by | Jan 26, 2024 12:38 pm | Comments (33)
Laura Glesby Photo
"I can't quit": Blumenthal fields sharp Qs from Mauro-Sheridan fifth-graders.
“If you had to either quit or work with Donald Trump as president, what would you do?”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal faced that question and others about his role in the future of American democracy — not at a press conference, or on the Senate floor, but in Lauren Bitterman’s fifth-grade classroom at Mauro-Sheridan school.
by | Jan 17, 2024 3:56 pm | Comments (17)
Contributed Photo
Sharon Braz, Zelema Harris, Ephrat Lieblich, Solomon Maye, Mahogany Brooks, Dawn Bliesener, Jason Bartlett, Joe Fekieta, Dennis Serfilippi, Perry Flowers, Earl Ali-Randall, and Pastor Tarolyn Moore.
It looks like Democrats will have primary challengers for Democratic Town Committee co-chair elections come March.
Continue reading ‘New "Agenda" Slate Challenges Ward Co-Chairs’
by | Jan 17, 2024 11:17 am | Comments (4)
Child tax credit advocates are split on a pending Congressional deal to lift some families out of poverty.
by | Jan 10, 2024 11:30 am | Comments (74)
Paul Bass Photo
SCSU officer escorts protester from Chamber breakfast forum.
Gov. Ned Lamont was beginning to tout Connecticut’s economy to a banquet hall of New Haven business leaders Wednesday morning when a dozen protesters swept into the room to protest the war in Gaza.
Continue reading ‘Pro-Palestine Protesters Crash Guv’s Speech’
by | Jan 10, 2024 9:03 am | Comments (15)
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas at WNHH FM.
Stephanie Thomas said she was “as shocked as everybody else” when she saw a video of a Bridgeport campaign worker allegedly hauling stacks of harvested absentee ballots into a drop box.
by | Jan 5, 2024 12:14 pm | Comments (2)
How politics worked circa 1963 (left); how politics works in 2023 (right).
More people “bowl alone” now. But at least in New Haven they also plant community gardens and organize snow-shoveling brigades.
by | Jan 2, 2024 12:18 pm | Comments (27)
All ears: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on the stump.
Epping, N.H. — I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really like Chris Christie. Or at least I did when I caught up with him here on the trail of the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary.
by | Jan 1, 2024 5:47 pm | Comments (21)
Paul Bass Photos
Mayor Justin Elicker is sworn in for his third two-year term as mayor, surrounded his wife Natalie, daughters Molly and April, and mom Joan Elicker.
A Democrat, a second Democrat, a third Democrat, then dozens more Democrats all at once took oaths of office Monday to inaugurate the seventh straight two-year cycle of one-party government in New Haven.
Continue reading ‘33 Dems Inaugurated; Poet Pleads For "Democracy"’
by | Jan 1, 2024 5:46 pm | Comments (3)
Dereen Shirnekhi Photo
Pastor Valerie Washington, Imam Omer Bajwa, and Rabbi Eric Woodward after speaking at the inauguration.
Rabbi Eric Woodward and Imam Omer Bajwa didn’t compare notes before giving back-to-back invocations at Monday’s mayoral inauguration. They didn’t need to — they knew what to say. And they had similar messages to impart.
Continue reading ‘At Inauguration, Imam & Rabbi Pray For Justice’
by | Dec 20, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (3)
Nora Grace-Flood file photo
Happier times: Russ Martin and Tom Goldenberg at a March campaign fundraiser.
A judge has ordered former Republican mayoral candidate Tom Goldenberg to pay his former campaign manager Russ Martin an additional $500 for partially performed, but uncompensated, political work.
by | Dec 19, 2023 4:35 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Democracy Fund's Aaron Goode, Sarah Ficca, Aly Heimer at WNHH FM.
Candidates who ran for mayor under New Haven’s public-financing system raised 90 percent of their money from New Haveners, 28 percent more than clean-elections-defying rivals.
They also raised more local donations: over 47,000 (totaling over $4 million) from 2011 – 2023 versus some 16,000 donations worth $2.6 million for nonparticipants.
Those metrics emerge from a newly released study of the New Haven Democracy Fund, which has administered the city’s public-financing program since its 2007 inception.
by | Dec 19, 2023 3:02 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen Photo
Al Marder, in his capacity as Amistad Committee President, welcoming the president of Sierra Leone to New Haven City Hall in 2019.
Al Marder, who spent most of a century organizing local and international peace efforts from his home base of New Haven, died on Tuesday.
He died one month shy of his 102nd birthday and less than a day after being admitted to Connecticut Hospice in Branford.
Continue reading ‘Al Marder, True Believer To The End, Dies At 101’
by | Dec 12, 2023 3:32 pm | Comments (7)
Contributed Photo
New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, issued a pitch to un-stall renewed U.S. military aid to Ukraine after participating in a Capitol Hill meeting Tuesday with visiting Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy. She released the following statement:
Continue reading ‘DeLauro Doubles Down On Ukraine Support After Zelenskyy Meeting’
by and | Dec 12, 2023 12:22 pm | Comments (8)
Justin Farmer and Daniel Dunn.
The following opinion essay was submitted by Justin Farmer, who formerly represented District 5 on the Hamden Legislative Council, and Daniel Dunn, a member of the Hamden Police Commission.
