Susan Bysiewicz won the backing of New Haven’s mayor in her bid for attorney general, but the city’s convention delegates won’t be marching lock-step behind him.
That news emerged from a Sunday night meeting of New Haven’s delegates to this weekend’s state Democratic convention.
Also Sunday night, it became clear that New Haven Alderman Jorge Perez is not pursuing a last-minute run for state comptroller, which some supporters have been urging him to do.
(Consumer alert: The following story is replete with mind-numbing details of political “inside baseball.”)
New Haven is sending the largest bloc of delegates to this weekend’s convention, 81. Sunday night the group reaffirmed that it plans to stand united behind two candidates: gubernatorial hopeful Ned Lamont and hometown secretary of the state candidate Gerry Garcia.
But it won’t stand united in the race for attorney general, which pits Susan Bysiewicz (the current secretary of the state) and former state party Chairman George Jepsen.
Mayor John DeStefano told the gathering Sunday night at the Conte/ West Hills cafeteria that he’s backing Bysiewicz. Until last week, he and other New Haveners planned to support hometown candidate Cam Staples, but Staples has since dropped out.
DeStefano told the gathering that he understands that some New Haven delegates will support Jepsen because of their past personal relationships.
For instance, New Haven State Sen. Toni Harp is backing Jepsen, with whom she served in the State Senate. She said she has another reason for backing him: “He’s a lawyer.”
Harp was referring to the controversy dogging Bysiewicz: whether she meets the legal requirements to run as the state’s top lawyer. Read about that here and here.
“We’re going to let people make up their own minds” on attorney general, said New Haven Democratic Town Chairwoman Susan Voigt. “A lot of people lean toward Susan. They know her better. She’s in the Third CD [Congressional District]. We understand Rosa’s going to be endorsing her. Some of the choice will come down to” personal relationships.
In other races, New Haven is hoping a unified bloc will reap either short- or long-term rewards.
Harp said there was some discussion about whether it made sense to free some delegates to support Dan Malloy for governor. In the end, she said, people agreed that “it helps to be a united delegation. We’re the largest delegation in the state. If we can hold together, it gives more leverage for things down the road.”
Or sooner. At Sunday night’s meeting, the delegation agreed not to endorse anyone yet for state comptroller. That job suddenly opened last week when the current comptroller, Nancy Wyman, decided to leave the job to run instead for lieutenant governor. A flood of candidates has swept into the breach. Rather than endorse one of them now, delegates agreed Sunday night, New Haven’s bloc can wait to see if it can use the endorsement for leverage in a different race, for secretary of the state.
New Haven’s candidate for that office, Gerry Garcia, may not yet have the 15 percent support of delegates needed to qualify for a primary.
The idea is that perhaps New Haven can trade its 81 delegate votes in the comptroller’s race for another bloc’s needed delegates to get Garcia over the top in the secretary of the state race.
Voigt said there’s a second reason to hold off on picking a candidate in that race: “Candidates are still emerging. I also think it would be premature to make a decision.”
Meanwhile, some politicos behind the scenes had been urging Jorge Perez to make a run for comptroller. New Haven would have united behind him, as would Hamden and a few other towns, giving New Haven a second chance at a spot on the statewide ticket — and giving Hispanics a second shot at having a statewide candidate for the first time ever.
On the other hand, some Gerry Garcia supporters argued that having a second New Haven Latino pursuing a statewide office could hinder Garcia’s own campaign.
Perez said Monday that he decided not to pursue the comptroller position this year, partly for that reason.
“People approached me and asked me to consider it,” he said. “My response was, ‘Let me talk to some people and see if in this point of my life it makes sense.’ At this point it’s late in the game. I want to do everything to help Gerry [Garcia] get his 15 percent and get the nomination. I don’t want to do anything to hinder him, in reality or perception.”
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