Hamden Mayoral Hopefuls Start Petitioning

“Everyone deserves to be on the ballot,” Meadowbrook resident Joanne Germe stated matter-of-factly from her doorstep.

Then she added her signature to mayoral candidate Brad Macdowall’s petition to participate in September’s Democratic primary, which is shaping up to be a four-way race.

Macdowall, Peter Cyr, Lauren Garrett, and incumbent Mayor Curt Leng are all running for the Democratic nomination to be the next mayor of Hamden.

Since Garrett received the town party’s endorsement Tuesday night, Macdowall, Cyr and Leng now all have to petition their ways onto the Sept. 14 Democratic primary ballot. All three have said they plan on doing just that.

Macdowall and Cyr spent much of Wednesday trying to spread Germe’s straightforward political philosophy — that more choices make for a stronger democracy. They also promised to dedicate every waking hour of the 13 full days separating them from their Aug. 11 filing deadline to further advancing that belief.

Less than 12 hours after Garrett won the town committee’s endorsement at Tuesday night’s convention, Macdowall and Cyr booked it to the Registrar’s office to print the official papers on which they must gather a minimum of 946 signatures— or 5 percent of the 18,914 registered Democratic voters in Hamden— within two weeks.

They also received the necessary forms to help those who identify as independent, unaffiliated, or unregistered to sign on with the Democratic Party. As Cyr recalled at many doors on Wednesday, only 5,257 Hamden voters participated in 2019’s mayoral primary.

Strengthening democracy by encouraging higher voter turnout was only one of the candidates’ common goals. Both said they are aiming to surpass the baseline of 1,000 signatures by early August while building community and familiarity with folks who they will later return to for additional investments in their campaign.

On Wednesday, the aim was not necessarily to secure anyone’s vote, but rather to convince Democrats that a better ballot is one with their respective names on it.

Macdowall: Community Empowerment A Top Priority

Macdowall was the first candidate across all elected offices to pick up petitioning papers on Wednesday morning. By 12 p.m., he was walking Worth Avenue and ringing the bells of all 201 Democrats living in 159 of the Meadowbrook condos, the co-op where his grandmother lives. Going forward, he said, he will start his days at 10 a.m. and knock until 9 p.m.

Germe was perhaps the most immediately generous individual who Macdowall encountered. She said her belief that ​“everyone deserves to be on the ballot” was tied to two things: perceived managerial failures of the current Leng administration and the ​“diversity” of the town that she suggested should be represented through the election process.

Germe said that she moved to Hamden after years in New Haven because she was ready to downsize. So far, she’s been happy with her new home. The condos are low maintenance, she said, and ​“everyone is friendly” across town.

The only concern she shared with Macdowall was a general need for more social services and youth programming. Macdowall agreed, asserting the importance of wraparound services for crime prevention and greater equity.

Others were more hesitant to sign their name— and far less content with Hamden.

When Macdowall first knocked on Carol O’Connor’s door, she informed him she didn’t have the time to talk.

When she heard him chatting with her next door neighbor and former DTC member Joan Rudolf, she gradually came back outside and agreed to quickly sign his papers. Then she found herself joining a longer conversation.

“I don’t even understand what’s going on in this town anymore,” Rudolf confessed when Macdowall showed up on her stoop. She said that she voted for Leng in 2019, but after leaving the DTC she fell out of the loop.

As Macdowall launched into an overview of a cramped four-way primary, O’Connor came back outside and started talking about the climate.

She remembered a recent storm that left her without power for three days. ​“There are older people in this complex,” she said. ​“It’s not safe.”

She added that she not only wished the town would improve storm resiliency but better their communications system. ​“Just let me know what’s going on,” she said. ​“I’ll get a hotel for three days.” Or, she said, ​“just update it on the website, it’s not hard.”

“The coordination just hasn’t been there,” Macdowall agreed. He noted his focus on environmentalism and sustainability before expanding on greater issues with informational access, noting how he has had to consistently FOIA records as a Legislative Council member because the administration has not gotten back to him with requested public documents.

