In an effort to establish independence from City Hall, East Rock aldermanic candidate Justin Elicker made a pledge: “I am not accepting campaign contributions from the mayor’s administration.”
Elicker (pictured), a Democrat, is running for Ward 10 alderman in a heated race against incumbent Allan Brison of the Green Party.
He first announced the pledge at the end of a Democratic ward committee meeting on July 16. At the meeting, held to endorse candidates, a remarkable thing happened: 10 Democrats backed a Green Party candidate for alderman instead of a Democrat. Elicker won the Democratic ward committee’s endorsement by a vote of 19 to 10 — even though he has no Democratic opponent.
The vote came in the wake of concerns voiced in the neighborhood about whether he would be independent enough from Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.‘s administration if elected. Ward 10 is one of only two in the city to be represented by someone other than a Democrat.
Elicker, a Yale graduate student who’s lived in East Rock for two years, got a taste of that perception at his first appearance before the ward committee in June. Elicker was told that the neighborhood doesn’t need “another puppet” for the mayor, according to those present.
Brison won his own campaign in 2007 with a message of independence. His upset victory over incumbent Ed Mattison was seen as a sign that anti-DeStefano feelings were running high in East Rock.
From the start, Elicker has sought to define himself as someone who’ll be independent of, not controlled by, the mayor’s administration.
In an interview at a downtown coffee shop Friday, Elicker laid out guidelines for how he intends for that independence to play out in his campaign. It turned out to be a tricky route to navigate.
Drawing The Line
Elicker elaborated on the terms of his pledge not to accept campaign contributions from the mayor’s administration.
By “mayor’s administration,” he said, he means “the mayor’s appointed staff.”
“Appointed staff” includes department heads, top city coordinators, and everyone in the mayor’s office.
People in that group routinely take off from work on Election Day to stand at polls, make phone calls, and pull votes for the mayor and aldermanic candidates who are deemed to be pro-City Hall. Employees in the mayor’s office, many of whom landed their jobs after working on DeStefano’s gubernatorial campaign or previous mayoral runs, also use personal time to coordinate campaigns in wards with hotly contested elections.
City staff also open personal pocketbooks to cut campaign checks. For example, top mayoral appointees were among at least 38 city government employees, lobbyists or contractors who gave money to City Hall-backed candidate Charles Blango for his unsuccessful run for state representative last year.
Elicker said he won’t accept money, canvassing help, or campaign literature from the mayor’s appointed staff or from the mayor’s campaign.
He’s drawing the line at appointed staff. He won’t turn away other city employees, he said, because many city workers live in the city and care deeply about it. “I think it’s fair to involve them in the political process.”
What if the mayor’s campaign is knocking on doors in support of the mayor — would he allow them to pass out Elicker campaign literature? “I would not approve of that,” the candidate replied.
He said he laid out his terms on Thursday to DeStefano’s campaign manager, Keya Jayaram.
The point of the pledge, he said, is to establish his independence by not taking money from people who are later going to try to influence his vote on the board. A good alderman needs to both advocate for the neighborhood and provide a “check and balance” to the mayor, he said.
Elicker said his campaign team, comprised of close friends and neighbors, has developed all his campaign literature and raised all the money to run the campaign. He reckoned the campaign will cost only about $5,000, so it will be easy to screen each contribution.
“We will vet every contribution we receive, and make sure it won’t affect the integrity of the campaign,” he said.
DTC Exception
Elicker said he won’t turn down help from people who live outside the neighborhood, or from vote-pullers from the local Democratic Party — as long as they’re not mayoral appointees who work for the city.
“Saying I won’t accept any help from the Democratic Party is absurd,” he said.
Elicker dodged a question as to what he sees as the connection between John DeStefano, Jr. and the Democratic Party: “I am not a ward chair and therefore not a member of the [Democratic] Town Committee. As such, I don’t believe I am the best person to ask about the connection between DeStefano and the committee, as my comments would be speculation.”
