2 Caucuses Unmask Parties’ Differences

Seventy Democrats layered in jackets, scarves, and face masks stood outside an elementary school in the bitter cold Thursday night to cast a series of votes.

They were making the same point, with a different spin, that Republicans made a night earlier when they met indoors, without masks, to cast a series of votes. 

The two occasions involved meetings of registered Democrats and Republicans to choose new members of Hamden’s Democratic and Republican Town Committees, and in the process build their parties at the grassroots.

The two votes took place last week. In choosing how to gather, the two parties consciously made a point about how their parties offer Hamden different views on public issues — in this case, how much precaution to take in the face of a resurgence of Covid-19.

In the two town-wide events, the parties also demonstrated a desire to inject new blood into the political process.

Twenty people showed up to one indoor location for Wednesday night’s meeting of the Republican Town Committee, which selected new representation and spoke of their opposition to Democratic Mayor Lauren Garrett’s indoor mask mandate. Click here to read a previous story about that gathering.

Then, on Thursday night, a total 200 Democrats turned out to sites across Hamden’s nine districts Thursday night to decide on who should make up the Democratic Town Committee, the political body that endorses candidates to run for office, among other things.

Turnout was highest at Ridge Hill Elementary. That’s in District 6, where former mayor Curt Leng lives. 

“We worked very hard to engage voters — we weren’t sure what to expect,” said Megan Goslin, a member of the DTC who served as a lead organizer in the 2020 election. In September’s Democratic primary, Garrett and her ​“change slate” beat out Leng and his crew by a 2 – 1 margin.

Goslin and other District 6 representatives held the event outside, unlike the other eight caucuses, in order to better incentivize those anxious about going indoors during the pandemic to come out and vote — and thereby defend a largely Garrett-aligned DTC from potentially losing to Leng and his supporters, were they to show up.

However, neither Leng nor any of his ​‘21 teammates put their names into the 2022 caucuses mix. Furthermore, Leng didn’t come out to vote.

“Even a couple of weeks out we weren’t sure if there would be division,” DTC Chair Sean Grace said. ​“On the night of the caucuses, things looked super smooth.”

Philip Rosenthal, one of the dozens who bared the cold weather to vote, said he did so because ​“Like Dracula, we needed new blood” on the DTC. He, like every other individual at the scene, unanimously ushered in seven volunteers, including Goslin.

At other sites around town, the caucuses were calmer. Over in the seventh, Grace said the event was a ​“family affair.” His three kids voted on DTC membership for the first time alongside fewer than 20 other individuals.

Throughout Hamden, the ultimate result was the same: No opposition presented itself, and 63 names were quickly endorsed by present residents. That comes two years after the last set of caucuses gave rise to primaries between full slates in every district.

“The main thing is there was not a single challenge in any of the nine districts,” Grace said. ​“It shows the outreach we’ve been doing, the inclusivity we’ve had… that is a big part of the reason we were so united — we actively sought people out and brought them in.”

Of the 63 individuals on the town committee — seven within each district — 65 percent are women and 54 percent are people of color. About one third of the endorsed nominees have never served on the DTC before.

That third includes local leaders like Y’Isaiah Lopes, the community services coordinator at the Keefe Community Center. It also features newly elected town officials, like Legislative Council members Laurie Sweet and Abdul Osmanu and Board of Education representative Mariam Khan, who have long been active in politics but were previously not members of the committee.

Anyone who chooses to challenge the endorsed slates has until January 25 to collect the signatures of 5 percent of the registered Democrats in the district before a final March vote, during which DTC leadership will also be chosen. 

Leng did not respond to texts from the Independent inquiring as to why he did not join the District 6 caucus or whether or not he plans to challenge those who received endorsements Thursday.

“I will be surprised if we end up with any primaries,” Grace noted. If anyone wanted to challenge Thursday’s nominees, he said, they probably would have shown up to the caucuses.

“If it turns out we’re not having a March primary; if it turns out we’re united behind our state delegation, maybe we can focus on building our party,” Grace said. He added that, just as the DTC produced a platform last year outlining their political stance on local issues, he would like a newly elected committee to produce an overview of state policies that the Hamden DTC could advocate and push for in coming months and years.

