JOHN YI/YH

Making a splash in the city's political pool

Prior to the Ward Seven fiasco, whatever ethical debate existed over Yale students' involvement in New Haven politics was largely philosophical. On Tues., Sept. 14, it took on a more practical character.

The hotly contested Ward Seven Democratic aldermanic primary between incumbent Esther Armmand and Asit Gosar, PC '00, was to provide a real indication of whether Yale student candidates could reach into yet another ward populated by a majority of non-student residents. When Gosar's primary victory was tainted by charges that he illegally registered voters from outside of Ward Seven, many were quick to condemn the student as emblematic of the difficulty of Yale people injecting themselves into local politics.

"Of course, when anybody from Yale steps out of line, people love to moralize about the failures of Yale students in that respect," said School of Management Professor Douglas Rae, who also served as the city of New Haven's Chief Administrative Officer during 1990 and 1991.

But to reduce the discussion of Yale-associated politicians to an examination of the Gosar controversy ignores a long tradition of Yale students and graduates serving New Haven in elected offices—a tradition that has expanded in recent years. Indeed, on Tues., Nov. 2, residents of New Haven cast ballots in four separate local government elections involving individuals with close Yale ties. Incumbents Julio Gonzalez, CC '99 (D-1), Jelani Lawson, MC '96 (D-2), and Gerald Garcia, ES '94, SOM '01 (D-9), each won reelection, and will begin their second terms on the Board of Aldermen in January.

The fourth race took place in Ward 22, where Independent challenger Pete Stein, DC '99, was defeated by incumbent Grace Gibbs (D-22) by more than a two-to-one margin. That Stein was even a factor in Ward 22—an area whose economic and demographic makeup symbolically distance it from Yale—is indicative of the increasing presence of Yale students and graduates in the New Haven political scene. While this year's races have generated publicity and speculation about town-gown tensions in elected city offices, many individual Yale students and graduates have succeeded over the past 25 years in defining roles for themselves within the Board of Aldermen—and that tradition shows no signs of waning.

No stepping stone

Left to right: Ward Two alder Jelani Lawson, MC '96, Ward One alder Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, Ward Nine alder Gerry Garcia, ES '94, SOM '01.

The second-term victories of Gonzalez, Lawson, and Garcia mark an unusual development in the history of Yale-affiliated alders—the overwhelming majority of students and graduates to serve on the Board have stayed for just one term. It is no accident, however, that some of the more successful students and graduates have worked for multiple terms, giving them greater credibility among fellow politicians and fostering a more substantial working relationship with the community at large.

The current mayor of Washington, D.C., Anthony A. Williams, SM '79, was an alder during his time in New Haven. Elected in 1978 while still an undergraduate, Williams served for two terms as the representative of Ward Two, the neighborhood Lawson currently serves. Even though he was a student, Williams, who had taken several years off between high school and Yale, felt his age and experience enabled him to connect to his constituents.

"My election isn't even similar to what happened this September in Ward Seven," Williams said. "I didn't launch my campaign from a dorm room. I had an off-campus apartment and because of my age I was more identified with the community. There wasn't a Yale student voting block—I had to make my case to the community that I could represent the whole ward."

During his tenure, Williams had a good working relationship with his colleagues on the board, and was even named President Protempore, the second-highest ranking position in the body. The real contests Williams fought were against the established power structure of the city. "I frequently found myself in the majority," Williams said. "Because New Haven has essentially been a one party system, schisms represent the philosophic divides of the Democratic Party. I mostly battled the `patronage' machine, which is still in force today."

Despite Rae's insistence that a spot on the Board of Aldermen hardly guarantees a "seat on Congress," Williams took many lessons from his days in New Haven with him to Washington. "I gained a sense of the potential rewards of representing people and advocating for their needs and interests," Williams said. "Public service is an important responsibility, but it's also a great opportunity for personal growth and fulfillment."

The Board of Aldermen is primarily a localized body, with representatives serving their constituents on a host of neighborhood issues ranging from street repair to crime, as well as city-wide issues such as land use and taxation. According to Williams, the presence of Yale students and graduates on the Board is an important way to connect the campus and the community. "Students share many of the same issues and concerns as everyone else, like public safety and a clean environment," he said. "They also have an obligation to contribute—not just politically, but more broadly as members of the community."

Unmaking the myth

That type of service was the model for another two-term Yale-affiliated alder who served at the end of the decade that Williams began. For Michael Morand, SY '87, DIV '93, election to the aldermanic post followed an undergraduate career spent establishing ties to the neighborhood he would eventually represent. "I knew I wanted to settle in New Haven, and I was active in the city's civic life," said Morand, who is now the Assistant Vice President of Education and Government Affairs with Yale's Office of New Haven and State Affairs. "I did a lot of community service and I worked on several political campaigns since 1983. Because of my involvement, I got to know some political leaders and grassroots leaders who encouraged me to run in 1989."

Morand was elected to his first term in 1989 as part of a landslide victory for Mayor John Daniels and his allies. Like the current crop of student alders, Morand opted to run for reelection, which he won in 1991. Morand's ability to generate voter interest and participation more than compensated for whatever perceived lack of credibility he might have faced because of his short tenure in the city.

"In my first term, Ward One had the highest voter turnout of any of the 30 wards in the city," Morand said. "People knew we worked very hard to raise political involvement and get voter turnout. The level of electoral activism is more important than any single other factor."

