From Sheff To Janus, Candidate Courts Change

Wednesday morning’s news headlines brought a boost to Eva Bermudez Zimmerman’s quest to become Connecticut’s first Hispanic and first millennial statewide elected official.

Then the headlines delivered a blow to the base she hopes will her get there.

The boost came from word of a stunning upset in New York: A 28-year-old Latina supporter of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had upset a powerful incumbent establishment-backed Baby Boomer U.S. Congressman in a Democratic primary, thanks to an energetic organizing effort and a platform emphasizing left positions like health care for all.

Immediate parallels were drawn to the Bermudez Zimmerman’s outsider campaign for Connecticut’s Democratic lieutenant governor nomination in an Aug. 14 primary. The 31-year-old Bermudez Zimmerman, a Sanderista who organizes child care workers for a living for SEIU, is looking to upset an establishment-backed Baby Bommer endorsed candidate in that primary with an energetic organizing effort and a platform calling for a $15 hourly minimum wage, universal health care and child care, higher taxes on the wealthy, and legalized recreational use of marijuana,

“I woke up excited,” Bermudez Zimmerman said later that morning during an appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. ​“Then I got blown away by the Janus case.”

That was a reference to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which will allow government workers to opt out of union dues that pay for collective bargaining. That was a victory for an ongoing campaign from the right to lessen the power of unions to help elect candidates like … Eva Bermudez Zimmerman.

Bermudez Zimmerman called the decision part of a ​“plot to defund unions.”

“All those people that wake up at five in the morning and take care of their kids, people who take care of the elderly, workers that pave our roads, workers that take care of your taxes … those are the people affected by this decision,” she said.

“This court case is not a surprise. It still is a blow. We’ve been preparing for this. … Labor’s strong. Unions are here to stay. This is just one more tack from the extreme right-wing. We’re dealing with it. You remind people why you’re part of a union and why we want a strong middle class. That’s what unions provide.”

Insurgent Energy

Bermudez Zimmerman repeated the phrase ​“strong middle class” througout the interview to describe her platform and to descibe the role of labor. Rather than a narrow ​“special interest,” she argued, labor represents the majority of the state, including the middle class, against the ​“1 percent” — the class from which the leading Democratic and independent gubernatorial candidates and several top Republican contenders happen to hail.

At last month’s Democratic Party state convention, Bermudez’s campaign became the magnet for urban and black and Latino delegates frustrated by gubernatorial frontrunner Ned Lamont’s choice of a white running mate, Susan Bysiewicz. Bysiewicz, a former three-term secretary of the state, in turn won the convention’s endorsement. But Bermudez Zimmerman pulled off an unusual feat by winning 40 percent of the delegate vote, well more than twice the percentage needed to qualify for the primary ballot. She has since attracted strong support in cities, including New Haven, where pretty much all elected officials from the mayor and state delegation on down have backed her campaign.

Bermudez Zimmerman said she expects to have collected enough donations of up to $100 from Connecticut voters— $75,000 worth— to qualify by week’s end for the state’s public-financing system. That would inject another $310,000 into her campaign.

She’s casting herself as a needed fresh face for the Democratic ticket: a millennial, a Latina. But she emphasized in Wednesday’s interview that that’s not the main thrust of her campaign.

“That diversity I bring is great. If people see themselves in me, let’s do this together. But the real issue is the middle class and poverty, and how we’re going to get Connecticut back on track,” she said.

“Let’s break that glass ceiling. But let’s walk past it and remember the real issue, the real war, as Martin Luther King said, is the war on poverty. That’s what my campaign is about.”

Outside of a stint as a Newtown council member, Bermudez Zimmerman’s experience come largely from outside elected office. She has worked in a favela in Brazil, interned for a Congresswoman, sat on a Hartford zoning panel, won a General Assembly ​“Latina Citizen of the Year” award in 2015 for helping 7,000 people sign up for the state’s version of Obamacare. She serves as statewide director of organizing for SEIU’s child care worker effort.

