Sam Gurwitt Photo
Curt Leng gets Town Clerk Vera Morrison’s congratulations over the phone as son Cooper looks on.
When Hamden Mayor Curt Leng walked into his campaign headquarters on Whitney Avenue in northern Hamden Tuesday night, the town’s Democratic establishment stood around the walls cheering, some greeting him with back slaps and hugs. He had just led Hamden’s established Democrats to a resounding victory in two important races against critics.
Leng, who is currently in his second term as mayor and served eight years on the Legislative Council before, won a comfortable victory over Councilwoman Lauren Garrett in Tuesday’s primary with 3,220 to her 2,038 votes. Leng won all nine of Hamden’s Legislative Council districts.
And in the Sixth District, Kathleen Schomaker, who served on the Council from 2005 to 2017, defeated incumbent Majority Leader Cory O’Brien by exactly 100 votes — 486 to 386.
In both cases, veteran Hamden Democrats defeated leaders of a new wing of the party, born out of the progressive reaction to the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, seeking to challenge the local political status quo.
“It was a wholesale rejection of a brand,” claimed current District 8 Rep. Jim Pascarella, referring to both races. “The Democrats in Hamden have clearly expressed that they want cooperation and collaboration between the council and mayor, not confrontation.”
Kathleen Schomaker.
Garrett and O’Brien have been vocal critics of Leng’s handling of town finances and his budgeting practices. And they have clashed with old-guard Democrats on the council who have backed Leng. With O’Brien, the majority leader, and Mick McGarry, the council president, often voting against each other, the council has been divided into two factions over the course of the last two years.
Schomaker currently serves in a part-time capacity as the town’s energy efficiency coordinator, a post she said she plans to keep if she wins the general election in November. Schomaker aligned herself with Leng, running her campaign on an appeal for civility in Hamden’s politics. (Read more about that race here.)
Cory O’Brien and State Rep. Josh Elliott, who supported O’Brien, outside the District 6 polling location.
“The town has been through some political turmoil, and I have to figure out how to navigate through that,” she told the Independent.
For three of her six previous terms, Schomaker served as majority leader on the council.
District 1 Rep. Jody Clouse said that Schomaker, like Leng, is known for her ability to “talk and work with anyone.”
Harry Gagliardi.
In Hamden’s third race, an ally of Garrett and O’Brien fended off a challenge from another previous council member. Harry Gagliardi, who frequently votes with O’Brien and Garrett, beat Police Lieutenant Gabriel Lupo in the Second District with 274 votes to Lupo’s 193. Gagliardi endorsed Garrett. Lupo did not make an endorsement in the mayor’s race.
Gabriel Lupo
Lupo served on the council as a Republican until 2011, when Gagliardi won his seat. He switched his party affiliation to Democrat in 2015.
“Collect The Best Ideas And Go Forward”
Jody Clouse and Kyle Blake.
The Leng-Garrett race was just one facet of a deep divide over the town’s finances and its police department that has wracked the Hamden Democratic Party in the last two years. And that divide, said some, did not end on Tuesday.
“I think [this race] represents that there’s going to be an ongoing schism, an ongoing chasm between the sides,” said Hamden Democratic Town Committee (DTC) Secretary Kyle Blake. “I don’t think it ends here.”
Blake said she thinks the recent debates in the party make the party stronger. “I like a party that argues,” she said.
Blake campaigned for Leng, and helped his volunteers make 4,000 phone calls on Tuesday.
Many supporters who showed up to celebrate Leng and Schomaker’s victories at his campaign headquarters, and then at Mickey’s Restaurant and Bar, said the race confirmed that voters like the direction Leng is taking the town and want him to continue.
“The majority of Democrats like the work the mayor’s doing,” said DTC Chair Lewis Panzo. “They wanted the same route they’ve been going for the last four years.” Things aren’t perfect, he added, but “I see a light at the end of the tunnel for Hamden.”
Hamden currently has around $1.1 billion of total liabilities, and around $300 million in total assets, according to the most recent audit. Garrett made the town’s increasing debt, and what she deems its mismanagement by the Leng administration, one of the main talking points of her campaign.
Leng and campaign staffer Don Cretella.
Leng said that throughout the campaign, he has heard three main themes from voters. The first is a desire to lower taxes and get finances under control. Second is the desire for a greater police and public safety presence in the town. Third, he said, residents want to focus on improving their neighborhoods.
Many Democrats said on Tuesday that they hoped the debate of the last few months would ultimately benefit the town.
“Primaries are painful, but they do make stronger candidates,” said Board of Education Member Arturo Perez-Cabello. “After a process like this, the healthiest thing we can do is collect the best ideas that were expressed during the process and go forward.”
Republicans Gearing Up
Lewis Panzo and Frank LaDore.
When Leng’s supporters arrived at Mickey’s after their initial celebration at Leng’s headquarters, many of Hamden’s most prominent Republicans were already there after an event with their mayoral candidate, Jay Kaye.
The two crowds mixed frictionlessly. DTC Chair Lewis Panzo and Republican Town Committee Chair Frank LaDore posed for a picture together to prove that in Hamden, Republicans and Democrats can get along.
This year, for the first time in decades, Hamden’s Republicans have a full ballot.
Kaye will challenge Leng for mayor. The party will also field candidates in all nine Legislative Council districts, four at-large candidates, and two Board of Education Candidates in the Nov. 5 General Election.
Nearly 40% of voters in his own party —over 2,000 Democrats— showed up on Tuesday to send a message to the incumbent mayor. This was a primary of only Democratic voters, and the mayor was a two-term incumbent. Many yesterday were voting for Garrett, of course. Legions of Democrats were voting against the mayor. The mayor should interpret the results as a message from nearly 40% of his own party's voters that they are not happy with how he has led the town, nor the direction he is taking the town.
It has been since at least 2005 since Hamden has seen any primary challenges. A primary challenge in itself is rare. A primary challenge in which the incumbent loses nearly 40% of the votes of his own party is even rarer.
The Democratic Town Committee voted to nominate the incumbent mayor to the Democratic ticket by only a margin of 34-27. Only 56% of the DTC members supported the incumbent mayor for re-election; 44% believed a new Democratic candidate would be better for the town and its future. The DTC is far more knowledgable and closer to the details of the issues the town faces and the performance and character of the incumbent mayor than the typical voter.