nothin A New Machine Swung Into Action | New Haven Independent

A New Machine Swung Into Action

Melissa Bailey Photo

Inside the Sylvan Avenue vote-pulling command post Tuesday.

New Haven’s Democratic machine sat out Tuesday’s gubernatorial election — as a team of independent organizers stepped in and cranked out a stunning margin that appears to have helped elect the party’s first Connecticut governor in 24 years.

From a union command post in the Hill run by UNITE HERE’s Gwen Mills (pictured) and from grassroots operations in Dixwell and Fair Haven, New Haven Democrats cranked out 22,298 votes for gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy, according to official figures released late Wednesday. Malloy beat Republican Tom Foley by 18,613 votes in New Haven — a far bigger margin than the 16,589 to 8,274 vote by which New Haven’s own Mayor John DeStefano prevailed in town when he ran for governor in 2006.

New Haven’s turnout wasn’t historic, as for President Obama in 2008, but it defied expectations. About a thousand more New Haveners voted this year than in 2006, when two hometown candidates, DeStefano and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, were on the ballot.

Malloy Wednesday claimed victory in the statewide race by an estimated margin of 1 percent or less than the over 2 million votes; legal challenges loom. If his win holds up, New Haven’s and Bridgeport’s vote-pullers will have put him over the top. In both cities turnout defied expectations.

The New Haven turnout was a surprise for several reasons: There were basically no contested state legislative races in town to excite local passions. There were no New Haven candidates on the state ballot. DeStefano and the Democratic Party machine largely sat out the election after bad blood from 2006; familiar faces from City Hall weren’t seen around the city Tuesday pulling votes for the coordinated Democratic ticket. (Malloy in turn appealed openly to City Hall’s opponents in this summer’s primary.) The City Hall-allied machine this Tuesday instead concentrated efforts in one neighborhood, East Rock’s Ward 9, to help win a special election for a seat to the Board of Aldermen.

Gwen Mills noted the machine was inactive” on Tuesday unlike for municipal elections. In its place, she said, a new structure” emerged.

Into the breech stepped a team of independent Democrats who saw a momentous stake in Tuesday’s gubernatorial race for the labor movement and New Haven’s black and Latino communities. Their success could shake up the arithmetic of future New Haven elections.

On Sylvan Avenue, the vote-pulling was a mission.”

Inside Sylvan Ave. HQ

That’s what Gwen Mills called it when she handed out a challenge to two young vote-pullers. Find 20 more voters in the Church Street South projects.

Sara Torres took the clipboard and hit the streets — one of a team of 50 canvassers who spread out across the Hill and generated a surprising turnout.

Mills, a New Havener who has worked on elections nationwide for UNITE HERE, organized the operation with mostly union troops out of Alderwoman Jackie James-Evans’ mother’s Sylvan Avenue home. Over the course of the day, her troops hit 53 different turfs in six wards across the Hill, West River and Dwight/Kensington. They set goals based on a percentage of turnout in 2006 — and surpassed them in each territory.

Torres (at left in photo above, with Mills at right) proved to be a tireless, first-time worker. She started knocking on doors at 10 a.m.. She continued until the last hour along with her 11-year-old sister Mirnelis (at center in photo) and her mom, grandmother and aunt. The family lives in Church Street South, a complex of 300 apartments across the street from the train station.

The group entered headquarters around 3 p.m. to report back to Mills after a round through Church Street. Most people told them they would vote later, the family reported. They also came across a couple of people who told them no, no, no, I never vote.” Mills sent them back out with instructions to follow up on the voting promises — and try to convince more of the no“s to get to the polls. Torres said she was making her debut onto the campaign trail, recruited by state Rep. Juan Candelaria, who works at Church Street South.

At 6 p.m., when the group came back again, she sent them back for a last try. Their goal: Find 20 voters to push the number of votes in Ward 6 to their goal.

That magic number was set based on a percentage of turnout in 2006.

We’re at 205. The goal is 213. We can beat 213!” Mills encouraged.

Others hit their cell phones as the operation continued in multi-pronged form. The troops included about 20 members of UNITE HERE as well as Yale graduate students, teachers, and state workers active in the labor movement.

