Streater Wins Ward 21 Alder Race

(Updated) Maceo ​“Troy” Streater ended up on top of a four-way special election for Ward 21 alder, making him the next local legislative representative for a zig-zagged district that stretches across parts of Newhallville, Dixwell, and Prospect Hill.

That was the outcome of Monday’s special election for Ward 21 alder.

The race to fill the seat vacated late last year by Steve Winter included four Democrats: Streater, Fred Christmas, Kendall Hurse, and write-in candidate Anais Nunez.

According to Kevin Arnold from the registrar of voters office, the final tally saw Streater prevail in the aldermanic special election with 125 votes. Christmas came in second with 64 votes, while Hurse and Nunez each received two votes.

“I want to thank all the people who voted for me, and also the ones that didn’t,” Streater told the Independent in a Monday evening phone interview. ​“I’ll be an alder for everyone in the community.”

Asked what his primary focus will be upon taking office, Streater said, ​“We need to focus on this gun violence, strong. We have to eradicate it. We also need to know that this is not just a ward thing. It’s a complete city thing.”

“I’m extremely excited” to be the next Ward 21 alder, he added. ​“I’m up for the task.”

See below for a previous version of this article.

With 4 Choices, Ward 21 Votes

Voters trickled to the polls Monday for a drizzly-day special election to decide who the next alder will be for a zig-zagged district that stretches across parts of Newhallville, Dixwell, and Prospect Hill.

That was the scene Monday morning outside of King-Robinson School at 150 Fournier St., which is the sole polling place open for in-person voting for the special election for Ward 21 alder. Polls are open through 8 p.m. Voters can also drop absentee ballots off at the ballot boxes outside of the municipal office building at 200 Orange St.

There are four candidates, all Democrats, in the race to fill the seat left vacant late last year when Steve Winter stepped down from his local legislative role to become the city’s first director of climate and sustainability.

Those candidates are Fred Christmas, Maceo ​“Troy Streater, and Kendall Hurse, all of whose names are on Monday’s ballot. A fourth candidate, Townsend Street resident Anais Nunez, is running as a write-in. Christmas is the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, having prevailed with five ward committee votes over Streater’s four.

Click here, here, here and here for previous articles about this Ward 21 race. Whoever wins Monday’s race will fill out the rest of Winter’s two-year term, which ends at the end of 2023.

As of around 10:30 a.m. on Monday, only 33 out of the ward’s 2,100 registered voters had cast their ballots in-person at the Fournier Street school polling place. Another 62 voters had submitted absentee ballots to the city clerk’s office by that time.

As a light rain fell from a dark-gray overcast sky, three of the four Ward 21 alder candidates — and, in the case of Streater, more than half a dozen campaign supporters — stood outside the polling place to make last-minute pitches to raincoat-clad voters.

“I feel confident,” said Streater, who works as a counselor at the 180 Center on East Street and whose spare white-and-blue campaign signs blanketed either side of the roadway leading up to the King-Robinson School parking lot. Standing alongside a handful of supporters who huddled underneath a white canvas tent in between making pitches to voters, Streater talked with pride about his work knocking on doors throughout the neighborhood in the runup to Monday’s election.

What are the top issues he’s heard from voters about the biggest issues and challenges facing Ward 21?

“Gun violence is the thing people are complaining about the most,” Streater said. ​“Everyone wants to feel safe” where they live. ​“We have to show the youth the right way.” That means more afterschool programs and more ways to productively engage young people’s time and keep them away from lives of violence.

Streater’s campaign supporters, including Gaylord Salters and Charlie Brown and Patty Durham-Mims, praised their preferred candidate for being born and raised in the Newhallville neighborhood — and for talking openly about the challenges faced by the formerly incarcerated. (Streater, like several of his campaign supporters, served time in prison for a crime he has consistently said he didn’t commit. After serving two decades behind bars, Streater received a state pardon last year.)

“He’s a people person. He’s honest, open-minded,” Durham-Mims said. She and Salters and Brown all said that the number one concern they’ve heard from prospective voters is about ​“a lot of drugs and violence.”

Nearby, Christmas stood in the rain, handing out flyers to voters on their way to the polls.

“It’s slow,” Christmas said about Monday morning’s rainy-day voter turnout. ​“Win or lose,” he said, about his campaign, ​“we all got to be a community.” He said his closing pitch to voters involves thanking them for coming to the polls and pointing to his long track record as a community organizer advocating for safer and cleaner streets. 

Across the street, Nunez held a red-and-blue campaign sign urging voters to back her as a write-in candidate for alder.

A Comcast sales representative who has lived in Dixwell for eight years, Nunez said she’s running for alder because she wants ​“to be a voice for the people.” That means fighting for a ​“safer community” by prioritizing ​“building a strong relationship with the police.”

“People see the police as the enemy,” she said. She said she wants to help change that mindset.

She also wants to see more lighting on dark Dixwell streets, and more services for neighborhood seniors.

Nunez said she’ll run for Ward 21 alder again during the November general election. And while she’s now a Democrat, she’s considering changing her party affiliation to Republican. Why? She said she’s worried about voter fraud and widespread vaccination of young people under the age of 12.

Nunez won at least one vote Monday, from Shelton Avenue resident Richard Dubay.

With an umbrella held above his head, Dubay said he turned out to vote on Monday because ​“one of the privileges in this country” is casting ballots during local, state, and national elections. He said he voted for Nunez because he liked her persistence as a write-in candidate.