Winfield Wins 3 Stooges-Style Convention

While the outcome of Tuesday night’s Democratic 10th State Senate District nominatng convention rocked few political boats, the process of getting there felt like a digital tsunami.

Or a radio scanner from hell. Or an avant-garde experiment in overlapping dialogue.

The convention was held online on UberConference.com.

After 54 minutes of persistent static, ambient chatter, urgent and nameless pleas of ​“Hello? Can you hear me?”, the occasional expletive, and at least one swish — click — pop of a carbonated beverage being opened, one could be forgiven for feeling a bit light-headed.

The upshot of the night: three-term incumbent State Sen. Gary Winfield (pictured) overwhelmingly defeated challenger Jason Bartlett 47 – 5 to secure the state Democratic Party’s endorsement for another two-year term.

Winfield pledged during his brief acceptance speech to ​“continue the good work we’ve done together.”

Some of that work was outlined 20 minutes earlier by Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, who nominated Winfield and praised him for championing body camera legislation, cultural competency training for police officers, the state’s Trust Act, minority teacher recruitment, and racial impact statements during his six years in office.

Bartlett told the Independent by phone after the convention that he plans to try to petition his way onto the ballot, since he did not pass the 15 percent convention vote threshold necessary to secure primary ballot access. Per the governor’s most recent executive order around petitioning, that means Bartlett has 16 days to collect the signatures of 3.5 percent of the district’s registered Democrats. Amid a pandemic.

“We’ll be doing some door-to-door as well as some of it electronic,” Bartlett said about his plan for gathering signatures. ​“I think the only way to get on is to meet people — whether that be with a mask or asking them to come out to the curb and sign a petition.”

“One Endurance Test After Another”

One delegate may have summed it up best at one point during the convention when he shouted, presumably thinking that he was still unmuted, ​“What a fucking shit show!”

Ten minutes later, another delegate, also identified only by her phone number and an anonymous online avatar, said, ​“There’s too much going on in the background. I can’t hear anything.”

“Who’s the fucking host?” some one shouted a minute later.

“This has to be on purpose,” said someone else.

At least from this reporter’s perspective, the confusing barrage of noise was not ​“on purpose” — at least, it didn’t appear to be the result of an intentional zoom bomb.

Rather, all the harried interruptions and meat-grinder-esque static and electronic symphony of dial tones appeared to be the result of 75 individuals trying all at once to navigate an unfamiliar technology.

Convention Chair Jackie James and Secretary Sarah Locke tried their best to hold steady through the frequent interruptions of ​“Am I here? Can you hear me? What’s going on?”

Mute. Unmute

Locke patiently called the roll, gauging who was present (and could answer) and who was not. James urged attendees to mute their phones when they weren’t speaking, and to unmute when they wanted to issue a nomination or take a vote.

“We’re adults. We can handle this,” James said. ​“Let’s figure out how to mute our phones.”

But then James herself was muted. Ten minutes later, she dialed back in on another phone and cried out, ​“Whoever is managing this process: Make sure that people are not muted. If people are muted, you may need to change your phones.”

At one point during the vote, James asked delegates who were having tech issues to text her which candidate they were supporting so that she could read the votes aloud during the meeting.

After Locke read the initial vote as 47 – 4 in favor of Winfield, James interjected with, ​“Jason [Bartlett] just texted me and said that Otis Johnson voted for him. Can you please add his vote for Jason Bartlett?”

In the sidebar chat tool, Westville Alder and convention delegate Adam Marchand asked, ​“Can the host mute everyone then unmute specific people who have been called on to speak?”

“No,” replied Democratic Town Committee Chair Vin Mauro Jr., who was the host — technologically speaking — of the meeting.

“Gotcha, Mr. Chair,” Marchand responded. ​“Unfortunate.”

After the convention ended, Bartlett lamented the technological confusion.

“I understand that we can’t have an in-person meeting for the convention, but that experience was just … it did not speak well for small ​“d” democracy in New Haven or Connecticut. It was really an unfortunate experience.”

Many delegates, who clearly and overwhelmingly supported Winfield’s re-election, breathed a sigh of relief after the online meeting had adjourned.

A chorus of ​“Congratulations, Gary!” and ​“You deserve it, Gary!” ushered the online meeting to its close.

“I want to thank everybody for sticking in,” Winfield said. ​“I know it was difficult. I want to thank you for the opportunity to” get on the ballot as the endorsed Democratic candidate. ​“This is really important work.”

One delegate offered a parting lesson for Winfield before everyone signed off for the night. The message seemed as applicable to serving in the state legislature as surviving Tuesday night’s meeting.

“It’s just one endurance test after another,” she said.