Samuel Gurwitt Photos
State Rep. Robyn Porter egged everyone onto the dance floor — with an eye toward bringing the party, and leading it, in Hartford.
Sam Gurwitt Photo
This is how we do it …
“This is how Hamden does it!” Porter (pictured above)echoed into the mic, egging on a room of her dancing supporters.
This is how we do it …, Montell Jordan repeated through the speaker.
Porter, the Democratic state representative for Connecticut’s 94th House District (which includes portions of Hamden and New Haven), was urging the crowd at the Keefe Community Center to take some steps — as part of her own quest to step into a party leadership role in Hartford.
Saturday night she led a different kind of party. A dance party.
Fifty politicians and supporters gathered the dance party and and fundraiser for Porter PAC. In anticipation of the 2020 state elections, Porter set up the PAC to raise money to get her fellow Democrats elected. Then she hopes they’ll elect her to be the next state House majority leader. East Hartford’s Jason Rojas is also seeking the position.
The party raised $1,000 for the PAC.
“We need people that are not afraid to stand up and fight the good fight,” Porter told the crowd. “We need more of us.”
Porter has been in the Connecticut House since 2014 and forged a decidedly pro-labor, pro-working family stance. In May, she led the house in passing a $15 hourly minimum wage. She also championed a family leave law.
On Saturday night, the fundraising seemed less important than the dancing. Politics can’t be all work, Porter said. You have to have some fun. And you have to give something to the people who support you.
First came the food. Darryl Pervis (pictured), owner of Dperv’s T.O.P. BBQ about a mile north of the Keefe Center on Dixwell Avenue, did the catering. “For Robyn, anything,” he said.
He stood behind the table and piled chicken, rice, green beans, salad, and rolls onto plates for guests like Chaz Brackeen (pictured above with Pervis). Brackeen is a social worker from New Haven. She’s married to Darryl Brackeen Jr., who is a New Haven alder.
The evening began slowly as many of Hamden and New Haven’s political players sat around the tables covered in blue and orange tablecloths fueling up for the dancing. Everyone was eating and no one was dancing. So Pervis, whose food was keeping everyone off the dance floor, took it upon himself to start the party.
He chose a good moment to do so, for Beyoncé fans.
Honey honey, I can see the stars all the way from here …
Hamden Director of Legislative Affairs and Board of Education Member Walter Morton, who was the deejay on Saturday, had just queued “Love on Top.”
Baby it’s you. You’re the one I love. You’re the one I need …
Mary Smart, Porter’s sister, joined Pervis.
When I need to make everything stop. Finally, you put my love on top …
For Porter, being a politician is about putting love on top, she said.. “I’ve been told we can’t legislate love. I say why not? We legislate hate. Why can’t we legislate love?”
This reporter’s camera was not the only shutter clicking throughout the event. State Sen. Gary Winfield (pictured above) brought his camera along. As a side gig, he does photography, especially for weddings.
Meanwhile, the guests kept filing in. Hamden Mayor Curt Leng arrived once the dancing was already underway. Board of Education Member Arturo Perez-Cabello arrived at the same time.
For Perez-Cabello, Saturday evening was about the dancing. “I get to go out with my wife [Lisa] and dance.”
New Haven Democratic mayoral candidate Justin Elicker’s campaign manager, Gage Frank, arrived early on. Elicker arrived a little while later.
“I’m just a big fan of Robyn Porter,” Elicker said. Plus, he said, there are a lot of ways that Hamden and New Haven will have to collaborate in the future. The April shooting of Stephanie Washington by a Hamden and Yale police officer in New Haven showed that Hamden and New Haven need to figure out how to coordinate policing in Newhallville and southern Hamden, he said. New Haven’s animal shelter, he said, needs work, and Hamden doesn’t have one. Perhaps that could be an area for collaboration. And, of course, the two municipalities might need to work together to address their financial woes.
At one point, Elicker stood talking with Lauren Garrett, who like Elicker challenged an incumbent in a Democraticmayoral primary this year. Garrett challenged Hamden Mayor Leng, and lost. Elicker defeated incumbent New Haven Mayor Toni Harp (whose name remains on the Nov. 5 general election ballot on the Working Families Party line).
Once many of the guests were done eating, the dancing began in earnest, prompted by someone turning off the lights.
Hamden Democratic Town Committee Vice Chair Cherlyn Poindexter (pictured above) held up the center of the dance floor.
Elicker, too, ventured onto the dance floor, holding his daughter Molly by the hand as they navigated the floor.
Then the lights came back on and the music stopped. Valerie Horsley, who is running in Hamden’s fourth Legislative Council district, took the microphone. She and a group of other supporters had pooled funds to get Porter a gift, because she’s their “shero.” The gift? A portrait by Connecticut Tina Duryea.
Duryea paints portraits of female politicians. She usually paints federal politicians. Porter just became her first local politician subject.
Porter took the portrait and hugged each of the gift givers. She looked down at it and laughed. “Wow,” she exclaimed. “it looks like me!”
“As long as I can breathe you can count on me to fight the good fight,” she told the crowd. Tonight, she said, “we’re partying for a purpose.”
She kept her remarks short. “Thank you, God bless you, and let’s get back to partying,” she finished.
Morton pressed play on Diana Ross.
I’m coming out. I want to the world to know. Got to let it show ..