Then neighbor Gary Scott walked over to say hello. Unlike Rudolf and O’Connor, he is registered as an independent. He said he’ll vote Democratic, but doesn’t participate in primaries.

He did note that he is not a fan of Garrett, remembering when she came to his door and engaged in ​“negative campaigning” against Leng. ​“I don’t like that,” he said. ​“It’s deflection— one of the six forms of denial.”

Scott was there to vent to Rudolf about the loud construction in the neighborhood which had been waking him up too early in the morning.

“That might break the town’s noise ordinance,” Macdowall interjected. He told them to text his cell number listed on his literature so he could follow up with them after he could get the chance to fact check Hamden noise regulations.

Macdowall offered direct assistance and immediate solutions at nearly each house he hit. One woman highlighted flooding in the area which always reaches her basement and endangers her material belongings.

“There’s a brook on Paradise that floods every rainstorm, too,” Macdowall said. ​“The state and the town are always fighting over whose responsibility it is,” he added, saying that he would look into whether the stream outside the condos were state or town property.

When he gave out voter registration forms to Rosalie Loewenbaum, he offered to later pick them back up from her at her convenience. All she had to do was call him. Loewenbaum promised to send in the forms herself the next day.

“You’re asking someone to sign their name to a legal document,” Macdowall said to this reporter while between houses. ​“That’s a bigger ask than just a conversation.” Macdowall said he likes to offer direct assistance to community members anytime he asks for a show of support.

While many candidates use a standardized pitch while canvassing, Macdowall improvises and begins each conversation differently. ​“You’re speaking to a human being,” he stated. ​“Each one has to be unique and different… if you have to memorize your talking points or read them off your phone, you have no business doing this work.”

At some condos he led with financial issues, others with infrastructural concerns, and others with problems like food insecurity. Sometimes he would begin with his experience as a two-term Legislative Council representative.

At the majority of doors, however, he let the voter take the lead.

Eileen Stio wanted to talk about crime. ​“I’ve never seen it this bad,” she said. ​“Car thefts, robberies, panhandlers— not that panhandlers are doing anything, but they’re defacing.

“What are the police doing to curb some of this?”

“It makes people uncomfortable to see people struggling,” Macdowall ventured.

“We have to reduce gun violence and make sure people are housed and fed so they don’t have to resort to panhandling.”

“Right, it’s holistic,” Stio responded. ​“Just like our bodies, it’s a whole system.”

“And we can’t ask the police to solve problems that are systemic,” Macdowall added. He said the budget was an underlying issue when it comes to public safety.

Services like social workers or intervention programs need to have high returns on investment, he said, given Hamden’s “$1.5 billion in liabilities” and extraordinarily high taxes.

“You don’t know where your taxes are going,” he asserted.

“No, I don’t,” Stio replied. ​“You have to do research.” She asked whether it’s ​“possible” to publicly access such information.

Macdowall directed Stio to Transparency.CT.Gov. He said that if he were mayor, he would openly track where each cent of the budget went over time.

“You should be able to log on and see where every dollar is allotted,” he said when Elio questioned where the money originally meant for last year’s summer concert series went when the pandemic canceled such events.

“Did money from bands go to PPE for firefighters or to raises?” Macdowall asked as an example.

“It’s about making everything more transparent and democratizing the process,” he continued. ​“I’ll be honest, debt service is gonna be hard. It’s going to go up for a few years before it can come down. But it’s about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

He added that he will work to build faith with creditors in order to lower interest rates on Hamden’s current debt.

“Oh, it’s like a credit card!” Stio said. ​“See? I’m learning stuff here.”

Just like delivering an individual’s registration forms, Macdowall said he sees educating potential voters as one way he can empower his community.

While Macdowall always goes out alone, he said, in order to make sure as many of his volunteers are out canvassing different doors, he sometimes brings new interns along on his paths in order to ​“train them on the issues.” He said that both Abdul Osmanu and Mariam Khan, two 19-year-olds who won DTC endorsements to run for the Legislative Council and BOE this year, got their first political experiences as volunteers on his 2017 campaign for council.

