At his last big rally of the primary campaign, gubernatorial candidate Dannel P. Malloy had no trouble making himself understood in the Latino community of Fair Haven, in his rival’s home city, where he spoke inspirationally to an exuberant rally of a hundred-plus supporters on the sidewalks south of Grand Avenue across from Dunkin Donuts Monday night.
“I want to be perfectly clear,” he said, with simultaneous translation provided by rally organizer and Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro (to the right in the photo). “You’re all so brave to stand up to a powerful machine in New Haven. With Malloy as governor, I will never forget you, never, never, never. Nunca, nunca, nunca!” It was, Castro asserted, the first time a gubernatorial candidate had held a rally in Fair Haven. 
Many of Malloy’s political supporters were also in evidence including (left to right in the photo) former Mayor John Daniels, Tomas Reyes, former president of the Board of Alderman, and James Newton, former alderman and mayoral candidate. They are among the local pro-Malloy politicians who have been on the outs with the administration of Mayor John DeStefano since a dispute earlier this year over who would become president of the Board of Aldermen. “If DeStefano wins by just a few thousand votes in New Haven,” said former mayor John Daniels, an early Malloy supporter, that’s a great victory for Malloy.” “We’re not anti-DeStefano,” said Reyes, “but pro-Malloy. When the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus interviewed both candidates back in February,” he went on, “Dan was just hands on the better candidate. John’s a dreamer, Dan’s a doer. Plus he comes from a Democratic and Republican town, and that positions him to beat Rell.” Why was Malloy spending so much time in New Haven, and finishing his long campaign season on Ferry Street?” Jim Newton provided one answer: “When the Hispanic caucus endorsed him, Dan saw an opportunity and ever since he’s been building on the split in the city’s disaffected leadership.” 
But there was no denying a current of connection between Malloy’s stump points, which he reiterated —” better housing, education, property tax relief (an underrated but key point for Castro’s constituents) —” and a sense of security a Malloy administration would provide, so that, the candidate said, “you will feel safe from the killings,” referring presumably to the traumatizing recent shootings of young people in the city neighborhoods. Perhaps the biggest applause Malloy garnered came when he said, “If someone makes a mistake in their life, there will be a second chance under a Malloy administration; there will be a second chance society.” “I’m a come from behind kid,” he declared to reporters after the speechifying ended and before he accepted coffee and watermelon as prelude to heading home, “and I sense we’re closing the gap and that we will win. I mean it. I can tell you this: It will be an awful lot closer in New Haven than in Stamford!”
Many New Haveners are fed up with Destefano's moves as the mayor here.
From his questionable motives for closing the New Haven Coliseum, to his politicizing of the Board of Education, to not having a proactive plan/department for youth programming or for affordable housing development, to railroading through development plans in general- there is an all around disgust with how he operates.