Who’s Running In Hamden

On Tuesday, voters in Hamden will cast votes in a relatively straightforward mayor’s race, and in a complex maze of Legislative Council races.

Mayor Curt Leng, a Democrat, is seeking a third term as mayor. He has been mayor since 2015, when then Mayor Scott Jackson resigned to take a job with the state. He won his first full term later that year. In September, he beat primary challenger Lauren Garrett with about 60 percent of the vote. Read about his endorsements, including by Rosa DeLauro, here, here, and here; his pitch for new zoning laws here; his debates with Garrett here and here; and his veto of this year’s budget here.

Jay Kaye, a Republican who works in painting and restoration, is challenging him. Kaye has vowed to restore fiscal stability to Hamden and has proposed a shift to a town manager form of government.

Read about a debate between Leng and Kaye here.

For the first time, Republicans are fielding a full slate of candidates, including four at-large candidates, nine district candidates, two Board of Education candidates, and a mayoral candidate. They’re only missing a candidate for town clerk, so Democrat and longtime Town Clerk Vera Morrison will run unopposed. Read more about their slate here and here.

Where And How To Vote

Polls are open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Hamden has nine polling locations, one in each council district. Those locations, listed by district, are as follows:

1. Miller Memorial Library, 2901 Dixwell Ave
2. Booker T. Washington Academy, 306 Circular Ave
3. Keefe Community Center, 11 Pine Street
4. Spring Glen School, 1908 Whitney Ave
5. Board of Education Offices, 60 Putnam Ave
6. Ridge Hill School, 120 Carew Rd
7. Dunbar Hill School, 315 Lane St
8. Bear Path School, 10 Kirk Rd
9. West Woods School, 350 Todd St

Click here to find out which one of these is your polling place. If you’re not registered to vote, you can still vote by going to the registrar’s office at the Hamden Government Center at 2750 Dixwell Ave. between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. to register and then vote. Registrar Rose Mentone said she recommends that anyone hoping to register on Tuesday should arrive as early as possible.

Council At-Large

Tuesday’s at-large council races are more complicated.

The Hamden Legislative Council has 15 members. Nine of them represent the town’s nine districts, and six of them serve at-large, and are elected by the entire town. Each party may field up to four at-large candidates, and voters may vote for only four.

The town’s charter requires that two of those at-large seats be given to members of a minority party. Traditionally, Democrats have held a large majority on the council, and Republicans have held those two minority party seats. This year, however, the race for those two seats is more complicated.

Rhonda Caldwell and Laurie Sweet are running for at-large council seats on the Working Families Party (WFP) ticket. (Read more about them here and here). Both are registered Democrats, and they have said that they intend to claim those two minority-party seats and oust Republicans from the council. They have both been leaders of protests following Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton’s shooting of an unarmed couple in April. (Read about that here and here).

Though Caldwell and Sweet have said they aim to take council seats from Republicans, some Democrats have said they worry that their run will end up splitting the Democratic vote instead. In 2017, the four at-large Democrat candidates received between around 6,300 and 6,560 votes. Marjorie Bonadies and Betty Wetmore, who won the two minority-party seats, received about 3,400 and 3,500 votes, respectively. Council President Mick McGarry pointed out that the people who voted for Republicans last time are probably not going to vote for the WFP candidates, since WFP tends to align with the furthest-left wing of the Democrats. That means they likely will not eat into the Republican margins. Votes for the WFP candidates, said McGarry, would have to come from voters who would otherwise vote for Democrats, and could lower Democratic margins.

The Democrats are fielding Jody Clouse, Berita Rowe-Lewis, Brad Macdowall, and Dominique Baez at-large. According to McGarry, this year’s full Democratic slate is the most diverse ever, with a majority female candidates. Read more about their full slate here.

Clouse is about to finish her first term as District One representative. She owns her own massage business, and coaches swimming at Hamden High. She helped organize Hamden’s first official pride event in October. While Democrats on the council have recently been split between a group that criticizes Leng’s handling of finances and another that has defended Leng, Clouse has voted with both camps. She voted for the council’s amended budget in May that Leng vetoed, but still supports Leng. She has also been a supporter of the Board of Education’s 3R Project.

