nothin Payday! | New Haven Independent

Payday!

Casandra Lowery came to the steps of New Haven’s public library to pick up an overdue $400 check for working on behalf of a Senate candidate she voted against.

Lowery was among more than a dozen African-American New Haveners who finally got paid Monday for working the polls for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon in last Tuesday’s election.

The workers claimed that they’d been led to expect payment after finishing their 16-hour shifts at the polls. Instead, they said, they got the runaround, and no money.

The McMahon campaign hired them as part of an aggressive, and resoundingly unsuccessful, effort to promote a split Obama-McMahon ticket in the black community.

After their payment plight made the news, the campaign contacted an organizer for the group, Twainedon Gomes, and others. Yes, the checks are in the mail, the campaign said. But if you’d like, you can come to the steps of New Haven’s downtown public library branch at 2 p.m. Monday and pick up your money.

So a crowd showed up and received $400 checks in return for signing a form saying they accepted the money as final payment for their work. They were told the checks that will purportedly still arrive in the mail will be canceled.

Luisa Guerra, who ran McMahon’s New Haven office, explained to the group that she was busy monitoring returns until late on election night; that’s why she wasn’t around to hand out checks, she said. Since then people have continually harassed” her, she said, which is why she showed up with other staffers Monday with checks in tow. (Click on the play arrow to the above video to watch her interactions with the campaign workers.)

It’s a shame it had to get to this point to get what is mine,” Casandra Lowery (pictured) said after picking up her check. Lowery in the past did campaign work for former Dixwell Alderman Greg Morehead, a Democrat. She was always paid election night, she said. I never had this problem with Greg Morehead!”

Lowery said she’s a loyal Democrat. In fact, she said, she voted for Democrat Chris Murphy over Republican McMahon in last Tuesday’s election. So why did she work for McMahon?

I did it for the money,” she said. She pays good.”

When she pays.

Stacey Wormley (pictured) offered the same explanation. She too voted for Murphy, she said.

It was a job. They didn’t ask us anything” about political leanings during the hiring process,” Wormley said. We weren’t telling people to vote for her. We were asking people at doors did she have [their] vote.”

While she and others signed the forms and took the money, organizer Gomes (at left in photo) stood off to the side with McMahon campaign staffer Justin Clark (at right). Gomes said he had advised some campaign workers to stay home so he had some bargaining leverage.

Gomes didn’t want to settle for the promised hourly wage. He said he wanted to be made whole — for all the pain and suffering” he endured in the episode.

What pain and suffering, exactly?

My mental anguish,” he said, making me walk three hours to get home.” He worked the Lombard Street firehouse. He said the campaign promised workers rides home. He claimed that when the ride didn’t materialize, he had to first walk an elderly woman, a fellow campaign worker, home to City Point, then walk to his own home in the Dixwell neighborhood.

He also spoke of missing out on bills that were due.”

And, he said, I’m scared. I’m going through a lot. I don’t even know if I’ll ever want to work for a campaign again.”

Meanwhile, he said after meeting with Clark, negotiations will continue.

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