Paul Bass Photo
Mayor Elicker filing for reelection in December.
Mayor Justin Elicker received his first $20,000 in matching public funds for his clean-money-bolstered reelection campaign, with two of his Democratic challengers reportedly soon to follow suit.
Elicker, a two-term incumbent Democrat who is running for a third two-year term in office this year, received $20,000 in matching dollars last Friday from the Democracy Fund.
That’s the local public financing program that provides an initial public grant and matching funds to eligible mayoral candidates who agree to cap individual donations at $445 and swear off contributions from political committees. Elicker and Democratic mayoral challengers Shafiq Abdussabur and Liam Brennan have all committed to participating in the Democracy Fund this mayoral election year. Fellow Democratic challenger Tom Goldenberg is not. Also running for mayor this year are independent candidates Wendy Hamilton and Mayce Torres.
On Monday, Elicker campaign advisor Mike Farina told the Independent that the mayor surpassed the qualifying number of 200 New Haven donations on Dec. 31, the Democracy Fund certified those donations qualified on Feb. 28, and the candidate received his first check of $20,000 in matching funds on March 10. As of Monday, Farina said, Elicker’s campaign had received 450 contributions from New Haven residents so far.
“This will be my fourth time participating in the New Haven Democracy Fund,” Elicker said. “I’m a big fan. I’m glad to see Liam’s enthusiasm as well.”
That latter statement was in reference to an email press release that Brennan’s campaign sent out on Monday, indicating that he too has garnered donations from more than 200 New Haven voters — thereby surpassing the threshold necessary to receive matching dollars and an initial grant from the Democracy Fund.
“Our campaign is proud to be the first challenger to have reached this milestone, and, by doing it in less than three weeks since our launch, we’re especially proud to have reached it faster than even the Mayor’s campaign,” Brennan is quoted as saying in that press release. That same press release states that the Democracy Fund “lies at the heart of our public campaign finance system, and is an important safeguard to make sure that New Haven’s elected officials are principally responsible to our city’s residents, not wealthy donors or special interests.”
In a Tuesday morning phone interview, Democracy Fund Administrator Aly Heimer confirmed that the fund distributed $20,000 in matching money to Elicker’s campaign last Friday. She said that qualifying candidates will receive their initial $23,000 grants this summer upon securing access to the September primary ballot.
Heimer also said that neither Brennan nor Abdussabur has yet filed with the Democracy Fund to prove they’ve raised the necessary number of donations to receive matching dollars. She said her understanding is that both campaigns will file soon. In a text message comment provided to the Independent, Abussabur said that his campaign has also passed 200 New Haven donations and plan on submitting them to Heimer next week.
After receiving the necessary paperwork from Brennan’s and/or Abdussabur’s campaigns, she said, “I will go through and audit all of their contributions” and make sure all of the forms have been filled our properly and that the donations in questions do indeed come from registered New Haven voters.
“Then I will go through and provide a 2 to 1 match on the first $35 of each contribution, and report back to the campaign anything that needs to be corrected” or returned to donors, Heimer said.
This is a great program, rewarding small donations form New Haven voters. The proposed changes, such as reducing the amount of self-funding allowed, would make it even better.