According to Morand, the restrictions imposed by the Yale label only go as far as the individual alder. "It's a myth that there is a huge amount of antagonism between New Haven residents and the University. On the city government, you get ahead by proving who you are," he said. "It's not a matter of being a Yalie versus an East Shore resident, just as it is not simply a matter of being black or white."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Yet issues of black and white continue to plague New Haven politics, and race became a volatile focal point in the Ward 22 campaign. Last weekend, a letter signed by 22nd Ward Democratic Committee co-chairpersons Pete Gray and Linda Cox was circulated in the Dixwell community. The letter referred to Stein, who is white, as a "carpetbager" [sic] and to his supporters as "Uncle Toming black folks" [sic]. Stein reacted strongly to the propaganda. "I was appalled by it. I was expecting such trash to come out, but I was surprised that they signed it," he said. "What they wrote was insulting to me and to every black person in the neighborhood." Though no mention was made of Stein's Yale connections, the line between race-baiting and Yale-baiting is thin.

Despite Morand's insistence on the cohesiveness among Yale representatives and long time New Haven residents on the Board, several points of tension are evident within the Board framework. One of the primary challenges facing alders whose ties to New Haven began at Yale is a perception of transience. "Some people really want to invest in you as a leader or as somebody involved in things, but they find it difficult to trust you because they don't know how long you're going to be here," Gonzalez said.

Closely connected to the issue of temporary residence in New Haven is the association of the Yale name with elitism and privilege. "A large portion of the board, maybe half, really doesn't have that much educational background," Rae said. "That builds a divide between aldermen that can't be ignored. Yale is connected to the elite and scholarly institutions around the world, and the New Haven Board of Aldermen is really as far from that as you can get."

Gonzalez feels additional pressures connected to the Yale label. "I do feel like there's a higher scrutiny as a result of that Yale label," he said. "It implies a certain amount of class privilege and righteousness about one's ideology that sometimes people in the community feel uncomfortable with." These perceptions can manifest themselves both when Gonzalez is performing the daily tasks of his position and when his goals are more lofty. "When you show up and you say, `I really need this sidewalk,' or `I want to be a player, I want to have a piece of the pie and really influence decisions,' people say, `No, you're here for the short term, you're too liberal, too idealistic'—whatever it might be," he said.

And despite this week's election results, Robert Smuts, SM '01, campaign manager for Gonzalez's reelection bid, believes the Gosar-Armmand debacle in Ward Seven cannot be erased from the collective memory. "Every race involving Yale students will have the shadow of the Ward Seven scandal hanging over it," Smuts said. "Even in Ward One, the question was there before Gosar of whether Yale students should vote, and whether they should be trusted to be elected. Because of Gosar, that perception has been built upon, and that is why it was so damaging."

The Trinity

When Gonzalez speaks about his position on the board, he often speaks of a "we." That we consists of Gonzalez, Lawson, and Garcia, the so-called Yale triumvirate who have made their mark on the Board of Aldermen over the past two years. Rather than just securing their seats and doing their aldermanic duties, Gonzalez articulates a broader vision: "The current Yale aldermanic project is tied into a few things—developing new leaders, influencing city politics, and just getting involved."

The cohesion between the three men is not predicated on serving similar constituencies. Gonzalez's Ward One consists predominantly of Yale students and faculty; Lawson's Ward Two is made up largely of working-class residents; and Garcia's Ward Nine is the most diverse of the three, including affluent, working-class, and graduate student populations. But the Yale three are not united principally by their ties to the University. "It's definitely more an inter-generational issue than anything," Gonzalez said. "A lot of the younger people on the board, both young in terms of age and in terms of seniority, tend to align with each other because they go through similar situations. [Jelani, Gerry, and I] try to bring a more youthful perspective to public service than that of some of our colleagues."

Like Morand, Gonzalez feels it is possible to be an active member of aldermanic debate simply by understanding people. "Politics is just an aggregate of many people and personal relationships. If you understand that aggregate as its little pieces, you go a long way towards overcoming the problem of not being around for a long time."

Even so, Gonzalez does not wish to be limited by his Yale affiliation. "At first, I thought I could change the entire perception of the Yale alderperson by being a more nuanced alderperson," Gonzalez said. "But increasingly I feel that leaving the Yale alderperson image means talking about the Yale community in a different way—actually dealing with issues of substance for real people."

As each of the Yale three enter their second terms, there is a sense of a larger impact on the workings of the city. "I think if we continue to build young leaders and do positive things in this city, we can significantly contribute to creating new leadership, and that ultimately affects how policy works and how things are governed," Gonzalez said.

To be continued

"All things considered, Yale students have made the Board of Aldermen a better institution than it would have been without them," Rae said. "I think they tend to open the agenda a little further than it would otherwise have been opened, and to ventilate ideas which might otherwise not have found expression."

There is no indication that the tradition of Yale students and graduates serving on the Board of Aldermen will be reversed anytime soon. Morand strongly supports the continued involvement of Yale students in the political life of the city they call home. "The charter of Yale University says that the school was founded to train students to serve the state and church," Morand said. "This institution is based on the idea that students should be leaders in all areas. I think they should be encouraged to participate."

Anna Dolinsky, Orianne Dutka, and Laurie Randell contributed to this article. Photos of Jelani Lawson and Julio Gonzalez by John Yi. Photo of Gerry Garcia by Patrick McGarvey.

Back to News...