He said he hopes his campaign can function as a broader means of building community throughout Hamden’s nine districts. For example, in the coming days he said he wants to have cookouts or food drives in Southern Hamden, where food scarcity is significant, so he can ​“offer resources and build bridges” simultaneously.

Cyr: Focusing On Taxes, Gun Violence, & Green Space

Over at East Gate Condos, Cyr was busy beginning his own form of community building alongside childhood friend, campaign manager, and treasurer Abraham Schwimmer. The two are also roommates — live in East Gate Condos.

“We’re gonna go hard,” Schwimmer said enthusiastically as the pair walked from door to door. They’re aiming to get as many signatures as possible, they said, from Hamden’s 18,000 plus active Democrats before the deadline.

“We’re gonna meet all our neighbors,” Schwimmer added. While the two said they’ll canvas independently moving forward, they began in East Gates together because they wanted to introduce themselves to everyone in the community before branching out.

Cyr and Schwimmer also pointed out how East Gates mirrors the design of Hamden’s Legislative Council. Schwimmer is a ​“courtyard representative” of the community’s homeowner’s association, which includes both at-large representatives and members chosen from each of the area’s individual ​“districts.”

Whereas Macdowall changed his pitch at every door, Cyr used the petitioning process to make clear the primary goals that he wants to achieve should he win the election.

At most doors, Cyr outlined his top three plans and issues.

First, Cyr said he wants to cut taxes by ensuring that Hamden is provided payment for property owned and used by the state.

Second, he hopes to reduce gun violence by mirroring community-level interventions piloted in other states, such as Oakland’s ​“Project Ceasefire.”

Lastly, he plans to have the town buy Six Lakes Forest on Treadwell Street back from a private corporation in order to create interactive green space similar to Brooksvale Park.

But before all that, he told his neighbors, ​“I just gotta get on the ballot.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to sign it,” was a phrase Cyr heard a few times, in one case from resident Joanna Porto, who declined to be photographed.

“I’m nonpolitical. I can’t bear it anymore,” she said.

“We just gotta get on the ballot,” Cyr repeated.

“Well, the mayor,” she elaborated. ​“I’m not sure he’s doing a very good job. The big thing is taxes — why would anyone come here?”

“I’m a New Haven girl,” she continued. ​“I wouldn’t say I love Hamden. I hate to say it.”

“As someone who does love it here, I want to see the town prosper,” Cyr said, launching into his three-step pitch.

Porto was skeptical. She said she had difficulty seeing the town turn its finances around. She reflected on how people brimming with promise enter office and then fall through on all the original promises that they made.

How old was Cyr anyway? What experiences did he have? she inquired.

Cyr is 26 and Schwimmer is 27. Cyr described how the two met in eighth grade as lifelong Hamden residents, parted ways for college while both studying political science, and ultimately returned to their hometown to focus on local issues.

Cyr ran through his background as a UC Berkeley graduate, 2016 field organizer for Hillary Clinton, worker at the Boston State House, and lead organizer for both U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.

He explained that making strides in town finances or decreasing rates of gun violence will require ​“anything but an easy execution,” but that he believes he has the connections at the state level necessary to ensure that Hamden is not only helping itself but receiving support from higher up.

And, Cyr added, ​“I’m always focused on voter turnout.”

“Only 8 percent of Hamden voted in the last primary,” he asserted.

“Ok,” Porto said after about 10 minutes. ​“I’ll sign.”

Other residents showed no inhibitions. ​“You can’t do anymore damage,” Mike Garbatini asserted when Cyr asked for his signature. Of the mayor, he said, unprompted, ​“he’s an idiot if you want my honest opinion… he took my daughter’s magnet school away.”

“Wintergreen?” Cyr and Schwimmer asked in unison.

“Yes,” Garbatini affirmed. ​“But at least we have more Tesla charging stations, right?” he replied sarcastically.

