Incumbent Dems Clinch Cove Endorsements

Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola narrowly beat back a challenge from a Tweed airport expansion critic to win his neighborhood’s Democratic Party endorsement for reelection — as Mayor Justin Elicker coasted in a crowded field towards securing that same East Shore party-insider group’s support — in the first votes to take place this municipal election year.

That was the outcome of Wednesday night’s meeting of the Ward 18 Democratic Ward Committee in the Nathan Hale School cafeteria at 480 Townsend Ave.

More than 70 Morris Covers and Democratic politicos from across the city convened inside the school building to cast their ballots for which local candidates to support in the run-up to the city’s Democratic Town Committee convention on Tuesday, July 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Betsy Ross School Parish House at 150 Kimberly Ave.

Those votes will help determine which candidates for local office will win the party’s endorsement at the citywide convention later this month.

They will also determine which candidates’ names will appear at the top of the ballot during the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.

Which in turn will help determine which candidates will be the official Democratic Party nominees for elected positions like mayor and alder and city/town clerk during the Nov. 9 general election.

Which, in a city where registered Democrats have an overwhelming numerical advantage over Republicans and independents, is often decisive of who will be elected and take office next year.

Wednesday’s meeting marked the first time this municipal election season that neighborhood-level Democratic Party insiders formally voted on candidates running for local office. All 30 ward committee across the city are slated to take straw-poll votes in the coming two weeks before the Democratic citywide convention.

And, at least according to the 44 Morris Cove Democratic Ward Committee members who showed up to participate on Wednesday, the two incumbents running for mayor and neighborhood alder have the party’s support — with the latter’s standing quite a bit more precarious than the former’s.

DeCola — a six-term Ward 18 incumbent and retired postal carrier who serves on the Board of Alders leadership as the local legislature’s so-called ​“third officer” — won 23 votes to challenger Susan Campion’s 21. 

Campion is a former Ward 18 committee co-chair and healthcare advocate who serves as the president of the Connecticut Association of Addiction Professionals. She’s running in part on opposition to a larger Tweed New Haven Airport and its associated negative environmental impacts, at least according to comments made by the two Morris Cove neighbors who nominated her for aldermanic office during Wednesday’s meeting. 

DeCola played a key role in brokering the final alder-approved 43-year Tweed expansion deal two years ago, and has argued that Tweed is a citywide service that Morris Covers have to realistically reckon with and find ways to mitigate the harm of without outright blocking it, in the same way that neighbors to Union Station have to deal with the sounds of trains late at night and the neighbors to I‑95 have to deal with the noise and air pollution of highway traffic.

Elicker, a two-term incumbent who also has supported a larger Tweed airport, won 23 votes of support on Wednesday night for another term as mayor. Among his Democratic mayoral challengers, retired police sergeant Shafiq Abdussabur (who has made a play for the East Shore’s support) came in a distant second with 8 votes, former legal aid attorney Liam Brennan brought in 7, and ex-McKinsey consultant Tom Goldenberg landed 6.

Incumbent City Clerk Michael Smart also overwhelmingly defeated Democratic challenger Robert Lee to win the committee’s unanimous endorsement, 44 to 0.

After an extended period of hugs and handshakes and schmoozing among the candidates and neighborhood Democratic Party stalwarts, Ward 18 Committee Co-Chairs Lisa Bassani and Nicholas Colavolpe called the meeting to order at around 7:30 p.m.

They opened the floor of nomination speeches for alder, with Colavolpe going first to back his friend and party colleague DeCola.

For DeCola: "We Stick Together"

“I’d like to nominate Sal DeCola for our alder from the 18th ward,” Colavolpe said. ​“I’ve worked with him for almost 12 years now. We stick together. He’s there 24/7. You can call him. He answers and calls everybody back.”

And that was that.

A fellow committee member named Loretta (pictured) seconded DeCola’s nomination. ​“He has been there for all of us,” she said about the current alder. ​“Every time you call him, he’s there. Every time there’s a problem, he takes care of it.”

For Campion: "The Status Quo Is Not OK"

Jules Scanley then stood up to nominate DeCola’s challenger, Campion, for the Ward 18 aldermanic seat.

“She has the passion, commitment, the intelligence, and the interpersonal skills to speak up for Ward 18,” he said. ​“And not just to speak up, but make a difference.”

A native New Havener and licensed alcohol and drug specialist, Campion previously worked as the director of Cornell Scott Hill Health Center’s HIV/AIDS division and was awarded the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADC) Award of Advocate of the Year in 2022.

“She’s worked tirelessly to prevent the expansion of Tweed,” Scanley said, and was a founding member of the anti-Tweed-expansion environmental advocacy group 10,000 Hawks.

“The status quo is not OK. We don’t just go with what’s known. Sometimes we have to give this community a chance.”

Glenn Scheneman (pictured) agreed as he seconded Campion’s nomination.

In regards to Campion’s work opposing the expansion of the airport, Scheneman said, ​“A lot of us moved to this area because there is a lot of greenspace. We all like the greenspace. We all like the water. And I know that Susan will be a crusader for our environment to help keep it cleaner and nicer and safer.”

“She’s got the skills and the kindness that’s necessary to do this job,” he said.

Final Vote: "Very Close"

And with that, having already heard from the mayoral candidates at a Zoomed committee-hosted forum on Sunday (which in turn followed an East Shore Community Management Team-hosted mayoral candidate forum in April), the Ward 18 Democratic Ward Committee members filed towards Bassani’s and Colavolpe’s table to pick up paper ballots and cast their votes.

As Bassani explained, Wednesday night’s committee votes were binding for alder and advisory for mayor in regards to who the committee co-chairs will support at the July 25 citywide Democratic convention.

After nearly four dozen committee members filled out their paper ballots and passed them along to the co-chairs, Bassani and Colavolpe retreated to a table towards the back of the cafeteria to undertake the official count.

The final votes were ​“very close” in the alder race, Colavolpe said as he announced DeCola’s two-vote win.

After the meeting concluded, DeCola welcomed the narrow endorsement and pledged to continue working ​“with the ones that have concerns [about Tweed]” and keep trying to have a ​“civil conversation” about mitigating whatever negative impacts a larger airport has on the neighborhood.

“I know it’s in our backyard,” he said, ​“but it’s for the whole city.”

Elicker also described the vote of support he received from the committee, especially in an area where Tweed has been such a hot topic for debate, as ​“a good sign” for his reelection campaign.

Campion, meanwhile, was equally heartened by the 21 votes she pulled in on Wednesday.

Sure, she didn’t win the committee’s endorsement then and there, but she said she far outperformed what she and her supporters expected in her intra-party run against such a long-standing incumbent.

Asked if she still plans to run for Ward 18 alder in the Democratic primary — which, since she won’t get the town committee’s endorsement at the convention, will require her to petition her way onto the ballot — Campion said, assuredly, yes.

“We did beautifully” tonight, Campion said. ​“We will run, and we will win.”