Election '99: after strong start, newcomers lose

By Ayon Nandi

After an election season full of controversies over contested votes, corruption in city government, and racially charged letters, New Haven voters treated incumbents rather kindly on Tues. Nov. 2. Voters gave Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. another term in office with 11,423 votes, reelected Ward One Alder Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, and Ward Nine Alder Jelani Lawson, MC '96, and put most of the local incumbents back in their seats, including Ward 22 Alder Grace Gibbs, who defeated Pete Stein, DC '99. In contrast to the mayoral election, where James Newton was able to give DeStefano the biggest challenge he has faced in years, the aldermanic races were mostly uncontested. Unopposed democratic candidates ran in 21 of New Haven's 30 wards. The Board of Aldermen for 2000 will have 28 democratic aldermen and two republican aldermen—the same proportion as in 1999.

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH About 38 percent of New Haven votes cast their ballots on Tues., Nov. 2.

The mayoral race, not the aldermanic races, accounted for the higher-than-normal election turnout. This year, about 38 percent of the electorate voted, according to preliminary calculations by Republican Registrar of Voters Rae Tramontano and Democratic Registrar of Voters Sharon Ferrucci. In 1997, turnout was just 32 percent, and in 1995, it was 35 percent. Though the Ward 22 race between Stein and Gibbs was most controversial—"one of the busiest wards," according to Tramontano—"most folks were out there for the DeStefano-Newton race."

The victory of DeStefano and the 28 Democratic alders show provide strong evidence of the Democratic party's overwhelming presence in New Haven. Independent party candidates Stein and Newton pointed to this unopposed control as a sign of a "democratic machine." Newton ran on a campaign highlighting the corruption in DeStefano's administration. Newton's anti-DeStefano messages got the best reception in Ward One—which includes most of Yale's campus—and Ward 21, a predominantly working-class neighborhood. DeStephano's landslide 12,328 votes to Newton's 5,021 demonstrated "the persistence of the machine politics in the city," Gonzalez explained.

Yet despite the ultimate failures of the challengers to traditional Democrats, Ward Seven Alder Gerald Garcia, a Democrat, said, "What we're seeing is the beginning of a new generation of Democrats and others—they're forward thinking, independent, and unwilling to accept an antiquated Democratic machine." He said challenges to the status quo would only increase in the future.

Stein based his run on the belief that "the Democratic machine that runs the city needed to be challenged and people weren't doing that."

Speaking of his defeat to Domocratic incumbent Gibbs, Stein said, "The machine won this election, not Grace Gibbs. [The Gibbs camp] had everyone from the Democratic side there, from the mayor on down."

Gonzalez also acknowledged the presence of the same "machine," but viewed the "machine as two parts. Nobody but the Democrats can govern efficiently. The other part is having a limited amount of civic leaders." Such civic leaders, Gonzalez said, "are people who are seen as the pillars of the community," and can support new candidates with the appropriate funds.

Lawson, however, said, "In any given polity you're going to have a party that understands how to get out the vote. However, there would be more debate [on the Board of Aldermen] if the Republican party were stronger."

The other controversy in the Stein-Gibbs campaign was a letter, distributed throughout the wards just a few days before the election, and signed by ward party chairs William Gray and Linda Cox, which labeled Stein as a "carpetbager [sic]" and called his supporters "Uncle Toming [sic] black folks."

In spite of her recent downplaying of the letter, Gibbs expressed to the Herald on Thurs., Sept. 30, views that were very similar to those in the letter. "Yalies think they can just come in and wave magic wands. [Stein] comes from Trumbull. He should look to his own neighborhood first. Trumbull, Conn. has the highest incidents of racial profiling in the U.S." She added, "[Ward 22] is mostly black. Stein can't relate to us."

"I was appalled by it," Stein said of the letter. Yet he remained positive about the election outcome. "We won on so many levels. We showed that you can run an honest campaign the way it should be done."

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