Presidential Campaign

Dems Mobilize For National, State Races

by | Oct 5, 2020 9:22 am | Comments (7)

Canvassers including Feldman (below) at Dixwell HQ kick-off.

Laura Glesby Photos

Abby Feldman is about to move to Philadelphia for October to knock on doors for Joe Biden — and she’s a little nervous about uprooting her life for a month.

But if there was ever an election to temporarily pull up stakes for, this upcoming presidential race is it, she said. The time is now.”

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DNC Diary: Get In “Good Trouble,” And Vote

by | Aug 21, 2020 11:43 am | Comments (7)

Darryl Brackeen Jr. photo

At Dunkin’ Donuts Park in person for the virtual DNC watch party.

Below is the fourth and final DNC 2020 diary entry submitted by Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr., who is a delegate at this year’s national party convention. The convention took place almost entirely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Click here, here and here to read the first three entries.

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Postal Workers Protest National Slowdown

by | Aug 20, 2020 3:29 pm | Comments (13)

Ko Lyn Cheang photo

Al Alston, a Wallingford postal worker, at Thursday’s protest.

A steep slowdown in mail processing isn’t just the subject of a red-hot national political debate for Al Alston.

The Wallingford postal worker has seen that reality play out first hand at the station he works at in the New Haven suburbs — where he’s seen massive backlogs caused by two mail sorting machines dismantled and left unused, as well as by his fellow mail carriers losing overtime pay.

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Poll Workers Outnumber Voters; 4,700+ Vote Absentee; Some Ballots Never Came

by , , and | Aug 11, 2020 10:28 pm | Comments (18)

Paul Bass Photo

Oliver Augustine and Kanesha Crenshaw staff the Ward 25 Republican check-in table at Edgewood School: 16-hour shift, only 22 actual Republicans showing up.

Paul Bass, Ko Lyn Cheang Photos

Top row: Alder Adam Marchand, Democratic Co-Chair Janis Underwood outside Edgewood School Ward 25 polls; inside, poll worker Trish Welfare came prepared with PPE. Bottom row: Rose DeMatteo, Andrea Offutt-Miller and Selina Hobby begin tabulating absentee ballots at 200 Orange St. after noon on Tuesday.

(Updated) Joe Biden and Donald Trump will have to wait at least two days to find out precisely how many votes they won in New Haven Tuesday against candidates who aren’t running against them for president.

Meanwhile, platoons of poll workers spent 16 hours at 40 polling stations in town where they mostly outnumbered the people who entered to vote — when any voters were present at all.

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Safety Measures In Place For Primary Election

by | Jul 3, 2020 6:04 pm | Comments (1)

Thomas Breen Photo

Registrar Evans: Focus on keeping people safe.

New Haven voters who turn out for the Aug. 11 presidential primaries can expect to see some changes: Poll workers will wear protective gowns and masks. They will hold the door so voters don’t have to touch the handle. Someone will squirt sanitizer into their hands. Poll workers’ temperatures will be taken. Voters will have to maintain six feet distance from each other.

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Local Donors Pour $900K+ Into Prez Race

by | Mar 6, 2020 2:43 pm | Comments (4)

Thomas Breen photos / Wikimedia Commons photos

New Haven donors’ picks, in order: Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and (in a distant fifth) Joe Biden.

Elizabeth Warren may no longer be running — but she still sits comfortably atop the list of presidential candidates to whom New Haveners have donated over the past year.

Hamden donors, meanwhile, have directed most of their contributions to Warren’s progressive erstwhile rival, Bernie Sanders.

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Billionaire Dem Argues For (Some) Money In Politics

by | Feb 10, 2020 1:06 pm | Comments (1)

Thomas Breen photo

Tom Steyer: Good billionaire?

Concord, N.H.—Politically engaged billionaires who are committed to good deeds can use their incredible wealth to counter the civic harm done by other politically engaged billionaires who are only in it for themselves.

So argued a politically engaged billionaire who’s self-funding a longshot bid to become the Democratic nominee for president.

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Amy Seizes Campaign “Klomentum”

by | Feb 9, 2020 11:39 pm | Comments (7)

Thomas Breen Photos

Klobuchar discusses Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with Joanna …

… then dives into some poutine.

