Markeshia Ricks Photo
State Rep. Josh Elliott.
Josh Elliott took down names. But he didn’t broadcast them.
In the prcess, he morphed from an outsider into what he describes as an “insider” learning how to make a difference.
A lot has changed for Elliott in two years. At this time in 2016, he was waging an insurgent campaign for the 88th District state representative seat from Hamden. Fresh off the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, he and his team took on a popular establishment-endorsed Democrat in a primary, and won an upset. Then he won the seat outright in the general election.
Now Elliott, who has emerged as a leading figure statewide in left-of-center party politics, is running for reelection, with no Democrat opposing him and with the support of the establishment. He’s also working on fellow progressive Democrats’ campaigns across the state.
He said that he made sure in 2016 not to disparage his party opponents. Now, he said, he’s working well with them. And more progressive people have entered Hamden politics, in part growing out of the 2016 campaign, he said. He met a voter named Cory O’Brien while knocking on people’s doors. He encouraged O’Brien to get involved — and now O’Brien sits on the Town Council. Both the party town committee and the town council have had progressive turnover, Elliott said.
“I made it a priority to run a clean race” so he could then “work well” with people, he said Tuesday in an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “This time around when I announced I was going to seek reelection … people didn’t feel I was letting them down.”
“People didn’t feel I was the outsider candidate this time around. I was one of them,” he said.
How he got there can be seen in that list of names he took down.
He originally made the list after surveying his fellow Democratic state legislators on their stands on core positions he was pushing at the Capitol, such as legalizing recreational use of marijuana, instituting electronic highway tolls, passing a paid family leave law, boosting the hourly minimum wage to $15, and hiking income tax rates for millionaires.
He originally portrayed the list as potential targets for Democratic primaries he would support to strengthen the party’s position in Hartford. That earned him a lot of talk, and some potential enemeies, at the Capitol. Or, as he put it, “I dirtied myself in my colleagues’ eyes.”
In the end, Elliott said in the WNHH interview, he decided to keep the names and their positions secret. Rather, he said, the list is helping him see where he stands on pushing those positions, and who are the strongest allies.
“It’s not going to work to bash people over the head,” he said.
He also decided that “my time might be better spent” supporting progressive Democrats statewide to beat Republicans in “coin flip” districts in the general election rather than helping out in primary contests, he said.
He noted how much is at stake this November: The Democrats risk losing the governor’s office, the state Senate, and at least some of their narrow majority in the House. On the other hand, he said, anti-Trump fervor might help the Democrats increase their standing in the House to 83 or 84 seats. Last session, renegade Democrats sided with Republicans to weaken a state affordable housing law and to prevent the passage of a Democratic budget that would have increase revenues and avoided some social-service cuts. (Two of those Democrats retired rather than run again this fall; a third is leaving his position to run for attorney general.)
The party will need strong legislative candidates to increase turnout for the gubernatorial candidate, Elliott noted. He said he is not endorsing a candidate in the Demorcratic gubernatorial primary: “There is a lack of general enthusiasm for the gubernatorial race.” (He is supporting Eva Bermudez Zimmerman for lieutenant governor in the Aug. 14 primary.)
When he attended this May’s party nominating convention, he said, he looked around and realized: “This room is bought.”
Click on the Facebook Live video for the full interview with Joshua Elliott on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Is Elliot really saying he had nothing to do with pushing Schlossberg and Reed out, in retaliation for their budget votes?