Elicker, Walker-Myers Embrace Unexpected Alliance

Mayor Justin Elicker and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers traded words of praise — and even a hug — as the two city leaders stood side by side, to their own surprise, and encouraged local labor advocates to help keep the same ​“team” in office for the next two years.

Elicker and Walker-Myers shared those words of mutual admiration, and that call to election season advocacy, Thursday evening during a rally in Scantlebury Park.

They were joined by City Clerk Michael Smart and 14 fellow Democratic incumbent alders — including Adam Marchand, Troy Streater, Carmen Rodriguez, Evelyn Rodriguez, Ernie Santiago, Evette Hamilton, Ellen Cupo, Richard Furlow, Kampton Singh, Renee Haywood, Brian Wingate, Sal Punzo, Frank Douglass, and Eli Sabin — as well as several dozen members of Yale’s politically influential UNITE HERE unions.

As pickleballers swung their paddles on the nearby courts and little kids frolicked in the splashpad on the southern end of the park, Elicker and Walker-Myers and the other local elected officials urged the UNITE HERE sign-waving attendees to hit the doors on behalf of the incumbents in the runup to the Sept. 12 Democratic primary. 

In particular, the speakers endorsed Elicker’s bid for a third two-year term in office. The event took place one day after Liam Brennan became the only Democratic mayoral challenger to successfully petition his way onto September’s primary ballot to face off against the current mayor.

Over the course of a 20-minute speaking program, the mayor and alders boosted the labor-backed aldermanic slate’s legislative agenda and its focus on good jobs, affordable housing, health equity, environmental justice, and a safe city for all. They also touted the Elicker administration’s accomplishments over the last four years, including working through the Covid-19 pandemic, winning significantly more money from the state and Yale, creating a non-cop crisis response team, passing an inclusionary zoning ordinance and a hotel worker recall bill and the state’s first tenants union law, and directing tens of millions of dollars of federal pandemic relief towards a hodgepodge of housing, vocational technical education, youth engagement, business support, and climate resiliency initiatives. 

“While the challenges of our city are deep,” said Hill Alder Ron Hurt, who served as the rally’s emcee, ​“we also know that by working together we can win transformational victory. When we work, we win.” 

Towards the top of the speaking program, Walker-Myers, a West River alder and chief steward with Yale’s blue-collar Local 35 union who has served as the Board of Alders president since 2015, turned towards the mayor to explain to him — and the crowd before them — why she is backing his bid for reelection.

“I don’t put my support behind people for no reason,” she said. ​“I believe, if somebody gets my support, it’s important. I just want to say to you, Mayor Elicker, that over the last four years, I have seen your growth” as a mayor. She praised him for understanding ​“early the importance of working with the Board of Alders, and [that] your success and our success depend on each other.”

“I’m not saying we’ve done everything and we’ve handled every challenge,” she continued. ​“We have many challenges here in the city. But I believe that, together, we’ve done a great job at addressing the issues that come before us. I want to continue with this team because, when I start something, I like to finish it. I want to make sure that we’re holding not just the administration, but ourselves, accountable. 

“Because we need a bolder vision for this city. We need a bolder vision. And in order to do that, you have to have relationships. And that’s what we’ve been building, and I want to continue because the vision that I have for this city — everybody having a good job, people being able to have quality housing — those are basic rights to me, and I want to continue fighting for those things.”

She promised to continue ​“pushing the mayor,” especially around improving public education. ​“Because I’m passionate and I care a lot about New Haven. I was born and raised here, and I’m going to continue pushing in the areas where I think he need improvement and continue working with him on the things that we do really well together.”

“You probably never thought I’d be here doing this,” Walker-Myers said to Elicker about her speaking up in support his campaign for staying office. ​“But today is your day.”

Elicker smiled with appreciation at Walker-Myers’ words. ​“Can I get a hug?” he asked as she finished her remarks and headed back in line with her aldermanic colleagues. 

The two embraced, to cheers from the crowd.

Elicker returned to that hug when it was his turn to take the mic 15 minutes later.

“I want to in particular note that we’re making history here today, because Alder Walker-Myers, President Walker-Myers, gave me a hug. We’ve got a lot of witnesses here. It’s on video. I can check it off my bucket list now.”

Elicker then offered his own praise for the UNITE HERE union advocates before him — ​“I have a lot of admiration for the work that you’ve done. I’ve really grown in my own thinking and understanding of the kind of impact you have on our city.” — as well as for Walker-Myers herself.

Before becoming mayor, he said, ​“I didn’t truly understand how difficult these things are to accomplish and how important it is for us to work as a team. I saw, before I was mayor, all these folks talk about how great President Walker-Myers was. And at that time I was like, ​‘Yeah yeah yeah…’ ”

But now, he said, he meets with Walker-Myers roughly every three days, in addition to leadership meetings every two weeks. ​“I have realized how strong of a leader she is. It’s important, when you’re trying to get things done, to know where people stand … Time after time after time, President Walker-Myers has told me when she can support something, and when she can’t support something. And every time she’s been honest. And we together, I believe, have worked to accomplish just incredible things over these past four years.”

Elicker then pivoted into a campaign pitch of his own — mixing a celebration of his administration’s accomplishments with indirect critiques of his new-to-the-primary ballot challenger, Brennan, a former federal prosecutor and legal aid attorney and Hartford inspector general who has focused his campaign on a mix of progressive pro-housing and police reform messages.

This election is ​“about experience, getting things done,” Elicker said. ​“It’s not about skipping from job to job to job and then all of a sudden, one day, deciding I want to run for mayor and then running for mayor. It’s the experience of actually getting things done.

“It’s about a track record of being in the community, knocking on doors all over the city … It is about being there in the community not just when you’re running for election, but way before, because people can see through that.”

And, he said, this election is about ​“doing. This is not academia, folks. It’s about action. Ideas are good. Ideas are important. But an idea doesn’t buy you a cup of coffee without action behind it.”