Former Alderman Willie Greene shed light on that connection.
“People need to be honest. John is the Democratic Town Committee,” said Greene. “There is no difference.”
In this one-party Democratic town, Greene said, the Democratic Party is used as a proxy for the mayor to support candidates who fit his agenda — and go after those who do not. He said a candidate can’t be independent from the mayor without being independent from the DTC. Over the decades, Greene has run as both a pro-City Hall candidate for office, with the help of the town committee; and as an anti-City Hall candidate, with the town committee working against him.
“John runs everything,” said Greene. “Anyone who says that John doesn’t, I’d like to know what country they’re from.”
Removing The Big D
Jonathan Knisely, of Everit Street, said Ward 10 voters are wary of a style of Democratic politics where candidates are hand-picked to carry out the mayor’s agenda. Former Ward 10 Alderman Ed Mattison was “City Hall’s guy,” he opined.
He said he understood why Elicker made his pledge, though he wasn’t certain of the impact it would have.
“I think [Elicker] correctly perceives that [there are] many people in the city who are leery of the top-down political style of the Democratic Party, and that part of Allan Brison’s attractiveness is that he is apart from that by being a Green Party candidate,” said Knisely.
Knisely made an unusual motion at the ward committee meeting to nominate a Green, Brison, for the Democratic Party endorsement.
“The reality of the city is that the Democratic candidate will win almost anywhere,” he said. His goal in nominating Brison “was to remove the endorsement of the Democratic ward committee and have it be a little ‘d’ democratic process.”
Knisely’s motion to nominate Brison failed. Brison supporters instead voiced their support by voting to endorse no aldermanic candidate. That effort garnered nearly a third of the ward committee vote: 19 voted to endorse Elicker, and 10 to make no endorsement. Elicker declared his independence pledge in a short speech after the vote.
Knisely said he thinks Elicker is a strong candidate. He wasn’t sure what impact the pledge would have in distancing Elicker from the influence of the mayor, given his ties to the Democratic Party. Knisely that would depend on how much on-the-ground assistance Elicker might need from the Democratic Party to win a heated race.
“I haven’t been given any reason to suspect that he would sell the 10th ward out,” he said, “but what help he will need to win an election, I’m uncertain.”
Anna Festa, a lifelong East Rocker and ward committee member, welcomed Elicker’s vow.
“It shows a certain amount of integrity,” she said: if Elicker gets elected, he won’t “owe them.”
She said at first, she was concerned that Elicker “would become one of the mayor’s guys,” because of his close relationship with City Hall ally Alderman Roland Lemar, who represents East Rock’s Ward 9. She said Elicker assured her that he would vote with his own mind, based on what’s best for Ward 10. Festa said that she ended up, after much deliberation, voting to endorse Elicker.
Brison refused to be interviewed for this story unless all questions were submitted in advance through email. His campaign spokeswoman said he was too busy to talk.
Shut Out?
Besides the money factor, there’s a more subtle way that insider candidates can be given an advantage when they’re supported by City Hall: They get empowered to act as virtual incumbents months before the election, based on access and resources given through allies in City Hall.
City Hall connections can help candidates prove themselves to voters by swiftly addressing issues that fall in the domain of an alderman, like securing a new trash bin, getting a pothole fixed or tackling long-standing quality of life complaints. On the flipside, candidates who are out of favor with City Hall complain they’re blocked out from such access during campaign season.
Brison (pictured) hit on this theme in a March 10 letter to City Hall.
“I am more than disappointed to realize I have been excluded from several important meetings that have been scheduled with administration officials addressing issues of significant interest in my district,” read Brison’s letter. The note was addressed to city parks director Bob Levine, economic development deputy chief Chrissy Bonanno and youth services chief Che Dawson. It was cc-ed to the mayor and news media.
The letter came after Brison found out that Levine had sat down with Elicker and activist Betty Thompson to talk about plans to renovate a dilapidated playground in Cedar Hill.
