Melinda Tuhus Photo
A Fair Haven schools and neighborhood activist has signed on to the Dawson for Mayor campaign as a candidate for city/town clerk.
The candidate is Claudia Herrera (pictured).
Dawson, a Democrat seeking to defeat incumbent John DeStefano in the Sept. 13 mayoral primary, said Thursday that he considers Herrera a compatible running mate because of their similar backgrounds as neighborhood organizers for historic preservation and community policing.
The mayor and city clerk candidates generally run as a ticket in New Haven elections.
Click here for a story on Herrera’s involvement in school reform.
The campaign sent out the following release about Herrera’s candidacy:
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Fair Haven resident Claudia Herrera announced today that she plans on running for the office of New Haven’s City Town Clerk, and that she’s supporting Mayoral candidate Tony Dawson. Ms. Herrera will file the proper paperwork by the end of the week.
“I truly feel that Tony Dawson and I share a vision for New Haven’s families that emphasizes reducing crime, improving our quality of life and encouraging families to own homes and build a stronger New Haven neighborhood by neighborhood.”
Ms. Herrera emigrated from Mexico City and lived in California for ten years before moving to Stamford CT in 1999 and then to New Haven in 2004. During her short time here in New Haven, Ms. Herrera has help nearly twenty of her Fair Haven neighbors clean up their properties, spearheading community improvement efforts that are now spilling over into adjacent neighborhoods. Ms. Herrera also started a neighborhood Block Watch in Fair Haven.
“I would like to be seen as a candidate for all of our communities. I would like to be seen as a candidate who finds ways to connect people and brings our neighborhoods together. Right now, we are many neighborhoods and communities that some say have been intentionally divided by the current administration. We’ll, I’m pretty sure that crime affects us all; that higher taxes and huge debt affects us all; that schools in crisis affects us all. And when jobs flee our city because business owners fear the crime, that affects us all as well.” Herrera adds.
Ms. Herrera, a mother, believes strongly that by building stronger neighborhoods, drugs, gangs, prostitution and overall crime prevention is less likely to take root. Tony Dawson and Ms. Herrera are both advocates for community policing. Putting police on the ground so they can work directly with neighborhood watch efforts to initiate crime prevention.
“Claudia and I have the same passion for building solutions to city-wide problems by addressing those problems at the neighborhood level and building those efforts into city-wide solutions. For too long in New Haven, there’s been a top-down approach to governing where failed idea after failed idea is passed down from City Hall. We need neighbors reaching out to neighbors with common goals for the common good in mind. We need to empower our families to work with city government for real solutions,” Dawson said.
Another project Ms. Herrera has been working on is a tree planting effort where new trees are planted in our urban neighborhoods. “I know it’s a small thing to plant a few trees. But big things start with small steps. Good government, good neighborhoods, goods families are just like these trees. They take root, they grow, and before long, they’re bearing fruit that benefits the entire community. That’s the kind of government I want to be a part of. That’s the kind of government Tony Dawson wants to build” Ms. Herrera added.
I am not political insider so I don't know if this is happening already, but if people are serious about getting a new Mayor, all these candidates should get together, put their egos aside, decide who has the best chance, and join forces, otherwise they are just going to split the vote. It seems kind of obvious to me, but then, what do I know right?