Manchester, N.H.— Amy Klobuchar is having a moment, just in time for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. A diner discussion with 6‑year-old Joanna Vachon and an SRO college rally showed how she is making connections with voters still looking for a candidate to support on Tuesday.

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Are Pro-Life Dems Welcome?

by | Feb 8, 2020 8:10 pm | Comments (3)

Lucy Gellman photo / Thomas Breen photo

Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders: Different views on “pro-life Democrats.”

Concord, N.H.—Is there room for pro-life Democrats” in the Democratic Party of 2020?

Depends on whom you ask. The ascendant Midwestern moderate in the race for the party’s presidential nomination sees plenty of room for future former Republicans.” The leading progressive candidate is not so sure.

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Dems Differ On Supreme Court Fixes

by | Feb 8, 2020 7:59 pm | Comments (2)

Breen/Gellman Photos

Supreme Suggestions (clockwise from top left): Yang: 18-year terms; Klobuchar: Cameras; Sanders: Rotate judges; Buttigieg: 15 on bench.

Attendees at Saturday’s forum.

Concord, N.H.—The Supreme Court is broken — politicized, co-opted by right-wing extremists, weighed down by lifetime appointees.

Democratic presidential candidate after candidate at a primary campaign forum here today agreed on that diagnosis. They differed on what the next president should do about it.

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Dyed-In-Wool Socialist Leads Biden Trek

by | Jan 22, 2020 5:15 pm | Comments (7)

Sam Gurwitt Photo

Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants: New Haven’s Marty Dunleavy (right) with Hamden’s Walter Morton on the Biden trail.

Peterborough, N.H. — Marty Dunleavy wore a thick, baggy pair of dark-green plaid wool pants as he stood outside of Mary Maughan’s door. They were not stylish. But they did the job: They protected their wearer from an icy wind, as they have done in every presidential campaign since 2000.

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Progressives’ Pitch: Movement vs. “Bulldog”

by | Jan 13, 2020 5:20 pm | Comments (7)

New Haven Sanders supporters at Manchester pre-canvass session.

Sam Gurwitt Photos

Hamden State Rep. Elliott hits trail for Warren.

Hooksett, N.H.— Four years ago, Joshua Elliott trudged through the snowbanks lining New Hampshire’s twisting roads in hopes of helping Bernie Sanders become the next U.S. President. Elliott and fellow campaigners then started a local revolution back home by electing him to Connecticut’s legislature.

Elliott was back knocking on New Hampshire doors Sunday — but this time for Elizabeth Warren, Sanders’ chief progressive opponent in the upcoming first-in-the-nation Democratic presidential primary.

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Trump Era Begins With Tear Gas, Division

by | Jan 23, 2017 1:30 pm | Comments (16)

Lucy Gellman Photo

That’s not fog on the Capitol streets.

Washington, D.C. — A crowd of around 150 protesters was midway through a chant of No justice/ No Peace!/ No racist/ Police!” in the northwest quarter of the city when the sound of a cannon pierced the grey sky behind them.

Pink smoke filled the air. Another loud boom rang across Massachusetts Avenue. This time, people started running, pulling bandannas over their faces as they darted past mounted police.

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Inauguration Day Strikers Show Solidarity

by | Jan 20, 2017 9:00 pm | Comments (1)

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Protesters of all stripes took to the streets to resist the incoming administration.

They were Latino, black, U.S. citizens and the undocumented. They were LGBTQIA and people with disabilities. They were white allies and women, immigrants of all nationalities. They were of no religion and they were Muslim.

And at a protest that marched from City Hall and through downtown New Haven, they were all welcome.

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We Can Defend Our City, & Our Nation

by | Nov 11, 2016 1:24 pm | Comments (21)

Michelle Liu Photo

A scene from Thursday night’s downtown rally.

(Opinion) —I am one of the 86 percent of New Haveners who voted for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. I know many of you shared my progression of thought that day starting around 5 p.m. The election was in the bag. I would gather with close friends for dinner, a beer, and to watch our nation proudly reject the pouty, red-faced clown-candidate, along with the worldwide trend toward xenophobic nationalism. We would reaffirm that the United States is one of the most inclusive, welcoming, and — yes — moral countries in the world. As returns started to come in, that sense of triumph quickly turned to nervousness, anxiety, and disillusion.

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