Without naming specifics, Brison contended he was left out of meetings about “issues for which I have advocated and been working on.”
“I’m sure you will all agree that it is your responsibility to give me sufficient, advance notice of all relevant meetings so that I can carry out my responsibilities to my constituents,” Brison wrote. “Failure to give me notice is unacceptable.”
Elicker dismissed the complaint as a red herring.
He said neighbors in Cedar Hill had been asking for years for someone to fix up the playground, which lies in a neglected corner of East Rock. The playground was decrepit, and poor lighting was attracting illicit activity at night. Neighbors “felt they lacked an advocate” for the issue, he said. They approached Elicker and Thompson, co-leaders of the Friends of East Rock Park, who in turn reached out to Levine. The three sat down in February and talked about how to make progress on the issue.
The parks department has now begun work on the site: It has replaced polluted sand with wood chips, put out to bid a contract to increase lighting, and drafted designs for a new playground, according to Elicker.
He said he got involved with the project not through favoritism by City Hall, but by being proactive.
“An alderman’s role is to be loud, persistent and to get things done for the neighborhood,” said Elicker. “We need someone who pushes to meet with people — and pushes to be in the room when decisions are made.”
Elicker was on the inside loop in early meetings about the Whitney Avenue redo. When the school board announced Hooker School construction delays, staff gave him the early scoop at the same time as the neighborhood aldermen — allowing him to send out the info to neighbors on his campaign email list before it was publicly known. Both allowed him to position himself in the role of virtual alderman, community organizing and informing neighbors about the ward. He denied he was being given any special treatment.
“I’m not receiving favorable assistance from city employees,” Elicker said. He said he has access to city staff because he attends public meetings relevant to Ward 10, then follows up. “I’m learning about the issues aggressively.”
He added that as an incumbent, Brison enjoys the advantages of name recognition and free mailings to constituents.
City Hall Swings Back
Brison’s complaint about being excluded from meetings spurred a furious rebuke from the mayor’s top political operative, Chief of Staff Sean Matteson.
In a reply dated March 19, Matteson wrote that city staff could not recall excluding Brison from “a meeting of any importance.” He swung back at Brison for failing to be proactive on issues in his ward. The letter, obtained by the Independent, sheds light on the alderman’s relationship with, and treatment by, City Hall.
“What is it that you would have City staff do — ignore our constituents? Put on hold the residents of the City unless you are present at all times no matter what the level of the problem, the question or the issue?” Matteson wrote.
“I would kindly remind you that these are the mayor’s constituents as well,” wrote Matteson, “and that you have consistently demonstrated little interest in working together to solve problems in East Rock or any other part of town for that matter.”
“I cannot control the fact [that] the residents choose to reach out to City staff as opposed to you. Perhaps your constituents feel as though City staff is more responsive to their needs. Perhaps they might even feel that you do not have their interest in mind,” Matteson continued.
“In fact, the only time I can remember you calling me on an issue was when you called me and asked me if you could get an extra copy of the program from your swearing-in to the Board at the 2008 Inauguration. You have but once or twice reached out to this Office about any specific issue in your Ward and have never brought forward a concern raised by one of your constituents.”
I can't help but get Matteson's back on the Brison issue--I've been working with Justin for years & have seen little to no support or proactivity from Brison. (and this is from someone who regularly disagrees with City Hall--at least recently)
I genuinely like & respect Brison and his contributions to the ward, but know from personal experience that he has not supported Justin's work in Ward 10.
Justin is energetic, proactive, &--crucial--used his OWN time & energy to schedule the meetings that Brison complains about.
Justin is the one meeting with Levine & the others because he's the one who contacted them. He is the one who went to Cedar Hill & asked them what they want.
Say what you will about the mayor--you can't deny that Justin is putting time & energy into reaching out to the City & asking them to do more in East Rock. That's just the type of person he is, and why I support him.