A generation of political understudies stormed New Haven’s historic tryout theater in search of the roles of a lifetime.
They came to the Shubert on College Street from Hartford, Middletown, West Hartford, Ridgefield. They schmoozed and recited their rehearsed monologues to the crowd at a holiday party thrown by New Haven’s Democratic Town Committee. With 81 delegates, that town committee will have the largest bloc of votes at the 2010 state convention that picks the party’s choices for governor, secretary of state, and U.S. senator.
The aspiring lead political actors were all Democratic elected officials from around the state — stuck-in place state legislators, municipal bosses, constitutional officers — who sense that a once-in-a-generation moment has arrived to hit the spotlight.
New Haven Town Chairwoman Susie Voigt, who organized the event, read aloud the full Playbill of visiting political actors and vowed to help deliver the vote to elect whoever emerges as the party candidates next November.
“Some call it a machine,” she said. “I say, ‘It’s our machine in New Haven… I’m proud of it.”
All the aspiring leading ladies and men at Tuesday’s party were Democrats. Most have held middle-level elected offices in Connecticut for, in some cases, decades. They’ve waited for higher offices to open up — legions of ambitious Baby Boomers banging their heads against a ceiling. One U.S. Senator has held office for 30 years, the other 22. Popular Republicans (and a Republican-turned-Independent) have held the governor’s office since 1990.
Now some offices are opening up, and the Boomers are rushing to fill the void. Popular Gov. M. Jodi Rell decided not to run for reelection; and Democrats believe they have a real shot at occupying that office for the first time since 1986.
Retired Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy (pictured getting acquainted with New Haven economic development official Chrissy Bonanno, a staffer for a rival 2006 gubernatorial campaign) has been running hard for the governor’s nomination since earlier this year, making many stops in New Haven. So he didn’t miss Monday’s event, of course.
Nor did Susan Bysiewicz—who has had her eye on the governor’s job since she was first elected secretary of the state in 1998. She’s also running (in the “exploratory” phase) for governor this year …
… which has opened up the secretary of state job for the first time in 12 years. At least three Democrats hoping to fill that job showed up at the Shubert, including hometown candidate Gerry Garcia.
Jonathan Harris made it down from West Hartford, where he served as mayor for three years before winning three State Senate terms. Now he’s running for secretary of state, too. “There is a feeling,” Harris said, “that a lot is possible this year.”
State House Majority Leader Denise Merrill (at right in photo) showed up at the party, too — on the very day that she filed papers to run for the secretary of state position. She noted that she has spent 17 years in the state House of Representatives. “I figured if not now, when?” she said of her decision to run. “It’s a generational change. No doubt about it.”Another once-rumored secretary of state candidate announced she may be running for governor instead. That’s Mary Glassman (at left in photo). Only weeks ago she ran for, and won, another term as Simsbury first selectwoman; she has clearly had higher aspirations for years. She was the lieutenant-governor running mate in 2006 of Democratic gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano of New Haven, who is practically the only ambitious Baby Boomer Dem with any statewide recognition not running for higher office this year.
The other gubernatorial hopefuls at the Shubert included one Rudy Marconi (“It’s interesting how many people are saying, ‘Why not?”). Marconi, who’s 61, has spent the last 10 years stranded in Ridgefield as first selectman.
Another gubernatorial hopeful, and health-care reformer and former Hartford State Rep. Juan Figueroa, was at the party. He has not yet announced that he’s running but is expected to soon. (He’s pictured conferring with New Haven Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden. Each of them had a previous life at a national civil rights organization, Figueroa at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, Bolden at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.)
All of the gathered Democrats applauded the night’s keynote speaker, U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd — a Democrat who has held his seat for 30 years, but may very well lose it in 2010 to one of several Baby Boomers (and a national Republican Party) sensing he’s vulnerable.
“Anyone who’s not a candidate,” Dodd asked the crowd, “raise your hand.” Some did.
“Some call it a machine,” Voigt said. “I say, ‘It’s our machine in New Haven… I’m proud of it.” Unless the clunky machine which generally depresses the vote and circumvents democracy, doesn't do what John and I tell it to do and then I overrule it and work against it, she did not add.