Melissa Bailey Photo
Carolina & Elicker confirm at Sunday’s campaign debate.
A third mayoral candidate — Kermit Carolina — has officially qualified for the Democracy Fund, which administers New Haven’s public-financing program.
Ken Krayeske, who administers the fund, certified 207 contributions of at least $10 apiece from New Haveners to Carolina’s campaign, crossing the threshold (200) for participation in the program.
That means Carolina’s campaign will receive an immediate injection of $24,530 from the Fund, of which $19,000 is a one-time grant, the rest matching money. He will also receive future matching grants depending on how much he raises.
The Democracy Fund grants public money to campaigns that agree to limit individual donations to $370 (rather than $1,000) and forswear contributions from outside political committees.
Krayeske announced his certification in an email message Monday morning. He used the occasion to make a point about the process.
“It is worth noting that of Carolina’s 207 qualifying donations, the Democracy Fund will match 152 contributions which were the minimum of $10. This simple statistic shows how candidates like Mr. Carolina’s are helping to achieve the Democracy Fund’s goal of increasing the participation of small dollar donors in mayoral elections,” Krayeske wrote.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
A “Pay for Play” pirate, pictured at a May 7 campaign debate, urged mayoral candidates to reject the Democracy Fund in order to preserve the political dominance of wealthy special interests.
Two other Democrats seeking the nomination to succeed retiring two-decade incumbent Mayor John DeStefano have already qualified for the program: Alderman Justin Elicker and state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield. Read about that here and here.
A fourth candidate, Sundiata Keitazulu, signed up to participate too. But he has been stuck at around 50 individual local contributions, he said Sunday.
Three other Democrats seeking the mayor’s seat have chosen not to participate in the program: state Sen. Toni Harp, former city economic development chief Henry Fernandez, and former Chamber of Comemrce prez Matthew Nemerson.
This is great news. Given that Fernandez and Harp said they got in too late to participate, and Carolina officially announced after they did (I think), one has to wonder if Fernandez and Harp are being entirely honest. Carolina's campaign seems to be shaping up as the people's campaign. Shame on Fernandez, Harp and Nemerson for not participating in the democracy. I am still curious about what Elicker meant when he said, on two occasions, that he is the only candidate participating in the democracy fund who "doesn't need to in order to raise money." Given that all the other democracy fund candidates are Black, one has to wonder what he really meant.