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Justin Paglino, Paul Garlinghouse announce candidacies Thursday.
New Haven’s Green Party is looking toward Washington, and at 200 Orange St. closer to home, to offer local voters choices in this year’s elections.
At a press conference Thursday on the Green, the party introduced two candidates it has endorsed for the Nov. 3 general election: medical researcher Justin Paglino, who aims to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of New Haven on a “Medicare for All” platform; and attorney Paul Garlinghouse, who seeks to become a registrar of voters with the promise of expanding local democracy.
New Haven Green Party Chair Patricia Kane introduces the candidates at Thursday’s presser.
“Competition makes every part of government better,” declared Garlinghouse, who needs to come in second out of three candidates to win a position in the registrar of voters office at the 200 Orange St. municipal building.
The two party-endorsed candidates need to collect enough signatures on petitions by Aug. 7 to have their names appear on the Nov. 3 ballot: Paglino needs 1,896 registered voters from the Third Congressional District’s 25 cities and towns to sign (which they can do online through his website). Garlinghouse needs 261 New Haven registered voters to sign his petitions. The Green Party is also signing onto a federal lawsuit filed by the Libertarian Party, seeking to allow third parties to appear on ballots this year without petitioning due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“Justin 4 All”
Running in the midst of a pandemic, Paglino (pictured), who is 46 and lives in Guilford, comes across as a man who takes viruses seriously.
“As you can see,” he pointed out during a conversation before Thursday’s presser, “I’m wearing a mask.”
In fact, Paglino spent 10 years in close contact with viruses. He earned his PhD from Yale in virology, then spent a decade as an associate research scientist there working on developing viruses into tools to treat human cancer.
Assuming he makes the ballot, this will be his first run for Congress. He said his medical training inspired him to run: Specifically, his support for single-payer, universal health care.
He said his top reason for challenging DeLauro is that she hasn’t joined 118 of her colleagues (including Connecticut’s Jahana Hayes) who have signed on as cosponsors of the Medicare for All Act of 2019.
In fact, he named his campaign website “Justin4All.”
Paglino said that true single-payer health care — rather than a “public option” that competes with private insurance plans — would not only cover tens of millions of more Americans. It would cut everyone’s health care costs: While taxes would pay for the plan, reduced or eliminated copays and deductibles and premiums and out-of-pocket expenses would more than make up the difference. He noted that majorities of Americans surveyed say they support Medicare For All.
Too many Americans can’t afford the health care they need, Paglino stated. “People who have severe illness deserve health care.” Today in the U.S., people “get only the health care they can afford.”
DeLauro in 2019 introduced an alternative bill that would guarantee that Americans’ monthly premiums would never exceed 9.69 percent of their monthly income. Democrats nationally have split between advocating single-payer Medicare for All and advocating plans like DeLauro’s that enable people to remain on private plans. (Click here for a story about a Medicare For All protest at DeLauro’s office.)
Paglino’s run mirrors that of Green candidate Charlie Pillsbury. He ran against DeLauro in 2002 based on one overriding issue: The war in Afghanistan. He opposed it. She voted for it. By the end of the campaign, DeLauro announced a change of position, to opposing the war.
Democrats last month endorsed DeLauro for a 16th two-year term. Republicans have endorsed Margaret Streicker for the seat.
DeLauro released this statement Thursday afternoon through her office in response to Paglino’s comments: “Healthcare is a fundamental right and I believe every individual should have high-quality, affordable health coverage. That is why I wrote the Medicare for America Act, which builds on the success of Medicare and Medicaid, and achieves universal health coverage by auto enrolling every child at birth, those who are uninsured, and those who currently purchase their coverage on the individual market, in the new Medicare for America program. Employees will have the option to stay covered by quality employer-sponsored insurance or choose to enroll themselves and their families in the program. Employers also have the option to choose Medicare for America for their employees. Let me be clear, every individual in this country will have the option to be covered by Medicare for America. It is exciting and energizing to know that so many Americans, including myself, are moving in the direction of universal health coverage — there are a number of ways to make this dream a reality. The question is how do we take salient leaps to get there — I believe Medicare for America takes those leaps.”
Streicker’s campaign responded with the following emailed comment: “While political positions may vary, one thing the Green Party candidate and Streicker can certainly agree upon is the need to change our US Representative, after 30 years. Streicker looks forward to Mr. Paglino qualifying for a run and wishes him the best of luck in the arduous petitioning process.”
Rules Skewed For Major Parties
Garlinghouse (pictured) is aiming for one of the most local of positions in seeking election as a Green Party registrar of voters. Registrars oversee voter registration, culling and updating of voter lists, distribution of absentee ballots and candidate petitions, and Election Day poll working and ballot counting.
New Haven, like other cities, automatically has a Democratic and a Republican registrar, who in turn have assistants. Under state law — written by Democrats and Republicans — the two parties are guaranteed those positions. Even if third-party candidates win more votes.
If a third-party candidate wins, a community then has three registrars with assistants. (The Working Families Party at one point elected a third registrar in Hartford.)
So incumbent Democratic Registrar Shannel Evans and incumbent Republican Registrar Marlene Napolitano — both of whose parties have endorsed them for reelection — are guaranteed winning new four-year terms in November.
According to the most recent count, New Haven has 37,877 registered Democratic voters, 15,223 registered unaffiliated voters — and just 2,338 registered Republicans and 577 “others” (including Greens). Given the party registration imbalance, Garlinghouse’s real competition is Napolitano. If he wins more votes on Nov. 3 than she does, he moves in with an assistant to the second-floor office at 200 Orange.
Garlinghouse, a 56-year-old attorney who has represented immigrants and victims of police brutality, acknowledged Thursday that a victory in November would mean taxpayers would have to pay for two more employees in the registrar’s office.
He argued that in the long run he could help save taxpayers money by challenging the city’s effective one-party rule and helping more people run for office. Citizens “pay more” for one-party rule in the form of “sweetheart contracts, police brutality settlements, and police overtime,” he argued.
As registrar, he could help potential candidates navigate the confusing rules and paperwork required to get on the ballot, Garlinghouse said.
“Everyone who wants to be a candidate, who has good ideas,” should be able to run for office, he argued.
“We need real democracy here in New Haven,” Garlinghouse said, and as registrar he could help promote that.
Garlinghouse and Paglino also cast their candidacies as part of a broader effort to give voters more choices beyond the major-party duopoly, in part through ranked-choice voting.
Every single one of these individuals should be figuring out how to beat Trump in the fall. What a silly distraction.