Rowe-Lewis currently serves at-large on the council, and is seeking another term. She represented the Third District from 2003 – 2007, and has served at-large since 2011. She is currently facilities superintendent at the Yale School of Management. In May, she voted against the council’s amended budget.

Macdowall currently represents the Ninth District. He has been a frequent critic of Leng’s handling of town finances (read about that here and here), and has been present at many of the protests demanding action from the town on the April police shooting. In January, he pushed a single-use plastic bag ban through the council.

Baez is running for the council for the first time. At the Democratic Town Committee (DTC) convention in June, she garnered more votes than any other candidate seeking the party’s at-large endorsement. She is a grant manager for Construction Workforce Initiative 2, which helps unemployed workers get jobs. Her campaign website lists economic development, job creation, beautification, community dialogue, and health as her priorities.

The Republicans are also fielding four at-large candidates, two of whom are longtime veterans of the council.

Betty Wetmore has served on the council since 2001. She has been outspoken about town spending, and has called, and voted, for Hamden to cut back. She voted to flat-fund the BOE this year in budget deliberations, a vote that was not successful (though a number of Democrats also voted with her). She voted against the 3R initiative, saying she thinks it’s a great plan, but that Hamden simply can’t afford it.

Austin Cesare served on the council from 2011 until 2017. Before that, he served on the BOE from 2005 – 2011. He is a school teacher in Milford and adjunct faculty at Sacred Heart Academy.

Dian Lewis is a new face in Hamden politics, and is also running as a Republican at-large. She runs her own in-home care business, and is a Jamaican immigrant.

Dolphuss Addison rounds out the Republican at-large slate. He is a veteran, and, like many Republicans, has made budget oversight one of the pillars of his campaign.

District Races

Though races are happening in every council district, all eyes are on the Ninth District. Republican Marjorie Bonadies, who represented the district from 2013 – 2017, is running in her district again. She currently serves at-large. She is up against Democrat Sarah Gagne, who has never run before. Read more about that race here.

In the Eighth District are Democrat Kristin Dolan and Republican Salman Hamid, both vying for the seat that longtime council rep. Jim Pascarella is vacating. Hamid ran for mayor in 2017 and lost to Leng. Dolan is running for the first time, and works in property management.

In the seventh are incumbent Democrat Mike Colaiacovo and Republican challenger Tom Figlar. Figlar is a financial analyst, and was a vocal critic of the town’s decision to take the Wintergreen School building back last year.

In the sixth are Democrat Kathleen Schomaker and Republican Karlen Meinsen. Schomaker served on the council from 2005 – 2017, and now works part-time as the town’s energy efficiency coordinator. She beat incumbent Cory O’Brien in a primary in September. Meinsen is a teacher at Celentano Biotech, Health, and Medical Magnet School in New Haven. She is also married to Jay Kaye.

Democrat Justin Farmer is seeking reelection in the Fifth District. He has been a very vocal member of the council, joining protesters in putting pressure on the town to reform its police department, and criticizing Leng’s handling of town finances and opposing pension transfers. He is a student at Southern Connecticut State university. Republican Ralph Nicefaro is challenging him. Nicefaro is lifelong Hamden resident and a school teacher in Norwalk.

In the Fourth District, Yale Professor and Democrat Valerie Horsley is running against Republican and retired Nurse Marsha Walsh. Horsley ran in the primary for State Senate in 2018, but lost to Jorge Cabrera, who in turn lost to Republican incumbent George Logan. Walsh has served as chair of the town’s Fire Commission. Fourth District incumbent Eric Annes is vacating his seat.

Democrat Athena Gary is seeking reelection in the Third District. Republican Henry Veloza, who works in IT, is challenging her.

In the Second District, incumbent Democrat Harry Gagliardi is seeking reelection. He won a primary challenge in September. Now, Republican James Anthony, who ran at-large in 2017, is challenging him.

Democrat McGarry is running in his home district: the first. Republican Debra Rigney is challenging him. She previously ran for the House of Representatives and lost.

Board of Education

For the Board of Ed, the Democrats are fielding current board chair Chris Daur, and a newer voice in Hamden school politics: University of Bridgeport Professor Roxana Walker-Canton. Canton has been involved in a number of talks with the BOE about diversity in the district.

The Republicans have incumbent Vic Mitchell, and newcomer Gary Walsh, who teaches special education in New Haven.