring attorney general George Jepsen. “They didn’t reach out to me,” she said of Kindall’s campaign.
The three candidates are seeking to appeal to the Democratic liberal-left base in this “resistance” year of party primaries. As the top state lawyer in charge of filing civil suits on behalf of the government and often in conjunction with other states, the attorney general plays a leading role in addressing issues of concern to that base: environmental protection, gun control, consumer protection, financial fraud, immigrant rights, and civil rights.
In introducing Mattei at the event, Walker-Myers vowed to hold him accountable if he gets elected.
“You won’t forget us after you’re elected, because I have your number,” she told him. “Anybody who knows me, I am relentless. I don’t stop. I don’t talk to secretaries. I don’t talk to nobody. I talk directly to the person.”
Mattei said he was “humbled and honored” to win the support of elected representatives in the city “where my grandparents are buried, where my father was raised.” He spoke of how as attorney general he’ll tackle issues that concern people both in New Haven and across the state: high prescription drug costs and energy rates, poverty, drug addiction.
And he got the alder president’s message.
“When Tyisha Walker calls me,” he assured the assembled alders, “you better believe I am going to pick up.”
Justin Elicker and Molly Elicker with the candidate.
The following alders have endorsed Mattei: Haci Catalbasoglu, Frank Douglass, Ron Hurt, David Reyes, Dolores Colon, Aaron Greenberg, Charles Decker, Anna Festa, Renee Haywood, Gerald Antunes, Rosa Santana, Kenneth Reveiz, Ernie Santiago, Jose Crespo, Sal DeCola, Kim Edwards, Delphine Clyburn, Jeanette Morrison, Tyisha Walker-Myers, Evette Hamilton, Adam Marchand, Richard Furlow, Jill Marks, Brian Wingate, Michelle Edmonds-Sepulveda.
Click on the Facebook Live video to watch the full endorsement press conference:
Previous WNHH interviews with candidates eyeing the attorney general nomination:
Click on the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below for the full interview with William Tong on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Previous WNHH interviews with candidates eyeing the attorney general nomination:
Click on or download the above audio file or the Facebook Live video below for the full interview with WNHH FM “Dateline New Haven” interview with attorney general candidate Chris Mattei.
Click on or download the above audio file or Facebook Live video below to hear the interview with attorney general candidate Clare Kindall on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Click on or download the above audio file or Facebook Live video below to hear the full interview with attorney general candidate Michael D’Agostino on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
that makes it easy for me. If UNITE HERE endorses, I know they are looking for another puppet to funnel ta money to the well connected. I will vote for an opponent