Progressive Opponents Make Final Pitches

John Motley was in the mood for conversation when a 26-year-old would-be state senator knocked on his door. He wasn’t the only one.

Motley asked the candidate, Justin Farmer, to guess his age — which turned out more than twice Farmer’s. Then, when Farmer told him about his candidacy in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for state senator, Motley responded: ​“Why should I care?”

It was an invitation, not a rebuke. Both Farmer and Jorge Cabrera, the two candidates in the primary for the Democratic nomination for the 17th State Senate District seat, spent Saturday making final arguments to voters in Hamden. And they found people ready to talk about the one truly contested race on Tuesday’s ballot in the region.

In much of the region, voters will cast ballots only for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, contests that have in essence long since ended.

But the 17th State Senate primary is hotly contested. It pits two Hamden progressives against each other in the quest to challenge Republican incumbent State Sen. George Logan in the Nov. 3 general election.

On the doors Saturday, Farmer cast himself as a herald of a new generation ready to solve the decades-old problems of a diverse district. Cabrera cast himself as an experienced labor organizer and fighter for the area’s struggling working families.

The district encompasses Derby, Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, and parts of Hamden, Woodbridge, and Naugatuck. Polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters who have absentee ballots can also drop them off at Town Hall. (Click here to find out where to vote.)

Both Cabrera and Farmer live in Hamden. Both identify themselves as progressives.

When it came to asking voters for their support Saturday, their respective pitches varied significantly in tone, if not necessarily in content.

Cabrera ran for the same seat two years ago, and lost by only 77 votes in the general election to incumbent Republican Sen. George Logan. Logan is running for reelection this year.

Cabrera works as a business representative at United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 919, where he represents Stop & Shop and some retail workers. He has piled up endorsements from labor organizations in the region, including from the Connecticut AFL-CIO, the Connecticut Working Families Party, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Connecticut, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 4, and a number of local unions.

Cabrera has the backing of many of the long-serving members of Hamden’s Democratic Party like Mayor Curt Leng and Council Majority Leader Berita Rowe-Lewis. Cabrera also has the endorsements of a number of politicians and Democratic Town Committees in other parts of the district.

Farmer just turned 26, and is in his second term on the Hamden Legislative Council. He is one of the leaders of an active left flank of the town’s Democratic Party that has criticized the handling of town finances and agitated for robust police reform. He shows up to nearly every justice or equity-related event in Hamden or New Haven, and led many of the regions protests in the wake of the George Floyd murder. Farmer has won the endorsements of a number of youth-led progressive groups in the area, including the Sunrise Movement and the Democratic Socialists of America (both national and local), and more recently from Connecticut Young Democrats and Planned Parenthood.

Regionalism, Green New Deal, Puns

When Farmer approached John Motley’s house close to Centreville in Hamden Saturday, Claire Timmis was just pulling a stack of papers out of the mailbox for Motley.

“I am Justin Farmer, and I’m running for State Senate,” Farmer began.

“Ah, Justin!” replied Timmis. She pulled out a large mailer from the mailbox.

“Is this you?” she asked, pointing to Farmer’s face grinning out from the front of the card.

With the headphones he wears to help him manage Tourette’s Syndrome, and his signature blue button-down with a tie (even on the hottest days), Farmer is easy to recognize.

“It’s a great mailer,” Timmis told Farmer.

Farmer was canvassing with his communications director, Fiona Drenttel. The two of them followed Timmis up the driveway to the door, where they waited for Motley to emerge. He leaned on a crutch, his foot in a cast. When he came to the door, he peered down at the mailer, then up at Farmer.

“That’s you?” he said with a mischievous smile. ​“You’re a Republican? You better get off my lawn if not.”

Timmis rolled her eyes at the joke and Farmer laughed.

“Tell me about yourself. Where you from? Who your people?” Motley asked.

“I am Justin Farmer, I am 26 years young…” Farmer began

“Oh now you’re going with the age thing. Justin, how old am I?” Motley asked.

Farmer paused to summon his politician’s tact. He guessed 58.

He was 20 years shy.

Farmer explained that he has been in town hall fighting for his southern Hamden district, fighting to fix the town’s financial problems and smooth the town’s inequities.

That’s when Motley prompted Farmer to tell him why he should care.

Farmer told Motley about how there have been three shootings in the last three weeks in his immediate neighborhood. Then when he goes and talks to voters in Derby, Ansonia, Naugatuck, and other towns in the district, voters tell him they feel disenfranchised just like the people he knows down the street from his house.

The towns in the 17th District often point fingers at each other, he said, and they all need more resources. Hamden had to cut its education budget this year because of its tough financial position. But at the same time, Greenwich gets state aid it doesn’t need, has a comparatively tiny tax rate, and has well-funded schools.

