DuBois-Walton Taps Fellow ​“Underdogs”

A politically active crowd in Hamden ended their work week cradling pizza, beer and ​“Karen DuBois-Walton for State Treasurer” signs — backing a neighbor pursuing a challenge similar to one they waged a year earlier.

The crowd of 30 Hamden elected officials, Democratic Town Committee (DTC) members, and intrigued voters gathered at Mayor Lauren Garrett’s house on Andover Road Friday night to affirm their support for DuBois-Walton, one of three Democrats fighting in a primary Tuesday for the position of state treasurer. 

The primary will determine who will advance to November’s general election to seek to hold a job responsible for overseeing Connecticut’s nearly $45 billion in pension and trust fund assets.

Tuesday’s Democratic primary for state treasurer pits two New Haveners against each other: DuBois-Walton, executive director of the Housing Authority of New Haven and chair of the state Board of Education, against Westville attorney and former state Democratic Party Vice-Chair Erick Russell. Russell won the party’s endorsement at a May convention. They are seeking a position last held by a New Havener, Hank Parker, in 1986.

In the final days before the primary, Russell and DuBois-Walton hit local turf to reconnect with familiar local faces to make closing arguments about why they’d best represent a hometown progressive agenda. (Click here for an article about Russell’s home-stretch campaigning; click here to read about the campaign of the third candidate, Greenwich quantitative hedge fund manager Dita Bhargava, whose campaign has not been visible in the New Haven-Hamden area.) 

DuBois-Walton’s Hamden event was a reciprocal visit of sorts: In 2021 she backed a successful slate of Democrats challenging the party establishment, in a municipal primary. And they won. She also has worked with Hamden progressives to form a racial-justice-oriented political action committee and host issues forums, and taken a lead in regional efforts to spread affordable housing to wealthier suburbs through zoning reform.

Both Garrett and Sean Grace, the chairman of the DTC, have endorsed DuBois-Walton in her primary campaign for treasurer.

Garrett and Grace have both chosen (independent of the broader DTC) to support the state party’s preferred candidate, Stephanie Thomas from Norwalk, for the secretary of the state, over New Havener Maritza Bond. But when it comes to treasurer, Garrett, Grace and a host of other Hamdenites are jumping behind DuBois-Walton as the person they describe as the overlooked but overqualified candidate — and the one who would help make their ​“insurgent” municipal slate complete at the state level.

“Last year when we were the insurgents in Hamden, trying to change this town, Karen believed in us,” Sean Grace, who is also Garrett’s chief of staff, said. ​“She campaigned by us, side by side.”

After DuBois-Walton sought unsuccessfully last summer to challenge incumbent New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker for that job, she recalled, she lent her support to the insurgent team next door in Hamden: ​“I didn’t just sit at home and put my feet up. I thought, ​‘If I’m not moving forward, Karimah and Lauren are.’”

She was referring to Lauren Garrett and Karimah Mickens, Hamden’s town clerk. They were the face of a ticket of candidates who ran for local offices on a platform of renewed government transparency, fiscal thoughtfulness, and progressive change — and they beat out a long-term incumbent slate.

“This is a very progressive slate. And I’m the progressive candidate,” DuBois-Walton argued.

“My people are the underdogs,” she added. ​“My life has always been about fighting for folks who have it hard.”

Russell has served as vice-chair of the state Democratic Party. So, DuBois-Walton, said she has had to catch up in making statewide party connections. She argued she is the most qualified individual to actually take on the job with nearly three decades working in the public service sector.

In a pitch to Friday’s gathering (which consisted primarily of extant supporters), DuBois-Walton asserted that she has both the personal experience to represent a broad range of Connecticut residents as well as the professional expertise to provide for them.

She recalled losing her parents as a teenager — and how their public pensions made sure she was financially supported in a time of crisis.

“I do it from personal experience of knowing,” she said, noting how the treasurer’s office should up the number of financial literacy opportunities and more actively connect residents to programming and benefits. For example, she pointed out that around 70 percent of eligible families claimed the state’s child tax rebate before the application deadline closed last week — and ​“30 percent missed that opportunity.”

She said she would push for the implementation of baby bonds and match savings programs to assist low-income households with saving.

As the director of the New Haven housing authority for the past 25 years, DuBois-Walton, who is 54, said she has already done similar work to what the state treasurer does — managing bonds and investments related to building public housing, and establishing wealth creation initiatives. ​“My background is equivalent to what a treasurer does,” she said. She has two decades of public-sector management experience, including stints as mayoral chief of staff and chief administrative officer in New Haven before she took over the housing authority.

“She is the most qualified candidate,” stated Karimah Mickens, who was sporting a ​“Karen DuBois-Walton” T‑shirt.

“I’ve seen her up front for over 20 years just putting in the work. She truly cares about people. A lot of people just don’t know about what she does — she’s just so busy doing it.”

Lushonda Howard, who is poised to become Hamden’s next Democratic registrar of voters, said DuBois-Walton’s ​“record speaks for itself.”

“Being a retiree for the state and getting a pension, I want someone in there making sure my pension continues!”

Nancy Hill, who serves on Hamden’s DTC, said that she, like many people at Friday’s function, has known DuBois-Walton for decades as a close friend and neighbor.

“She’s always involved in the community,” she said — noting the politician’s extracurricular of sorts serving on the state Board of Education.

At the end of the night, Sharon Jones, program manager of the Keefe Center, invited DuBois-Walton to a New Haven block party the next day.

She had campaign events scheduled in Avon and Sharon, DuBois-Walton said — ​“But I’ll try to get there!”

Nora Grace-Flood’s reporting is supported in part by a grant from Report for America.