Mayor Garrett is morally obligated to make good on her promises as a candidate three years ago for police accountability and reform. In her testimony to the CT Judiciary Committee she wrote, “We need more ways to hold the police accountable, not less. Policing was started to round up runaway slaves. Centuries later, we haven’t come that far. Police departments continue to protect and serve capitalism and white supremacy while looting resources from our black and brown communities.”
We were saddened and disappointed to witness Mayor Garrett cite the hiring of 29 new officers as an achievement in public safety during her campaign. Several of these officers have troubling histories.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Garrett Victory Still A Loss For Police Accountability’
by | Dec 6, 2023 11:00 am | Comments (3)
Alders-Elect Brittiany Mabery-Niblack and Theresa Morant at WNHH FM.
Attention LCI: Expect to hear from Brittiany Mabery-Niblack and Theresa Morant starting next month.
by | Dec 5, 2023 4:31 pm | Comments (70)
Laura Glesby photo
Activists at alder meeting show support for ceasefire resolution.
Should New Haven join Providence, Detroit, and Oakland in publicly calling for a ceasefire in Gaza through its local legislature?
by | Nov 30, 2023 2:12 pm | Comments (15)
Thomas Breen photo
The front of Elicker's fault-free flyer.
The board for the city’s public financing program ruled that Mayor Justin Elicker’s reelection campaign did nothing wrong when it sent out a flyer urging voters to support this year’s charter-revision ballot question, and has agreed to dismiss a related complaint so long as his campaign donates its unspent election-year dollars to the clean-elections fund.
Continue reading ‘Democracy Fund Finds No Fault With Elicker Flyer’
by | Nov 29, 2023 2:09 pm | Comments (5)
Alders-Elect Kiana Flores, Frank Redente, and Caroline Smith at WNHH FM.
Three of New Haven’s alders-elect with Fair Haven connections said they’re pumped to get to work as part of a community “team” that tackles safe streets, affordable housing, and small business growth.
by | Nov 22, 2023 12:22 pm | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen photo
Julie Parr, outside her 116 Crown home: "I felt very disenfranchised."
Julie Parr and 27 of her Crown Street neighbors didn’t get to vote in their ward’s alder race in this month’s election, because a government mess-up sent them to the wrong polling district.
Continue reading ‘Election Error Put 28 Voters In Wrong Ward’
by | Nov 16, 2023 11:47 am | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photo
Attorney/musician Steve Mednick at WNHH FM.
By day Steve Mednick has been helping cities rewrite their constitutions. By night he has been writing songs about the storms in our political universe.
by | Nov 14, 2023 5:15 pm | Comments (0)
Registrar of Voters data
Mayor Justin Elicker won a total of 10,064 votes, or 79.7 percent of all of the votes cast in this year’s mayoral election, according to the official tally published by the Registrar of Voters office.
by and | Nov 7, 2023 9:50 pm | Comments (22)
Lisa Reisman Photo
Sal DeCola, reelected for a seventh term, with supporters.
(Updated) Six-term incumbent Democrat Sal DeCola has retained his seat — by winning less than 40 percent of the vote at the polls — in a three-way alder race to represent Morris Cove’s Ward 18.
Continue reading ‘DeCola Prevails As Challengers Split Ward 18 Alder Vote’
by , and | Nov 7, 2023 8:43 pm | Comments (54)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Mayor Elicker prepares to deliver victory speech Tuesday night at campaign gathering at Nolo.
(Updated) Mayor Justin Elicker handily won reelection to a third two-year term in office with 79 percent of the vote at the polls, bringing to an end a campaign year that stretched back to last December and saw a total of five people run for the city’s top elected office.
Voters also overwhelmingly approved the charter-revision ballot question, by nearly a 2‑to‑1 margin. That means that, starting with the 2027 municipal election year, the mayor, city clerk, and all 30 alders will serve four-year terms instead of two-year terms each.
Overall, 13,058 people voted in the Tuesday’s general elections, including 614 absentee, meaning that voter turnout citywide was around 24.5 percent.
by , and | Nov 7, 2023 2:08 pm | Comments (11)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Cody Uman, in Ward 21: Voting yes on 4-year terms.
Thomas Breen photo
Outside the Conte West Hills polling place on Chapel St.
(Updated and corrected) Cody Uman, an undergraduate math major at Yale, was running late to class Tuesday after setting aside an extra hour to research the proposed changes to the city’s charter and bike over to King-Robinson School to cast his vote in Ward 21, which covers parts of Newhallville, Dixwell and Prospect Hill.
He said he was voting “yes” on the ballot measure in favor of four-year terms for all elected officials and increased salaries for the city’s alders to make sure they’re better “compensated for their time.”
by | Nov 7, 2023 12:09 pm | Comments (1)
Allan Appel photos
Cyn Chegwidden, Janis Astor del Valle, and Amy Myers: Voting Campion, and anti-charter revision.
Fabian Baca: DeCola is "always in touch with the neighbors."
Confusion and anger about the formulation of the charter revision question. Strong feelings about an alder who left the scene of a car crash.
Those were among the passionate sentiments of voters leaving the Ward 18 Nathan Hale School polling site Tuesday morning on Election Day.
