Allan Appel Photo
His main opponent may have his headquarters here and the likely support of top politicos. Dan Malloy’s New Haven ground game nevertheless appears to be in full swing.
For the second time in a week the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful came to town Friday night, six days after having courted Latino leaders in Fair Haven.
Friday he was having a beer and a tasty slice with pepperoni in the company of a lawyerly crowd at Stella Blues on Crown Street.
The evening would end over a chat with Jewish students a few blocks away, after their Sabbath meal.
Malloy has become a regular in the Elm City — where Ned Lamont, the one opponent he trails in the polls for the Democratic nomination, has his statewide headquarters on Orange Street as well as growing support among party officials. New Haven came out strong for Lamont when he ran for Senate four years ago — and against Malloy in a gubernatorial primary.
“I understand the needs of urban areas probably better than other candidates,” Malloy, who recently retired as Stamford’s mayor, said at Stella Blues. Then to a departing attendee, he declared, “We’re going to win.”
The visit to the nightclub was for a fundraiser organized by lawyer Lewis Chimes, whose has an office on Orange Street (and lives in Stamford). Lawyers were well represented in the crowd, but there was also Maureen Gaffney).
Gaffney (pictured) recently moved to New Haven. Malloy was her man, based on his appearance in Guilford in the 2006 gubernatorial primary campaign when Malloy faced off in a tight race with New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.
“He spoke about issues, values, old school politics, caring for the people and also supporting business,’ she said.
Gaffney described a sense of balance and energy that Malloy conveyed, and that appealed to her.
Malloy was asked if he considers New Haven to be Lamont territory. “I won 35 percent of the vote in 2006, and won one of the wards,” he said. New Haven has 30 wards.
With 81 delegates, New Haven will pack the biggest punch at the nominating convention in May. Because of that, Malloy said, he has spent a lot of time in the last six months in the Elm City.
Longtime New Haven activist Lindy Gold toasted Malloy with a glass of white wine. She said New Haven has other centers of influence in the city beyond the most visible Democratic officials.
She described these as a groundswell of local and state folks who really like the former Stamford mayor’s candidacy, and his prospects of winning. She said she Malloy has a lot of support of powerful women working behind the scenes. She declined to be more specific.
Malloy said he sensed he is getting “a lot of support from rank and file Democrats, not necessarily on town committees, but in its [the city’s] churches, schools. Everyday people.”
Malloy was asked if he’s worried about facing a millionaire (Lamont) in a primary and, if he wins that, possibly another millionaire (Republican frontrunner Tom Foley) in the general election. Both candidates are self-financing their campaigns. Malloy is shooting for public financing, which maxes out at $8.5 million,
“There’s more of my type of people who vote in this primary than millionaires,” Malloy responded.
Then he added: “It takes a lot of money to sell someone who is not prepared for the office. It takes little money to present someone who is.”
“Self-funders lose primaries significantly more than they win,” he argued.
Malloy had another sip of his beer, and relaxed with his friends at Stella Blues. He wasn’t due to for his next New Haven port of call until 8:30, when he was to speak to Chai at Yale, a social organization headed by Lubavitch Rabbi Shmully Hecht.
“Tell them you ate vegetarian pizza,” suggested Lindy Gold.
Comparing this year's gubernatorial election to the 2006 gubernatorial and senate primary results is an apples and oranges scenario. First of all, and most importantly, John Destefano isn't running this year. Last time around, he pretty much cleaned up in New Haven (which is, on the one hand, not very surprising, and on the other, something that detractors of the Mayor should consider--he wins elections here even when there are other equally experienced, equally serious candidates). This time, there is no New Haven native in the running for governor, so Malloy doesn't have to worry about that.
Additionally, New Haven voted for Lamont against Joe Lieberman in a race for US Sentate, not against Dan Malloy in a race for governor. Clearly, the fact that they chose Lamont over the hometown candidate shows that he enjoys some serious support here, but then again, that vote had a lot more to do with support of the war in Iraq and other national issues on which Lamont and Lieberman disagreed. There are a lot of reasons that a comparison of this year's race with the 2006 senatorial results is not a good analogy: Malloy and Lamont are much closer in ideology; governor is a significantly different job than senator; candidates who quickly gain a huge following for one office and lose, and then go on to run for a different office later on, tend not to enjoy the same support (see Susan Bysiewicz's train-wreck of a campaign for AG 5 months from now); Ned Lamont's use of his personal millions to buy his way to the statehouse might not resound with the average New Haven voter as much as Malloy's publicly-financed campaign might (though I should add that the average New Haven voter probably isn't particularly well informed about the details of campaign finance, so this is probably not a big factor); finally, Lamont can't attack Malloy for supporting the war, which was really the biggest component of his message in running for senate.
That said, I'd venture to guess that Lamont probably enjoys the advantage here, due in part to the support of some of the officials in the Democratic Party and the city government, in part to the fact that many of his old supporters from 2006 still live around here and will probably be willing to volunteer for him again, and also to his use of New Haven as a headquarters. His advantage here is probably not really all that solid though, and the fact that Malloy is spending time in New Haven in and of itself is the strongest indicator of that. Malloy is going to need a lot of support across the state to get the nomination, and he's a smart campaigner--no matter how many delegates New Haven fields at the state convention, he wouldn't be wasting his time here if New Haven were anything CLOSE to being locked up by Lamont. This one ain't over yet.