The communities in the 17th District need to understand that they’re the same community, he said, and fight for what they need. That will mean getting more from wealthy towns like Greenwich.

“You’re very impressive,” said Motley. ​“I love what you’ve said in the last few minutes.”

“It’s not just talking points,” Farmer began.

“Here, let me give you a piece of advice,” Motley said. ​“When someone gives you a compliment, you just let it ride.”

Farmer laughed and nodded.

“Ok, we got your mailer. What do we do now?” Motley asked.

Farmer told Motley that since he has an absentee ballot, he should drive to Hamden Government Center and drop it off in the ballot drop box there, since it is close enough to the election that if he mailed it, it might not arrive in time.

It was not the only long conversation Farmer had Saturday morning. Perhaps it was the fact that the heat had not yet picked up, or the fact that Farmer was canvassing a neighborhood with older residents who were not as pressed for time. But whatever the reason, people were in the mood for conversations.

Farmer said he usually canvasses with Drenttel. Since he is the candidate, he said, it helps to have someone else around to provide perspective. Farmer also doesn’t have a car, so Drenttel drove him to the turf he walked Saturday.

At each house, Drenttel told Farmer the name of the person he was looking for.

“Kevin,” she said at one house.

“Kevin Bacon?” Farmer asked.

“Yes, Kevin Bacon lives in Hamden,” Drenttel replied sarcastically.

“Well I better not put my foot in my mouth, because then it would be loose,” Farmer fired back. ​“Footloose.”

Farmer makes a pun at ​“a significant portion of houses,” Drenttel said. ​“Not every single one, though.”

Indeed, he did manage to make a pun or some joke at every opportunity. ​“Whose feet? Our feet!” he said as the two walked down the street, echoing the common protest chant, ​“Whose streets? Our streets!”

He waved his hands like a conductor as he listened to the musical jingle of one doorbell. He used the same ​“ra tat ta-tat tat. Tat tat,” rhythm whenever he rapped his knuckles against a door.

“Oh, Justin!” said Christopher Maiuri as he opened the door after Farmer’s signature knock. ​“We already put in our ballot, and we did vote for you,” he told Farmer.

Farmer asked if Maiuri had any questions. Maiuri asked Farmer to name his top three goals.

First is a green new deal, replied Farmer. That could include community choice aggregation, where municipalities or groups of municipalities manage their electricity sourcing, to lower electricity prices and save energy (CCAs have been a controversial item in Hamden, with Farmer advocating for them and others less convinced about their benefits). To prevent the power outage that has left many in the region without power days after Tropical Storm Isaias, a green new deal could also mean undergrounding electrical wires, said Farmer. It’s expensive, but it’s a long-term investment in resiliency, he said.

Second will be transportation, Farmer said. Hamden could have a train station on the Hartford line, making it easier for people in town to access other parts of the state, and bringing commerce. There need to be more bus routes, he said, pointing to the fact that it’s nearly impossible to get from where Maiuri lives to Amity, though it’s not that far as the crow flies.

His third priority would be schools, Farmer said. The state currently underfunds Hamden based on its own municipal aid formulas. He said he would fight to get more resources for communities like Hamden and other towns in the district that really need them. Again, he invoked Greenwich, which is one of the wealthiest places on the planet but still saps state resources.

Farmer said he tells the same ​“truth” wherever he goes, but the part of that truth he tells varies based on where he is or what the voter asks. In Woodbridge, for instance, he would tell people about the shootings that take place in his neighborhood, or about the man he spoke to in Ansonia who is underwater on his house.

In Derby, he said, he tells people that the issues there are the same ones he sees in his own neighborhood just north of the border with New Haven.

He already represents a diverse district, he told one voter. The town’s fifth district encompasses the low-income mostly black and brown neighborhoods between Dixwell Avenue and Prospect Street, as well as the mostly white and wealthy North Edgehill and Whitneyville neighborhoods. He said he knows what it means to represent diverse interests and find commonalities across neighborhoods.

Farmer is a student at Southern Connecticut State University, but has taken the last few semesters off because of his political work. This fall, he said, he will return to school whether he wins or loses on Tuesday.

Back in the car, with Drenttel, Farmer took a call from a voter asking about his youth services platform. That meant he couldn’t listen to the wisdom of Jamaican-British reggae artist Macka B, who Farmer and Drenttel said has been a regular in their soundtrack of the last few days — in particular, his short songs about the virtues of various fruits and vegetables.

It had been the cucumber on the way to Saturday’s canvass.

“Vitamins, minerals, very high number,” the singer advises in the song.

