Thomas Breen photo
Getting out the vote on Norton Pkwy.
A New Haven labor vote-puller had two hills to climb in Beaver Hills Tuesday as he sought to lure voters to the polls for an expected low-turnout Democratic Party primary: muggy weather that felt like nearly 100 degrees, and lack of public interest in two intraparty contests for lesser known statewide offices.
His strategy to confront both challenges: Focus local, local, local.
And offer an air-conditioned car ride to the polls if need be.
That vote puller was Jess Corbett, a Norton Street resident who works for UNITE HERE Local 34.
On Tuesday afternoon, Corbett took a break from his day handing out campaign flyers by the Carmel Street entrance to Hillhouse High School’s Ward 28 polling place to knock on doors on Norton Parkway and Moreland Road.
His goal: to encourage his neighbors to go out to the polls before they close at 8 p.m. to cast their votes for the union’s two endorsed candidates running in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary, Erick Russell for state treasurer and Maritza Bond for secretary of the state.
Corbett wasn’t the only UNITE HERE Local 34 worker trying to get voters to the polls Tuesday. According to Local 34’s Eddie Camp, Yale’s clerical and technical workers union — which for the past decade-plus has been a statewide powerhouse for election-day get-out-the-vote operations — alongside the affiliated local labor advocacy group New Haven Rising had 102 volunteers working on primary day.
Those volunteers were tabling outside of the city’s three dozen polling places, making phone calls to prospective voters, and pounding the pavement, knocking on doors — just as Corbett was doing in Beaver Hills.
The state treasurer’s office oversees $45 billion in state assets, including state employee pension investments, while the secretary of the state oversees elections and the state’s business registry.
Russell, a Westville-based lawyer and former state Democratic Party vice-chair who was endorsed by the state party, is running for the Democratic nomination for treasurer against New Haven housing authority chief Karen DuBois-Walton and Wall Street trader Dita Bhargava. Bond is running against state party-endorsed candidate Stephanie Thomas for the Democratic nomination for secretary of the state.
Whoever wins Tuesday’s primaries will then face off against the Republican nominees — Harry Arora for treasurer, and either Dominic Rapini or Terrie Wood for secretary of the state — in November’s general election.
Corbett's campaign flyers.
Gary Gesmonde: "I can't get out in this heat."
Time and again on Tuesday, Corbett encountered the two key potential hurdles when urging his neighbors to cast a ballot.
Gary Gesmonde articulated one of those voting disincentives when he opened the door of his Norton Parkway home just after 1 p.m.
“I can’t get out in this heat,” he said, a gust of cool air-conditioned air sneaking out of his home as Gesmonde held his front door half-opened.
Gesmonde told Corbett that he would vote for Russell and Bond if he did hit the polls. But, at this point in the day, with the heat and humidity as high as they were, that was unlikely.
“Terrible,” he said about the weather.
Can we send an air-conditioned car to take you just around the corner to the polling place at Hillhouse? Corbett asked.
“I don’t think I could get to the corner” in this heat, Gesmonde said.
Corbett continued making the rounds on Norton Parkway, and the neighborhood’s mailman gave a sweaty wave as he continued along his own route, commiserating about the oppressive weather with Corbett.
“This is August in Connecticut!” the mailman said. “We can’t get a break.”
Corbett (at the table) and Isaac Chase pitch Beaver Hills voter Carol on casting her ballot for Bond and Russell.
The primary day roadblock that Corbett encountered more frequently than the heat was a lack of knowledge among prospective voters about who was running and which statewide officers were up for grabs.
A voter who gave her first name as Carol expressed frustration on those grounds when she showed up with her granddaughter to the Hillhouse polling place just before 1 p.m.
She walked up to Corbett and fellow New Haven Rising primary day volunteer Isaac Chase, who were sitting nearby under a tent at a table scattered with campaign materials for Russell and Bond.
“How come a lot of people don’t know about this election?” she asked Corbett.
Corbett replied that he and fellow volunteers have been knocking doors and making calls for Russell and Bond for several weeks. Carol replied that she doesn’t answer the phone when she thinks it’s a spam call.
Nevertheless, she said, she would have liked for her and her neighbors to have gotten more information about these candidates in the runup to Tuesday’s primary. She came out to vote because she knew that there was an election today, even though she didn’t know much about the candidates or offices. She guessed that many of her neighbors likely won’t come out because they just don’t know what’s going on.
Corbett encouraged her to vote for Russell and Bond. He said that both were born and raised in New Haven, both know firsthand the struggles of working class people, and both have promised to support policies that improve the lives of everyday workers. Carol declined to say whom she’d be voting for, though she said she liked the sound of the candidates Corbett had described. She also said she wanted to make sure to vote against the person who was “endorsed by Trump.” (None of the Democratic candidates have been endorsed by Trump, though Leora Levy — a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who is running in a three-way primary on Tuesday — has been.)
Corbett on Moreland Road.
On Moreland Road, retired Hillhouse Principal Lonnie Garris, Jr. was out tending to the garden in front of his home when Corbett asked if he’d be voting in Tuesday’s primary.
“I don’t know too much” about the candidates or offices on the ballot, Garris replied.
“We have a couple of really good candidates from New Haven,” Corbett said. “Erick and Maritza are the best chances we have to get a New Havener elected to state office” this year. He emphasized that Russell grew up in a “neighborhood of need” in the Hill. His parents owned a corner store. “He’s seen struggle,” Corbett said.
And he described how Bond grew up in Fair Haven and has led the city’s health department through the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I’ll make my way down there” to vote later in the afternoon, Garris promised.
He had one more question before confirming that he’d vote for Russell and Bond. “Are they Democrats?”
Yes, Corbett replied, they both are.
Haywood Johnson.
Back on Norton Parkway, Haywood Johnson told Corbett that he didn’t need to stay out in the sun to make a primary-day pitch to him. That’s because Johnson had already cast his vote for Russell and Bond.
Johnson told this reporter that “most people wait for the general election” to vote. He voted earlier on Tuesday, even though this was a primary and not the general election, because “you get a chance to see who you want to make it to the general.”
Were there any candidates he was particularly excited about who are running in the two Democratic Party primaries? “Not in particular,” he said.
How does he feel about having three different New Haveners — Russell, Bond, and DuBois-Walton — running for various statewide offices? Did those hometown affiliations influence his vote at all?
Absolutely, Johnson said. “They understand the area. They have the pulse of the local community.”
Annie Huff.
Annie Huff, another Norton Parkway resident, wound up heading to the polls after Corbett knocked on her door Tuesday afternoon. She too voted for “Erick and Maritza.”
Huff said she was particularly enthused about both candidates having been born and raised in New Haven.
“They know about New Haven,” she said. “They will help us. And New Haven needs help.”
With global warming setting heat wave historical records, the political parties may want to either rethink august primary dates, increase access to mail in absentee ballots, or send around air conditioned voter transportation shuttles to help voters safely get to the polls to vote in the extreme heat.