And, as demonstrated in the WNHH ​“Dateline” interview, she’s used to parrying rapid-fire reporter questions. She has had a lot of practice in the media spotlight, beginning when in 1989 she was 2 years old. Her parents signed her up as one of 17 named plaintiffs in a landmark school desegregation lawsuit called Sheff v. O’Neill. She grew up hearing debates about the constitution and school funding, being interviewed on camera at the case’s various stages. The state Supreme Court ruled in that case that Connecticut’s constitution guarantees a right to equal education for Latinos and African-Americans, and ordered the government to make that happen. The decision changed Connecticut, where to this day officials continue to debate how best to redress discrimination in the public schools.

A Sheff Legacy

Following is an edited transcript of a discussion about the legacy of that suit during Bermudez Zimmerman’s WNHH interview.

WNHH: Were you aware at 2 years old: ​“I’m part of a lawsuit”? Did you even know what that meant?

Bermudez Zimmerman: Not at 2. But definitely at 5, 6, 7, 10, 15. Because this lawsuit, it didn’t go away overnight. It was a long project

My first memory was at being at a meeting at Tom and Carol Vinick’s house and overhearing discussions about my education and the impact on me. I remember a group of people advocating for me. And thinking: ​“Why are they advocating for me? I j’m just going to school.”

Then when I was 14 being interviewed, 15 being interviewed, it clicked.

Did you ever feel like, ​“I just want to be a kid and play hopscotch?”

I was a kid! My parents are educators. They’re teachers. I always had an opportunity to play hopsoctch. But always in the back of their minds [was]: How am I going to be able to go to school if I don’t have books?

I went to school when Hartford was in dire necessity. At a time when people were dying in the North End. I went to Hartford Middle, I had friends that I lost. The kid in Avon does not usually see an 11-year-old classmate impregnanted. The kid in Avon does not usually see a kid being murdered outside of their doorstep or outside of their school.

I know that we’ve come a long way. There’s been a lot of growth. But that doesn’t mean it’s enough. We have to make sure that that opportunity of progress for everyone.

You ended up at a regional high school …

I went to Hartford High and Classical Magnet school [and graduated at 16].

Was that created as a result of Sheff?

It was.

Did you get a better education because of that?

I would say I did. The program was within Hartford High, now is its own school.

The curriculum that Hartford High School was different form the curriculum that Classical Magnet has. I also went to Hartford Arts Academy.

In New Haven we saw a perverse outcome of [Sheff]. The state gave us money to build magnets. We just closed a magnet school called [Creed]. Part of the reason is when we get suburban kids who want to come [to magnets], they are often black and Latino … So the state says, ​“You have too many black and Latino kids to serve our mission.” Then the schools have to go out of their way to find the ​“correct” students. They want to find white kids in the suburbs and give them opportunities over working and middle-class black and Latino families for those slots.

Some people think that’s crazy.

I think that the Sheff v O’Neill case and me being a participant gave a lot of people educational opportunity.

I’m not questioning that. But did the solution sometimes have unintended consequences?

I would agree with that. That filters into the conversation about charter schools. I’m not a big supporter of charter schools. You’re using public funding for a private institution. So yes, sometimes when you’re trying to do good and you don’t give a prescribed reference of how to do it, this is a manifestation.

You had an experience with a magnet school that really gave you an opportunity.

I’m here because of a magnet school.

A lot of magnet schools are successful. They’ve done a good job. But more families of color have moved to the suburbs. I’m wondering if housing might be a more effective way of attacking lack of opportunity.

We should tackle housing. Redlining is still happening. There’s a lot of racism when it comes to zoning laws. We should make sure we have more integration, and not just in the major cities, but in smaller towns.

Since the suburbs have changed since you were the plaintiff in Sheff vs. O’Neill, does it require a revisiting of the solutions?

I think we’re revisiting already. We’re revisiting with Educational Cost Sharing. We’re revisiting when we have the conversations about early education.

Click on the above audio file of the Facebook Live video below to hear the full interview with Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Eva Bermudez Zimmerman.

Click on or download the above audio file or Facebook Live video below to hear a previous ​“Dateline New Haven” interview with Susan Bysiewicz on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here for a story about that interview. (Note: Bysiewicz was still running for governor then; she has since switched to run for lieutenant governor.