Farmer said that after the campaign, he’s be eating a lot of cucumbers — he’ll need the vitamins.

Last week, Farmer appeared in an interview with Valley Independent Sentinel Editor Eugene Driscoll. Watch the interview below.

Champion Of Working Families

A short while later, Cabrera set out for an early afternoon packet further south, among the streets just north of Woodin Street. The heat had picked up and there were few trees in the neighborhood to offer shade.

Cabrera, who is 46, was alone. He had 70 doors to knock in his packet.

He said it’s always a balance trying to have good conversations with voters, and also trying to get through the whole list. He moved quickly on Saturday.

Perhaps it was the heat or the younger demographic he was canvassing, but he didn’t need to worry about staying too long anywhere. Conversations were mostly short and efficient.

He stepped about ten feet away from each door after knocking. When the door opened, he smiled and began: ​“Hi, I’m Jorge Cabrera. I’m running for state senate.”

As they had recognized Farmer, many voters recognized Cabrera.

“I voted for you already,” Bancroft Nicholson said from his doorway after Cabrera introduced himself.

“Oh thank you,” Cabrera replied. ​“How’s the family doing? Did you guys lose power here?”

No, Nicholson replied, the storm had not affected his street the way it had some neighborhoods that are still without power.

“Yeah, I’m calling for an investigation into Eversource and UI,” Cabrera said.

Nicholson nodded. ​“They didn’t prepare,” he said.

“We’re going to hold them accountable,” Cabrera continued.

On Friday, Cabrera posted a video on his campaign Facebook page calling for an investigation into the state’s two electric facilities for their response and apparent lack of preparation for Tuesday’s tropical storm.

A cool breeze shook the leaves in a tree in Nicholson’s yard as Cabrera walked away. ​“When you’re bald, there’s advantages and disadvantages,” he said with a smile. ​“A cool breeze like this means a whole heck of a lot.”

Why Health Insurance Matters

Cabrera got a similar reception from Veronica Roberson (pictured above).

“Hey, I know you,” she said through the glass of her front door when she saw Cabrera.

Cabrera asked if she was planning on voting. She already had, absentee, she said. And she voted for Carbera.

“I found that he’s truly for helping out the community,” she said when asked why she had decided to vote for him. ​“He’s interested in healthcare and trying to help working families and make it suitable for everyone to live in a decent way.”

Healthcare is one of the most common issues voters bring up with him at the doors, Cabrera said as he walked. He hears stories about sick family members and mountains of medical bills wherever he goes. Sometimes he hears about people having to take second jobs to pay for what their insurance won’t cover, or to pay for the insurance itself.

The stories he hears from voters are similar to those he hears from the workers he represents in the union, for whose healthcare he led a strike last year. Those stories are similar to his own experience growing up, when his mother was in the hospital frequently and his family had bad insurance. His father had to work an extra job sometimes to pay for it, he said.

This year, his wife was diagnosed with stage-one colon cancer. The doctors caught it early. She went in for surgery and has recovered well.

Thanks to Cabrera’s job, his family has excellent health insurance that paid for the entire operation.

If it hadn’t, he said, he doesn’t know what the family would have done. The surgery cost $78,000. Even paying for a quarter of that would have meant doing some sort of financing plan.

When voters ask him about healthcare, he said, he tells them that he’s been fighting for good healthcare for workers for 25 years, and that he would continue to fight in the legislature. He said he would join Sen. Matt Lesser and Rep. Sean Scanlon, who introduced legislation last year to create a public option in the state.

He said voters also talk about taxes. Taxes are too high, and the services they get don’t measure up to those crushing bills, they tell him.

Cabrera said he tells voters that he will work to raise income taxes on the top income earners in the state, close loopholes, and tax wealthy hedge funds.

He also tells voters that he would work on creating well-paying jobs in the district. With more people receiving living wages, there would be a wealthier tax base, meaning taxes could decrease. That’s why he’s gotten the endorsements of so many local skilled trade unions, he said.

Finally, voters talk about education. He said he hears the stories of people who feel their kids’ schools are underfunded, or who are living at home after college with mountains of debt.

“I try to do a lot of listening,” Cabrera said about his approach to door knocking. ​“I just share my values and what I’ve been fighting for for 25 years.”

He said his approach doesn’t really vary based on where he is. He has been out canvassing every day, from 4 p.m. until sundown on weekdays after work, and all day on weekends, and he has been both in Hamden and all over the Naugatuck Valley.

Last week, Cabrera also did an interview with the Eugene Driscoll and the Valley Indy. Watch that interview below. Scroll further for a recent debate between Cabrera and Farmer.