Paul Bass Photo
DuBois-Walton with Elicker before a Monday morning press conference at Metropolitan Business Academy.
Holder-Winfield & Fernandez exchange phone numbers at an immigration rally Sunday.
The face of New Haven’s mayoral race will soon shift dramatically, as up to three prominent local figures have made moves to join the field.
All three — housing authority chief Karen DuBois-Walton, Hillhouse High School Principal Kermit Carolina, and former city economic development chief Henry Fernandez — have been meeting with people throughout the city to gauge potential support for a quest for the Democratic mayoral nomination.
All three told the Independent Monday they’re “serious” about potentially running. All three said they will make their decisions by the end of March.
At least two of them are likely to end up running. That would produce the liveliest mayoral race in decades, full of new faces, new energy, and, possibly, new ideas about how to run New Haven.
East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker and Newhallville state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield have already launched their own Democratic campaigns to succeed Mayor John DeStefano, who is retiring this year after 20 years in office. The primary election is slated for Sept. 10.
Another estimated 120,000 or so New Haveners report they’ve been “urged” to run. A Newhallville plumber named Sundiata Keitazulu has filed papers to run; firefighter Sal “Six Guns” Consiglio has said he plans to run, as well.
The entrance of DuBois-Walton, Carolina, and/or Fernandez, all of whom have spent years in the public spotlight, promises to flesh out the field of major contenders.
Health department’s Marian Damiani and housing authority’s Sheila Bell with DuBois-Walton before a Monday morning’s press conference at Metropolitan Business.
DuBois-Walton’s sudden emergence provided the biggest surprise. After DeStefano’s Jan. 29 retirement announcement, she told the Independent she had no plans to run. She sounded definitively like a non-candidate.
Then she read the article about her not running—and about the absence of any female candidates — to her children, she said Monday. “Why aren’t you running, mom?” she recalled them asking.
That got her thinking about the fact that New Haven has never had a female mayor, said DuBois-Walton, a Yale grad and Boston University-trained clinical psychologist who is 45 and has overseen New Haven’s housing authority since 2008. To run for mayor, she might need to step down from the authority because of the Hatch Act’s limits on political activity by employees of federally funded agencies.
“There is a huge part of me that thinks we shouldn’t still need a first” female mayor, she said.
Meanwhile, local movers and shakers have pressed DuBois-Walton to consider a run. She is believed to already have backing from upper echelons at City Hall and Yale. Before taking over the housing authority, DuBois-Walton served as Mayor DeStefano’s chief of staff. She served as the finance chair of his last campaign.
“The field is shaping up differently from how I thought,” she said. “I can see a way from here to there.”
That field of mayoral candidates has yet to produce a front-runner. By now many people had expected Board of Aldermen President Jorge Perez to announce he will run for mayor. He would almost surely have the backing of the most organized vote-pulling organization in town, affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE unions. He would probably have the support of a majority of city aldermen and many prominent Latinos. Over 26 years as an alderman he has developed relationships with business and other community leaders. He said Monday that he has still not made up his mind. Over the past two weeks, many New Haven politicos — including some who were reserving their support for him — have concluded he will not run.
Carolina serving guests at the Community Soup Kitchen.
Kermit Carolina, on the other hand, has been seen making the rounds of neighborhood meetings in anticipation of a possible run. He is expected to make a final decision later this month, after his students at Hillhouse complete the CAPT (Connecticut Academic Performance Test), an annual high-stakes standardized test.
“At this point I maintain a laser-like focus on my kids achieving at the highest level on CAPT,” said Carolina, who is 45 and grew up in New Haven. “When CAPT ends, I’ll be in a better position to examine all my potential opponents to gauge potential success.”
He said he is “serious” about a run. “I’ll continue to listen to voices from all sections of the community,” he said.
“I hope Kermit runs,” said defense attorney and civil-rights activist Michael Jefferson, a key supporter. “The city needs someone with a team-oriented approach to problem-solving. Kermit would also be the only candidate who was born and raised in New Haven and graduated from New Haven public schools.” Jefferson said Carolina would bring “a unique perspective on” crime, education, and “job opportunities for those who have been forgotten over the past 20 years.”
UNITE/HERE organizer Gwen Mills with Fernandez at Sunday’s immigration rally.
Henry Fernandez said he’s serious, too, about running: “I love this city. I’m definitely giving it serious consideration.”
Fernandez, who is 44, spent six years in high-level city government positions, running the economic development department in City Hall and, before that, the Livable City Initiative. He left in 2004; in 2006 he managed John DeStefano’s campaign for governor. He previously served as founding director of the New Haven youth program LEAP after graduating from Yale Law School. He now runs a consulting company that does advocacy work for progressive causes around the country, which has lowered his local profile since 2006.
“I think New Haven needs to get to a place where people see each other’s successes as their own, that what benefits one neighborhood benefits all neighborhoods. If we’re successful at improving education or reducing crime or creating jobs or finding opportunities for young people, that those all benefit all of us. Even if we’re not in need of a job. Even if we don’t have kids in the public schools,” Fernandez said.
One of his former City Hall deputies, Paul Wessel, said he is ready to work for a Fernandez campaign. “I don’t know that the people who are out there have the kind of management experience to actually run the city. Having been on the inside I know how difficult it is,” said Wessel, who now works for a group called the Green Parking Council. “In tight fiscal times, which I think we’re in, you have to make really hard choices. I like both Gary and Justin, but there’s a big difference between governing and legislating. I’ve seen Henry make really tough choices. I’ve seen Henry work the bureaucracy to move people into positions of authority and give them responsibility and make the machine work better. Henry had an ability to attract strong people to the city and to make the machine run well. He was also not afraid to take on entrenched political interests if they were no longer serving the city; I’m thinking of a bunch of neighborhood development corporations that were not creating housing.”
"make the machine work better."
Aren't people fed up with the machine?