Tone Civil As Heated Race Hits Town

As soon as New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond took the stage to pitch her candidacy for secretary of the state, she asked the crowd to applaud Alder Darryl Brackeen Jr., another candidate, for his work throughout the pandemic. 

When he got up to speak after her, he returned the gratitude with another round of applause, this time for her work.

That reflected the tone Saturday as six Democrats seeking the party’s nomination for the state’s top elections position gathered in person at a forum in New Haven to make their case, and try to set themselves apart from the pack.

They played nice.

“I admire seeing the candidates hug each other” and catch up, Mayor Justin Elicker said of the moments before the event officially began.

It was true. The atmosphere at Saturday’s forum was congenial, with intermittent bubbling laughter and constant smiles, even as the six candidates competed for the support of crowd members.

The candidates also largely agreed about protecting and expanding voting rights, while revealing nuanced differences on ranked-choice voting and prioritizing voting rights for inmates.

Residents from all over the state convened at East Rock Market for the forum, which was hosted by the New Haven Democratic Town Committee (DTC). Each of the six Democratic candidates running for secretary of the state (SOTS) offered two-minute remarks and then stuck around to answer questions one-on-one with attendees.

Incumbent Democrat Denise Merrill will retire this year after three terms from her role as secretary of the state, so the quest for the party nomination for the position (unlike for most other constitutional offices, which have incumbents seeking reelection) has drawn a crowd. Besides overseeing elections, the secretary of the state is in charge of business filings and maintaining the commercial registry. The secretary of the state also proposes and lobbies for new election laws while promoting voting and participation in elections — serving as the state’s top ​“civics” official.

Candidates are seeking support at local Democratic town committees in advance of the May party convention, at which they’ll seek to gather 15 percent of delegates’ votes in order to qualify for a spot on the primary ballot. (Those who don’t obtain 15 percent then have the option of petitioning onto the ballot.)

Besides New Haven’s own Bond (an official candidate) and Brackeen (still technically ​“exploring” a candidacy), official Democratic candidates include State Rep. Stephanie Thomas of Norwalk and Meriden State Rep Hilda Santiago. Hamden State Rep Joshua Elliott and Middletown State Sen Matt Lesser have been making rounds of the state as​“exploratory” candidates. That means they have formed a committee to raise money and have traveled through the state pitching their candidacies, seeking to break out of the pack, but have not yet formed official, formal campaigns for the post.

On the Republican side, Dominic Rapini and Brock Weber have formed candidate committees to seek the office. Cynthia Jennings is seeking the Independent Party nomination.

The Democratic candidates all endorsed expanding voting access throughout the state through implementing early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. They all expressed an urgent need to protect voting rights in the state.

Bond (pictured) spoke first, emphasizing that she is the sole candidate with government executive experience, having managed employees and multi-million dollar budgets in New Haven during the Covid-19 pandemic. Brackeen, a five-term alder for Ward 26 in Upper Westville, promoted his history working to expand voting participation, voting rights, electoral reforms, and election security through his work as founder and chair of Generation Change CT.

Elliott positioned himself as a small business owner and the sole attorney running. He said his goal is to push policy conversations on expanding voting rights to prison inmates and on ranked-choice-voting (RCV). (Read more about RCV here.) Lesser said he has been fighting for voting rights in the state legislature for 15 years, and he announced that he has out-raised all the other candidates, with over $86,000 in total campaign contributions.

Santiago detailed her political background as a former Meriden City Council member and five-term state representative, with an emphasis on her work on election reform as a member of the Government Administrations & Elections Committee. Thomas said that as the first candidate to officially declare her candidacy, having bypassed the ​“exploratory” phase, she demonstrated her determination to earn the votes necessary to win.

Thomas concluded the candidate remarks portion with an emphasis on the agreement among Democrats to ​“get ahead of 2024” by rebuilding trust in democracy and increasing civic engagement.

Rather than a formal question and answer panel, conversations flowed freely as candidates engaged with individuals independently, a choice that New Haven Democratic Town Chair Vin Mauro said offered a more substantive way to engage candidates with constituents.

It was in these conversations where candidates could go into further detail about their policy platforms and how they differ. While none of the candidates ruled out RCV as a possibility, Elliott and Brackeen named the policy as a priority. Santiago and Bond argued much work must be done on voter engagement before considering RCV.

Thomas said voting rights should expand to inmates, both those awaiting trial and convicted. She said the issue falls into larger conversations about how we want prisons to function. Elliott was in agreement with Thomas, saying ballot access for incarcerated people is a central issue, and said he wishes candidates were asked about it more.

Brackeen echoed the sentiments, highlighting his work to end prison gerrymandering in the state, while Bond emphasized that ​“everyone should have the right to vote.” Santiago argued that legislature should instead prioritize improving conditions for those formerly incarcerated with matters of access to benefits and pensions.

Mauro concluded that each of the candidates brought something unique to the discussions, with hope that ​“the field will shape up in the coming weeks,” as the strongest arguments become clearer. He argued that as the city that has brought the most candidates to the race, New Haven (which produces the most Democratic votes in statewide elections) should get to see one of our own on the ballot.