Thomas Breen photos
Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans (right) drops off certified petitions with Deputy City/Town Clerk May Gardner.
Brennan, with campaign staffers Abdul Osmanu and Michael Morris, after clinching primary ballot access.
Liam Brennan became the only mayoral challenger to make his way onto September’s Democratic primary ballot Wednesday — after the registrar of voters office certified his campaign’s petition, and rejected dozens of pages of signatures submitted by fellow mayoral hopefuls Shafiq Abdussabur and Tom Goldenberg.
Abdussabur’s campaign has promised to fight the findings of the signature count.
On Wednesday afternoon, Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans and her colleagues finished reviewing hundreds of pages of petition paperwork that Brennan, Abdussabur, and Goldenberg had submitted by the Aug. 9 deadline.
Each mayoral challenger had spent two weeks trying to collect and hand in signatures from 1,623 registered New Haven Democrats — which equals 5 percent of registered Democrats citywide — in order to qualify for the Sept. 12 Democratic Party primary for mayor.
All three are seeking to unseat two-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker, who is vying for a third two-year term in office and whose name will be at the top of the primary ballot because he was endorsed by the local Democratic Party at the July 25 convention.
On Wednesday afternoon at around 4:15 p.m., Evans and deputy registrar Elizabeth DeMatteo finished their weeklong count and walked hundreds of pages of petition papers down the second-floor hallway of the municipal office building at 200 Orange St., from their office to the city/town clerk’s office.
That’s where deputy clerk May Gardner and fellow clerk staffer Lashay Lawson scanned the relevant paperwork and prepared to submit it to the secretary of the state.
The final tally, according to the registrar’s count, found that Brennan collected 1,850 valid signatures from registered New Haven Democrats. Her office rejected only three of the 139 pages of signatures submitted by his campaign. That means Brennan, a former legal aid attorney, has secured a spot on the September Democratic primary ballot.
Abdussabur, a retired police sergeant, and Goldenberg, an ex-McKinsey consultant, didn’t make the cut, per Evans’ office tally.
Abdussabur’s campaign submitted 1,406 valid signatures, and had 21 of their 218 petition pages rejected. (Each petition page allows for a maximum of 20 signatures, though, as the Independent observed on Wednesday, not every page of every candidate’s petition was full.)
Goldenberg’s campaign submitted 1,122 valid signatures, and had 29 of 148 petition pages rejected.
Why were so many signatures on Abdussabur’s and Goldenberg’s petitions rejected?
Paperwork delivered by Evans to the city clerk’s office stated that those petitions included too many signatures from people who are not registered Democrats and from people not registered in New Haven. Signatures were also disqualified for both campaigns’ petitions due to illegible writing, incomplete back sides of petition paperwork, and no address provided.
Brennan (center) at the registrar's office early Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re very pleased” to have gotten enough valid signatures and to make the Democratic primary ballot, Brennan said on Wednesday afternoon while standing near the front steps of the municipal office building at 200 Orange St. with campaign staffers Abdul Osmanu and Michael Morris.
“It’s very tricky to do,” Brennan said, as evidenced by him being the only challenger to make the ballot.
“We had a really good system of quality control” at the doors and throughout the petitioning process, Osmanu said. Namely, he and fellow Brennan campaigners made certain at the start of every conversation, before they collected someone’s signature, to ask if the person they were talking to was a registered Democrat in New Haven. Some petitioners for other campaigns would ask if people were registered voters, he said. That could easily lead to some petition slip-ups.
Brennan and campaign supporters outside Westville small business Bloom Thursday morning.
In a press conference held the day after the signature count, Brennan said, “Over these last months of campaigning, there have been plenty of people who have told us to be more flashy, to make more of a show. But I’ve always believed that a well-organized ground game is the most important key to success.”
“Over the last four months, we’ve made over 44,0000 calls to residents. We’ve knocked on almost 7,000 doors in all 30 wards of the city,” he said, crediting his spot on the ballot to diligent and determined grassroots organizing. Watch Brennan’s full speech above.
Thomas Breen file photo
Abdussabur: "We're gonna fight it."
Abdussabur spent a half hour in the hallway outside of the registrar’s office on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for the official tally to finish.
“We’re gonna fight it,” he promised upon learning that the registrar’s office found that he did not have enough valid signatures to make the ballot. Last week, he and his campaign manager Gage Frank said they had dropped off around 2,600 or 2,700 signatures in total. “We know we have the numbers,” Abdussabur said.
Frank sent out a campaign email press release entitled “The Fight Isn’t Over” at 4:42 p.m. In that press release, Frank said “we are planning to challenge the signature count and fight our way to the ballot.”
“An over fifty percent rejection rate is unheard of. We are confident that we have qualified for the September ballot after submitting over 2,700 signatures to the New Haven Registrar of Voters,” he continued. “We will be filing an injunction to ensure that there is no foul play in the petition-gathering process.” He also described Wednesday’s count as an “appalling abuse of process.”
While Abdussabur and Goldenberg did not make it onto the primary ballot per the registrar’s count on Wednesday, their names will almost certainly be on the general election ballot on Nov. 7.
That’s because Abdussabur has also filed with the city clerk’s office to run as an independent in November, while Goldenberg has been endorsed by the local Republican Party.
“It doesn’t change a whole lot,” Goldenberg said on Wednesday afternoon when asked to respond to his not making the Democratic primary ballot. “I’m proud of what we were able to do.” The petition process was “a great opportunity” to talk to voters.
“I’m not necessarily disappointed in not participating in the [Democratic] primary. We’re going to have a shot in November. We’re going to be able to meet people, go door to door, raise money” before then.
He said he nevertheless does plan on inspecting some of the rejected petition papers, in particular those that were rejected because of the registrar’s stated reason of “backside of petition not completed.”
When it comes to Abdussabur, I'm surprised, but not surprised. I thought he'd be a strong contender with street smarts and street support. But -- I get the whole "not registered, not Democrat, not a resident" thing - it's too easy to take anyone's support and hope for the best...He ought to thing long-term at this point - next time...
And while we're at it, Brennan doesn't stand a chance...once Rosa got on board, Elicker's train will just keep on rollin