Paul Bass Photo
Sharon Braz and Jason Bartlett of "New Haven Agenda" at WNHH FM.
A slate of political challengers is seeking a little-noticed office as a way to pry open the door of democracy in New Haven.
At least that’s how organizers of the “New Haven Agenda” put it.
They’ve collected petitions to run in a March 5 Democratic Party primary for ward co-chair positions. They expect to have up to 17 candidates qualify for the ballot. Co-chair candidates from the Democratic, Republican, and Independent parties have until 4 p.m. Wednesday to submit petitions to the Registrar of Voters Office to qualify for ward co-chair positions or, in cases of contested seats, party primaries.
Most party ward co-chair seats are uncontested. Sometimes it’s hard enough to find people to volunteer time to fill the role. Each of the city’s 30 wards has two party co-chairs. The job’s main responsibility is to cast votes at party conventions to endorse candidates for municipal, state and federal office. More ambitious co-chairs use the position to galvanize door-knockers and active citizens in their neighborhoods.
This is the first time since 2011 that an organized slate of challengers is seeking to wrest co-chair seats with a common agenda. In 2011 a citywide slate of candidates affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE unions swept co-chair primaries and have ruled the party ever since, along with the Board of Alders, with an agenda focused on pressuring Yale on community issues and supporting affordable housing and community policing. (An effort to run an anti-UNITE HERE “Take Back New Haven” challenge slate of alders in 2013 fizzled out.)
“Unions are great. I’m a Teamster,” Jason Bartlett, who organized the New Haven Agenda challenge slate and is seeking a Ward 6 Democratic co-chair seat in City Point, said during an appearance Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “UNITE HERE has done great things in New Haven. You have to have more than one special interest pulling levers in local government. That hasn’t happened in 12 years.”
“This is not about taking out anyone. This is about [including] more people in the process,” said Bartlett, a former state representative and Harp administration mayoral aide who has managed three Democratic mayoral campaigns (for James Newton, Martin Looney, and Toni Harp).
“We have to have community voice. It’s been very monolithic. … It has its own chill. People don’t want to participate. People don’t want to run. People don’t want to speak out at public meetings.’”
As a result, Bartlett said, the UNITE HERE-supported Elicker administration is not held accountable for, example, waiting years to fill the comptroller’s position with a permanent appointee while “$6 million disappeared” in a Board of Education hack attack.
More voices in government would bring more scrutiny and more ideas to challenges like the state of public education and posting enough police officers to patrol neighborhoods like Morris Cove, said Sharon Braz, one of the dozen-plus Democrats Bartlett has recruited to seek ward co-chair slots as part of the slate.
Braz is seeking one of Morris Cove’s Ward 18 seats. She moved to the neighborhood three years ago after retiring as a family-law practitioner in California. She said in that role and before that as a nurse practitioner she worked as a “change agent” in her fields. She hopes to plays a similar role if elected as a co-chair to involve more people in politics and government and represent opponents of Tweed New Haven airport’s expansion.
Democratic Town Chair Vincent Mauro Jr. said he welcomes Bartlett’s team’s challenge.
“Absolutely,” he said in an interview. “Elections are good. We have the conversation with the voters.”
He argued that the Elicker administration and party leaders had that “conversation” last fall both in a contested Democratic primary and in a contested general election — in which “the people of New Haven have voted to keep this team in place.” His theory why: “New Haven has become the most stable and best run city in the state.”
Click on the above video to watch Jason Bartlett and Sharon Braz discuss the “New Haven Agenda” Democratic Town Committee challenge slate on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.
Kudos to this group of courageous individuals standing up for democracy and giving voice to their communities. Let's hope that they win a sizable number of seats.