A push-poller from an outfit called National Opinion Research called some voters at home Monday night to trash mayoral candidate Toni Harp. Who could have hired the trash-talker?
Mayoral candidate Henry Fernandez? Nope, Fernandez said. He’s not even conducting polls. And “we have never asked any questions about any of our opponents ever in any of our phone bank operations,” he added.
Mayoral candidate Justin Elicker? Nope, not me, Elicker insisted.
Mayoral candidate Kermit Carolina? Carolina doesn’t even do phone polls, he said. “I don’t have the money to do that — so you know it didn’t come from me! I’m running in the clean-elections [program]; 94 percent of my funds come from city residents in small contributions. We don’t have that kind of money to throw around.
Harp campaign manager Jason Bartlett said his camp didn’t conduct Monday night’s poll, either. “About a month ago we did a benchmark poll and tested her negatives. We tried to gauge that. That was well over a month ago,” Bartlett said.
Somebody apparently paid push-pollers to ask voters Monday night for whom they intended to vote in the Sept. 10 Democratic mayoral primary; then proceeded to ask questions about Harp, and no other candidates.
Here’s how one recipient of the call transcribed those questions:
“If I told you that state Sen. Toni Harp’s family was the biggest slumlord in New Haven, keeping properties in terrible conditions, including a property at 91 Rosette St., would you be far less likely to vote for her, somewhat less likely, or not affected at all?”
“If I told you that state Sen. Toni Harp’s family is the biggest tax scofflaw in the state of Connecticut, owing more than $1 million in back taxes, would you be far less likely to vote for her, somewhat less likely, or not affected at all?”
Click here to read a story about Harp’s son’s real-estate business.
Carolina pointed out that it would appear that one of the other candidates must have paid for the push poll.
“I hope this isn’t the kind of lying that voters have to look forward to,” he remarked.
“We have men behaving badly, some worse than the others. We call on people to stop negative campaigning, period,” Jason Bartlett said.
The Alternative-To-Harp Race
Justin Elicker received a letter the other day praising his record as an alderman — and urging him to vote for Henry Fernandez for mayor.
The direct-mail piece, sent to Westville and East Rock Democrats, reflects how in some ways the Sept. 10 primary is a run-off election — and one in which second place might prove the most important result.
Three of the four Democratic mayoral candidates — all but Toni Harp — have secured independent ballot slots for the Nov. 5 general election. That means they have the option to continue running in the general election even if they lose the Democratic primary.
With more than 18,000 registered independent voters in New Haven, a candidate who loses the primary would still have a shot at winning enough fresh votes to prevail in the general election.
That scenario has been very much on all the candidates’ minds. The candidates are all hoping to win the primary. But if Harp wins, as expected, the others are hoping to emerge as the clear second-place winner — and thus enter the general election as the leading contender for the anti-Harp and anti-Democratic-establishment vote.
In East Rock and Westville, two of the three highest-voting neighborhoods in town, Elicker and Fernandez have already been contending for that mantle. Many voters in those two neighborhoods have been reporting trying to choose between the two. (Click here to read a story about that.) Voters in those two neighborhoods received a letter this past weekend from eight supporters of Fernandez’s campaign. Four of the signatories — Ana Maria Rivera, Paul Wessel, Bruce Shapiro, and Margaret Spillane — live in East Rock. Three — Stephen Wizner, Rachel Wizner, and Robin Golden — live in Westville. (The eighth, Sandra Trevino, runs Junta for Progressive Action and lives on the East Shore.)
The letter trumpets Fernandez as the most experienced candidate ready to “bring our city together and get things done, “a leader who can inspire and manage,” a Yale law grad whose “family is African-American, white and Latino.” (Fernandez’s mother is white, his father, black; he is married to Kica Matos.)
Then the letter addressed the support Elicker has picked up. The letter doesn’t mention Harp.
“Some of our friends are supporting Justin Elicker, who has been an energetic voice on the Board of Aldermen,” the letter argues. “Justin Elicker has a fine future but he lacks the broad support necessary to win this election and the experience to be mayor. If we divide our votes between these two capable candidates, we will not end up with the mayor New Haven needs.”
Maybe it's a private resident of New Haven making these calls, terrified with he prospect of another tired old politician running a city in desperate need of fresh ideas.