Markeshia Ricks Photo
Mayoral candidate Justin Elicker listens to Westville neighbors during a fundraiser …
… organized by Betsy Schulman and Amy Marx.
Justin Elicker lost by 1,800 votes the last time he faced Toni Harp in an election. And back then, she wasn’t even the incumbent. Now, she’s a three-term mayor with access to a powerful GOTV apparatus and deeper campaign pockets.
How does Elicker plan to win this time?
That was one of the questions that 20 Upper Westville neighbors, many of whom supported his first campaign for mayor, put to Elicker Tuesday during a Tuesday evening fundraiser for his mayoral campaign. The event was organized by best friends and Westville neighbors Betsy Schulman and Amy Marx.
Westville neighbors Don Sackheim …
… and Sydney Perry pressed Elicker about his strategy for winning.
Westville was one of the neighborhoods that helped Elicker get as close as he did to the mayor’s office during his last campaign, in 2013. Schulman hosted a fundraiser for Elicker during his last run; Marx worked hard as one of his campaign volunteers.
Westville neighbor Don Sackheim asked Elicker why he’s running now and how he plans to pull ahead of Harp this time.
Elicker said the traditional strategy among politicians in Connecticut is to “wait their turn” for a seat above them to open up and then run. He said he’s not in the business of waiting for an opportunity to make a difference.
“Now is that opportunity,” he said. “I’ve spent five years learning how to be a leader at the [New Haven] Land Trust, and I see in so many examples around the city ways that City Hall could be serving the people of New Haven better. I could wait another two years, another four years, another six years, but I’m not on this earth to wait and just watch and be passive.”
He laid out some of those examples where he felt like City Hall could be doing better in his opening remarks at the fundraiser. Calling out the Harp administration over its handling of lead abatement in the city and its failure to be a strong advocate for explicit subpoena power for the new police Civilian Review Board, he also took a dig a the mayor for utilizing a police security detail.
“What kind of message does that send?” he asked.
(Catch more of what Elicker had to say in the Facebook live video below in this story.)
Elicker told attendees that his campaign is about $6,000 away from reaching its fundraising goal for the first quarter, though he declined to say what that goal is and how much he raised Tuesday night. Elicker has three more fundraisers scheduled before the quarter closes on March 31. He said he will disclose how much he has raised when he releases his finance report April 10.
The candidate said he plans to do two things that he did well in his first campaign and one thing he didn’t. He told attendees that he’s going to “work my tail off” just as he did in the last campaign, and he’s got to raise money, which he is again doing through the public-financing Democracy Fund system. But also important, he’s got to get out more this time to communities like Newhallville where people might not know him as well as they do in East Rock, Cedar Hill and Westville.
“It’s critical for me to knock on doors in neighborhoods like Newhallville four, five, six times instead of two times,” he said. “Looking back, I lost by 1,800 votes. When you think about it, had 901 people changed their minds I would have won.”
Elicker said he believes that many of the people who voted for him last time will do so again, but he knows he has to close that gap in the neighborhoods that voted overwhelmingly for Harp.
Sydney Perry asked if that looked like putting in appearances at more black churches. “How are you going to get access to these groups?” she asked.
Elicker said churches play an important role and he appeared at a lot of churches last time, but he said churches and their pastors aren’t the only people and places of influence that he’s looking to reach out to this time around.
“I don’t want to downplay that those individuals,” he said. “As leaders in their communities they are important. But there are the block watch leaders, the community garden coordinators, and so there are many ways to make sure people know that I care about them.”
Perry suggested that he reach out to the parent-teacher organizations around the city. Elicker — who since his first run for mayor is now a father of two daughters — said that appeals to him.
“I’ll talk with anyone who wants to talk to me,” he said. “Just let me know where and when.”
Marx, center, says she’s feeling optimistic about Elicker’s chances this time around.
Marx, a Democratic Ward 26 Committee co-chair who as an attorney is often at odds with city government, said that the racial diversity represented at Tuesday’s fundraiser gave her a sense of optimism and possibility that people could unite around Elicker’s campaign. Since Elicker’s last run, Marx has become friends with former Harp supporter and Board of Ed member Ed Joyner, who attended Tuesday night’s gathering. She serves as co-chair of the ward with another Harp supporter, Sharon Jones. Upper Westvile Alder Darryl Brackeen Jr. also attended the event.
“We’ve built community after some of the divisiveness of the first campaign,” she said. “What’s in this room is about more than Justin personally but about the community that has been built around the city.”
She said she’d be happy to see Elicker take the reins of the city because “he is fundamentally a really good listener and community builder” who is “willing to talk to everybody … to return every call.”
“I’ve never known you for a second to be anything but open, transparent, and honest and that’s what it takes to be a leader of this kind of group,” she said. “It’s not really about you personally. It’s about your capacity for leadership and for me it is unbelievably uplifting to sit in this room and to see just a sense of community.
“We all love New Haven, we all love Westville,” she added. “Together, I feel we can do something with Justin at the helm. I have a sense of optimism that it can be different this time.”
Board of Ed member Ed Joyner is supporting Elicker this election cycle.
Joyner expressed optimism that Elicker can capture more of the black vote in the city this time around. He pointed out that during the last campaign, he saw Elicker “walking around in places … where a lot are afraid to go.”
“I’m the great, great grandson of a slave, and the only hope for people who are dispossessed … is fair government and leaders who are committed to lifting people up,” Joyner said. “Black people have been voting for white people since the reconstruction era. And in large numbers.
“I think that many people in black churches are bright enough to make their own decisions about who they should support,” he added. “With others in his corner, we can probably convince people that [Elicker] has the ethics, intellect, and courage to really identify and solve some of these problems.”
But he cautioned Elicker to not over-promise.
“Bottom line is there are some problems that politics can’t solve,” he said. “There were some kids that I couldn’t teach, and I was a master teacher, I believed. But there were some kids I couldn’t teach because you have to match my commitment or exceed it if I’m going to be effective. And I think one of the things leaders fail to do is help people understand that there are things that they can do working hand in hand with the administration to improve their lives.”
If he wants to win he needs to figure out how to make New Haven affordable and safe to live in. If he can't somehow outline a plan for this (and not cut services) Harp will win another term.
He also needs to hold the BoE accountable for their mess, there are dozens of jobs at central office, high paid ones, that can be cut because they serve no purpose at all. The focus should be "kids first" not jobs for administrators that don't do anything. Millions can be saved just with central office administrator cuts.