Throughout the afternoon, canvassers stopped in for a piece of pepperoni pizza or a can of Sprite, then grabbed a new turf sheet” and returned to the streets. Mills stood at a central table covered with election papers, picking up her iPhone every few minutes. She greeted each visitor with a warm welcome — with a hug or by calling out their name.

Most reported that they had met a couple of voters who needed a ride or who needed to be convinced to vote. The teams included seasoned union vote-pullers and neighborhood folks.

On a chart on the wall, Mills kept track of the goals for each ward’s turnout. When Torres came back, she was beaming.

You know you did it, right?” Mills told her. Torres slapped high five with her aunt. On the wall their work was reflected in new results from the polls: 214 people had made it out to the polls.

Torres reported that she had returned to the voters who said no, no, no” and convinced a couple to vote. She said she stayed there until they left the house, got into their car, and headed to the polls.

Over at Liberty Square, a union-neighbor pair came across a voter eager for a ride to the polls. Olga Yu, a 76-year-old retired social worker, was out clearing her sidewalk from leaves. Yu described herself as a poor, poor Democrat” who never misses a vote. Republicans, most of them are rich people,” she said. They don’t give a damn about the poor people.”

Because of redistricting 10 years ago, Yu had to travel across the neighborhood, to Career High on Legion Avenue, to vote. That’s because her ward, Ward 6, is split up between three different state representative districts.

Yu didn’t have a ride to the polls at Career High, until she came across two members of Mills’ vote-pulling team: Eliza Halsey, the neighborhood party ward co-chair, (at right in photo), and Elizabeth Breton (at left), an organizer with UNITE HERE Local 34 who lives in Hamden.

The unions’ on-the-ground game was matched by two other operations, Mills said. At the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church at 425 College St., Yale workers from UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35 focused on member-to-member outreach. And upstairs in that building, as well as across the state, the AFL-CIO led a new predictive dialing” phone-banking operation. Under the automated system, a union member picks up the phone and is automatically put through to another union member across the state. Union workers made over 65,000 phone calls using that system Tuesday, Mills reported.

Across town, Latinos organized another headquarters in Fair Haven, according to State Rep. Candelaria.

Michelle Turner Photo

At the Democrats’ Whalley Avenue headquarters, Lisa Hopkins (pictured) was turning out a new grassroots machine in conjunction with exiled former Town Chairman Nick Balletto and DeLauro staffer Chuck Swirsky, among others.

Hopkins has been organizing independent campaigns in the black community for a few years now. Some — like her tries for alderwoman—have fallen short. Others — on behalf of State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, and now Tuesday’s big win — have prevailed.

Paul Bass Photo

Swirsky.

On Tuesday, the fruits of those labors were apparent: The pulling operation defied expectations in some of the city’s historically lowest-turnout wards, wards with largely African-American voters. Holder-Winfield, an early Dan Malloy supporter who worked closely with the canvassing and vote-pulling operation, called the turnout in black wards high for a mid-term (non-presidential) election.

April, a 20-something who joined her friends at the Lincoln-Bassett School polling place in Newhallville, said she voted for Democratic candidates — because she felt she was voting for President Obama. I love everything he stands for,” she said. Malloy was for Obama. If it wasn’t for him pushing [us to get out to vote], it wouldn’t make a difference.”

Swirsky said DeLauro’s campaign collaborated with the statewide coordinated campaign to arrange a lit drop and sound trucks in New Haven the week before the election. At the headquarters on Tuesday, Swirsky was joined by West Rock’s Honda Smith and State Sen. Martin Looney staffer Vinnie Mauro, who together organized phone calls and rides to the polls.

Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Susie Voigt said her town committee members were active in smaller operations in their wards. State legislators were active in their areas, too.

As it does every election, the town committee provided food to Democrats working in each of the polling places on Election Day. Voigt said she spent an hour standing with candidate Matt Smith in Ward 9 — after a day crisscrossing town, visiting polls and arranging food deliveries.

Voigt called the day a remarkable coming together” of different Democratic constituencies.

She also noted that voters were motivated by their own desire to put Democrats into the U.S. Senate,and into the governor’s seat.

Just as significantly,” as the ground operation, she said, I think people really wanted to vote.”

Paul Bass Photo

Gary Holder-Winfield at work Tuesday in the Whalley headquarters.

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