“You know, there’s one candidate who actually owns two Teslas?” Cyr said, alluding to a past controversy involving Garrett, a police chase, and, yes, two Teslas.

Garbatini asked how Cyr politically identifies. ​“I characterize myself as more moderate,” Cyr said after some time comparing himself with Garrett and Macdowall, who are considered by many to make up the ​“progressive wing” of the Democratic party.

Then he pointed to Garbatini’s shirt. ​“You’re a Zelda fan?” he asked, before launching into a conversation about video games that this reporter found hard to follow.

“I consider myself a gamer,” Cyr said, more than a centrist.

“Me too,” Garbatini said with a smile.

Schwimmer reached out to many folks that he was already familiar with through neighborly conversations. ​“She works at the pool!” he exclaimed to Cyr when one woman came to her door and agreed to sign her name. Kellie Loftus, whose partner was not a registered Democrat but is friendly with Schwimmer, also signed without hesitation.

Others zeroed in on elements of Cyr’s pitch. When Cyr touched on gun violence while appealing to Shannon Barrett, she interrupted: ​“That’s huge.”

Cyr recalled the shooting of a 21-year-old in Villano Park this year. ​“Two hundred kids saw him get shot while playing basketball,” he said. ​“The trauma.”

“PTSD rots developing brains,” he added.

Barrett pointed to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital’s Injury Prevention Program. Perhaps they could partner with Hamden, she suggested.

Others were less optimistic.

Roberta Held also stopped on the point of gun violence. “You’re young,” she said. “But you’re fighting an uphill battle.”

“We’re not looking to stop the supply of guns,” he said. “But there are some local interventions that could help,” before talking more about Project Ceasefire.

Noticing Held’s dog, Gus, Schwimmer proposed the idea of “free puppy chow” should Cyr make it to office.

That prompted Held to bring out her 27-year-old parrot. Noticing the bird’s green and gold coloring, Cyr gleefully exclaimed: “Hamden colors!”

Schwimmer remembered an article he read in which rainforest birds began to mimic the sounds of chainsaws and foresters who were invading and destroying their natural habitats.

“Chapin beeps like the microwave,” Held noted. The parrot is named after the singer, Harry Chapin.

Cyr used the controversial absence of a Hamden animal shelter to explain poor financial practices in Hamden, remembering how a $400,000 bond initially meant for the development of a shelter was spent on a lighting bill. (Leng has said that those funds are still available, while other community leaders like Scott Jackson have asserted that they’ve been pushed to other projects.)

Schwimmer recalled the sounds of disturbed wildlife when the town destroyed a forest near the condos to build two high rises. “I went to so many P&Z meetings to fight that,” Held sighed.

“Meanwhile you can’t build anything in Spring Glen,” she added.

Cyr also attributed such developmental disasters to zoning regulations which push affordable or multi-use housing out of areas that want to maintain their layout of wealthy, single-family homes.

“The future is in your hands,” Held said, signing the petition.

What About Leng?

Incumbent Mayor Leng, who spoke to the Independent on Tuesday about his plans to run for reelection as a Democrat, did not file for petition papers on Wednesday. He said that he will start circulating papers later in the week.

However, on Wednesday he sent out a press release officially announcing his reelection bid that states he will run along with Melissa Saller, the Board of Education secretary who bypassed the party nominating convention and will now seek the role of Town Clerk. Vera Morrison will retire from that position this year. The DTC endorsed Karimah Mickens for that same job on Tuesday night.

Leng told the Independent that he will be looking to add more candidates to his slate before Aug. 11.

In the memo, Saller commented that ​“the election is about moderation versus extremism, supporting police and public safety, and making Hamden a safe place for all residents in every district.”

Leng added that after months of consideration as to whether or not to run, he decided that ​“in times of crisis there’s simply no time for on-the-job training, and experience matters.”

While many folks like Germe believe that ​“everyone deserves to be on the ballot,” others are nervous that a four-way primary could undermine the common goal consistently expressed by Garrett, Macdowall, and Cyr: To get Leng out of office.