Grace, who also serves as Garrett’s Chief of Staff, read the caucuses as further proof that local Democrats are ​“happy with the job that Lauren [Garrett] is doing as mayor… they see the cooperation between the mayor and the council. There’s a whole new level of collaboration.”

And, he added, pointing to perspectives articulated by many at Thursday’s caucuses, including Philip Rosenthal, ​“there’s a recognition that it’s time to move on” from old leadership and choose representatives who will actively support the new administration.

On Wednesday, Hamden Republicans held their own caucuses for the Republican Town Committee — and also found collective motivation in the idea that residents might soon look to their party for that taste of new blood, citing their own dissatisfaction with the policies and practices Garrett has put forward in her two months as the top town official.

However, the town committee caucuses only further demonstrated the differences between the town’s two parties and how the two would wield and are wielding their power.

For example, Wednesday saw a group of less than 20 Republicans gather in a one-room, private venue without masks to endorse their nominees. They spoke to the Independent about why they reject Garrett’s mask mandate, which she instituted after Leng left office. 

In the same way that Republicans intentionally avoided requiring masks during the then-height of Covid-19 spread, the DTC took the opposite stance.

“100 percent of voters were masked,” Grace said, even while meeting outdoors, ​“Because it was a requirement.”

“It’s about respecting each other — this is a pandemic that causes a tremendous amount of anxiety. And people were quite nervous to come out” to the caucuses, he said.

And, while Republicans endorsed a council candidate last summer who took part in the Stop the Steal rally, Grace said the DTC had considered holding a ​“demonstration” on Jan. 6 — the day of the Democratic caucuses — to remember and renounce the capitol riot.

“Our demonstration was the caucuses,” he asserted.

Indeed, District 6 resident Fran Paulman said she had come out on Thursday not because she was an avid follower of local politics, but because ​“Democracy is in trouble.”

At the event, she and her neighbors were able to converse with those running for the DTC; ask about their values, experiences, and priorities; and exchange contact information in order to keep one another in the local governmental loop.

As cars flooded out of the packed elementary school parking lot that night, Goslin reflected on a what she saw as a particularly successful example of community engagement: ​“To see so many Democrats willing to come out in the middle of a New England winter during a pandemic… that’s really a reason for optimism.”

Below are the endorsed slates.

Slat4e

District 1 
Daniel Garret
Sallie Lowry
Kristen Zaehringer — District 1 council rep.
Danielle Means
Sharleen DeLosSantos
David Asberry — BOE member
Christine Whitten

District 2
Stacey Hampton
Tanesha Forman
Carole Williams
Eben Steward
Jamie Guite
Cassi Meyerhoffer
Ronald Osokow

District 3 
Y’isiah Lopes
Ben Komola
Joseph Baez
Dominique Baez — Council president
Greta Johnson
Eric Daniels
Abdul Osmanu — District 3 rep.

District 4
Sean Cardwell
Eric Annes
Brian Murphy
Sana Shah
Shane Lancer
Analis Quintman
Jacquelyn Bell

District 5 
Elizabeth Hayes
Seth Rosenthal
Alan Graham
Shequeera Hobby
Laurie Sweet — Council-at-large rep.
Justin Farmer — District 5 rep.
Sharon Kiely

District 6 
Megan Goslin
Elaine Dove
Yasmin Small
Justin Boucher
Melba Mebane-Ifill
Felicia Bond
Michael Locket

District 7 
Deb Smith
Tracy Bowens
Sean Grace
Karimah Mickens — Town clerk
Alexa Panayotakis
Dave Hannon
Diane Hoffman

District 8
Christopher Atchley
Rhonda Caldwell
Jennifer Schenk Sacco
Phaedrel Bowman
Carmen Black
Mariam Khan — BOE member
George Levinson

District 9 
Betsy Rosenblum
Tameeks Parks
Nancy Hill
Graziela Reis
Travis Woodward
Lushonda Howard
Karen Bivens