Bond Centers Labor, Local Roots In Closing Campaign Pitch

Thomas Breen photo

Bond at Monday's rally.

When they say we can’t make it out the hood … I’m a product of that!”

With those words, Maritza Bond tapped into her Fair Haven roots — as well as her wealth of organized labor support — to make a closing pitch to supporters to get out the vote for her bid for secretary of the state during Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary.

Bond made that get-out-the-vote call during a rally that she held Monday evening with two dozen supporters at the northeastern corner of the Green at Elm and Church Streets.

Bond, who currently works as the city’s health director, is running against Norwalk State Rep. and state Democratic Party-endorsed candidate Stephanie Thomas for the Democratic nomination for secretary of the state.

That office oversees state elections as well as the state’s business registry.

Bond addresses her supporters on the Green ...

... including Dwight Alder Frank Douglass, city Environmental Health Director Rafael Ramos, and Beaver Hills Alder / Local 35 VP Brian Wingate.

Whoever wins Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary will then then face off in November’s general election against the winner of Tuesday’s Republican Party primary, either state party-endorsed candidate Dominic Rapini or challenger and Darien State Rep. Terrie Wood.

The Democratic candidates for secretary of the state agree on many of the issues facing that office, including support for state constitutional amendments for early voting and no-fault absentee balloting. (“The fact that we are one of the few states without early voting in the United States is shameful, as progressive as we are as a state!” Bond said on Tuesday.)

So, in addition to talking about her support for expanding voting access and supporting small businesses if elected, Bond and her supporters spent most of their Tuesday stump speeches focusing their messages on who she is and on who’s backing her campaign.

That meant a round of renewed endorsements from state and local labor leaders, including from representatives from the state AFL-CIO and UNITE HERE’s Local 34.

CT AFL-CIO Political Director Joelyn Leon.

We at the AFL-CIO and all of our affiliates voted to endorse Maritza unanimously!” state AFL-CIO Political Director Joelyn Leon said to cheers from the crowd. We know Maritza will be there for working families.”

What does the secretary of the state job have to do with supporting working people? Leon asked.

The right to vote is your fundamental right in our democracy. We have to stand up for that. If workers, your average everyday person does not have an equal right to the ballot, we have a problem.”

Local 34 organizer Eddie Camp.

UNITE HERE Local 34’s Eddie Camp agreed. She understands working people,” he said about Bond. She grew up in Fair Haven. She understands what this city needs. She understands what cities in Connecticut need.”

Bond has emphasized labor issues in ads that attack Thomas for missing a vote on a state union contract and for not voting for a bill requiring employers to rehire in order of seniority workers laid off during the pandemic. Thomas said she missed the first vote because of a conflict with her day job advising nonprofits.

John Brannelly.

During his time at the mic, campaign volunteer and former Bridgeport City Councilman John Brannelly emphasized the first” that Bond would become if elected secretary of the state in November. 

She follows in the footsteps of great leaders like Ella Grasso, the first woman ever elected to governor in any state of the United States of America,” he said. Here in Connecticut, we make history. And we’re going to make history when we elect the first Latina to statewide office in the State of Connecticut!” No Latino or Latina candidate has ever appeared on the statewide Democratic ballot or won statewide office in Connecticut.

In her closing remarks to her crowd of supporters, Bond also emphasized her local roots. 

Born in Brooklyn, she moved to Fair Haven at the age of 8. Within a decade, we saw the neighborhood quickly be overtaken by a lot of social injustice issues, violence, and drugs,” she said. She said she spent much of her adolescence thinking through how to address these types of systemic issues. That ultimately led her to a career in public health. 

Bond said she was the first in her family to go to college, at Southern Connecticut State University. She became a mom in her third year of school — and ultimately finished her degree and pursued a two-decade long career in public health.

For me, that experience really kept me grounded as I started my journey,” she said about growing up in Fair Haven.

Bond (right) with Karen Talamelli of Woodbridge ...

... and with recent Texas transplant and trans youth activist Kai Shappley.

Later on in her speech, she said, Of course New Haven is my home first. I need New Haven to stand by and have my back while I run across Connecticut [on Tuesday] to tell the other voters to come out to vote so we can protect our democracy and protect small businesses across Connecticut.”

Click on the video below to watch the Bond’s full rally on the Green on Monday.

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