Group rallying for Harp cites race as factor in her loss
By Mary E. O’Leary
NEW HAVEN — An unhappy group of residents, calling themselves the People’s Campaign for Toni Harp, promised to go doorto-door to get votes for her in the mayoral race where she has a place on the Working Families Party line.
Harp has decided to suspend her campaign after losing 5,150 to 7,198 for Justin Elicker in the Democratic primary on Sept. 10 The rhetoric was hot with references to racial division and a vote for Elicker characterized as being “disloyal to a member of our community.”
Organized by Emma Jones and attorney Alex Taubes, about 40 people stood in front of the statute of Cinque outside City Hall, and rebuffed the idea of unity within the Democratic Party.
Elicker declined to comment late Friday.
Taubes said Harp had nothing to do with organizing the event. “It was all my idea,” he said.
“We know that we cannot be pulled together in the way the Democratic Party is saying come together. The Democratic Party apparently thinks it is OK to be disloyal to a member of our community and and to push her aside and to treat her in the most vicious kind of manner and then turn around and say” ‘Now come forward and let’s unite.’ We cannot and will not unite with anyone who publicly lynched our leader,” Jones said as the crowd chanted “no way.”
“He not only divided the community, the blacks from the blacks, because we are divided now because of the very hateful material he distributed among us ... The other thing that he did, was that he divided the black community from the white community and we need to look at that because it says to me that the people who voted in the white area for Elicker, for me it sounds like a situation that has pushed us back way before the civil rights movement,” Jones said.
She objected to a piece of campaign literature that summed up the issues in the campaign, from teacher layoffs, to an FBI investigation, election violations, costly lawsuits, changes in the city’s lead ordinance and a tax increase, among other things.
Jones said they were upset about the outcome of the election and “you can’t say be quiet about a struggle we have had since slavery and now into the 21st century. Don’t ask us to not to talk about ... how can we not talk about race. You made it racial. Part of our problem, is that we have been too quite for too long. But now you pushed us to the point, if we have any kind of dignity and self respect, we have no choice to no. You can’t destroy our leaders’ legacy ....”
She said “let’s go to the churches and everywhere else. Where do you stand in terms of righteousness and justice.”
The turnout at the election was lighter than expected by both camps.
Former Alder Robert Lee, who called the election “a coup set against the mayor,” said the black community did not come out to vote in the numbers that were needed. He said everyone should grab 25 people and get them to the polls in November.
“I’m going to blame us for this because we did not come out. Blacks did not come out in bulk. Let’s keep it 100,” Lee said. “When Toni became mayor we came out strong. We have to do that again. We can’t assume because we saw a Barack Obama commercial on TV she was going to win.”
He was referring to a commercial where the former president praised the mayor.
“We have made history when we put our first black leader in. We have made history when we put our first black woman in. Let’s not go backwards ... Let’s vote in Nov. 5,” he said, as the crowd shouted “Dispel the lies.”
Elicker won outright several African American and Latino wards, which included Ward 6 in the Hill; Ward 14 and Ward 15 in Fair Haven and Ward 21 in Newhallville.
The more diverse wards in the city also went for Elicker, such as Ward 8 in Wooster Square; Ward 13 in Fair Haven Heights; Ward 26 in Westville, Ward 19 and Ward 17; he lost Beaver Hills by just 8 votes. Elicker kept the less diverse wards with the greatest voter participation, such as downtown, East Rock, Ward 18 on the East Shore and Westville’s Ward 25. The mayor had won Wards 13 and 17 in 2013, when she first ran against Elicker.
Appeals to race or class did come up in the campaign, but it was the Harp campaign that was criticized. It included an intimation that Elicker’s proposal to use drones to help catch illegal dirt bike riders was a ruse to spy on minority neighborhoods. The campaign also accused his wife, a U.S. attorney, of being behind the FBI investigation into the city Youth Services Department.
Observers of the primary race found that Elicker campaigned in every neighborhood, while Harp stayed mainly in the black and brown neighborhoods and got a later start than her challenger.
One speaker called the election “a political rape. We don’t like it, but that’s what it came down to. What are going to do is tell the truth. We have to dispel the lies that were told. We know what Toni Harp has done for the city and how much of a difference she has made. ... She is highly qualified, exceptionally qualified ...” She said they have to go out and convince people to vote for Harp.
Several others spoke, including Carroll E. Brown, a black leader and activist in West Haven.
“There is no reason why we should be here with New Haven looking the way that it looks,” Brown said. She said they don’t need money, just people to get out the vote.
“We need to have a real serious grassroots campaign for Toni now. If we galvanize ourselves,” she said.
“It is our community, our community that is persecuting Toni. It is our community. There are individuals in New Haven that we should take of care of in order to make this right,” Brown advised the crowd. She said all they need to do is get people to come to the polls.
The group plans to keep organizing.
mary.oleary@hearstmedia ct.com ; 203-641-2577
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