Newton's Ward One win: Yalies tired of politics as usual

By David Altschuler

As New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., watched the election results come in from City Hall on Tues., Nov. 2, he had to be pleased with what he saw: he picked up almost 70 percent of the vote citywide and convincingly defeated Independent challenger James Newton. But if the election had been held in Ward One alone, DeStefano would have been singing a very different tune.

LIZ OLINER/YH Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., defeated James Newton but didn't win Ward One.

That's because voters in Ward One—which is comprised primarily of Yale students—chose Newton over DeStefano by a wide margin. While the vast majority of wards reelected DeStefano, Newton garnered 102 votes to DeStefano's 77 in Yale's ward. The vote share was the highest Newton got anywhere in the city and represented Newton's largest margin of victory.

"I knew Newton was going to do very well in the ward," Ward One Alder Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, said. "But when I heard the vote count—and that Newton had broken 100—I was very surprised."

Tuesday's results represent a tremendous loss of support for DeStefano in Ward One over previous years. In 1997, DeStefano picked up 263 votes and 87 percent of the vote share against a series of weaker challengers. In 1995, his share was even higher, clocking in at around 90 percent. While Newton was a more legitimate candidate than past DeStefano challengers, the fact remains that many voters who came out on Tuesday—only a fraction of Ward One's total voting population—did so to vote against the mayor.

"People who turn out are those who were generally displeased about how things are going," Yale College Democrats President Jonathan Thessin, MC '00, said. Gonzalez, who publicly endorsed the mayor, added, "There was definitely a type of protest vote. I think that a lot of those who did vote had had one or two experiences with the administration." Susan Coes, the mayor's press secretary, speculated that DeStefano's vote share would have increased with higher turnout.

Part of the anti-DeStefano sentiment appears to stem from student awareness of and dissatisfaction with the mayor's role in recent corruption scandals. "I think that although DeStefano has done a number of good things for the city, you can't run a city like it was your little kingdom," Adam Gordon, BR '00, a Ward One voter and volunteer for Pete Stein's, DC '99, aldermanic campaign, said. Newton, who made government ethics a large part of his platform, agreed with Gordon's assessment. "It appears to me that there was some student concern about corruption issues," he said.

That said, scandal alone doesn't seem to explain Newton's success amongst Yale voters. "Without a doubt, Ward One is generally a different ward," Thessin said. "There's not the same type of loyalty of students to the New Haven Democratic Party."

If this is true, Newton certainly exploited it to his advantage. The Independent candidate made several appearances on campus and met with student groups and campus leaders; DeStefano made only one visit in conjunction with Gonzalez to support the child poverty referendum.

In particular, Newton said his push for education reform was "a message that resonated well with students." Gonzalez, who publicly endorsed DeStefano, agreed that education in particular played a key role in Yalies' decision-making calculus. "It's hard for students to assess how bad the education system had been," he said. "What struck students as a weird response from DeStefano was pretending that schools were doing very well."

Gonzalez said that this lack of perspective affected public perceptions of DeStefano's performance in general. "People saw the election as DeStefano versus Newton now—not DeStefano as the mayor who brought New Haven back. The context made DeStefano `the esta-blishment.'"

Whatever the case, Yale and DeStefano will live together in Ward One for at least another two years. And Yale officials don't fear that Tuesday's result will cast a negative shadow over Yale's relationship with City Hall. According to Michael Morand, SY '87, DIV '93, Yale's vice president of education and government affairs in the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, the Community Leadership Award presented to University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, on Wed., Nov. 3, was proof positive that there is no ill will. "The University and the mayor enjoy a strong working relationship," he said. "The mayor reaffirmed that with President Levin yesterday."

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