Ward One searches for next student leader

When Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, finishes his term as Ward One Alderman this December, two jun iors, two sophomores, and one freshman are seeking the endorsement of the Ward One Democratic Committee in their bid to become the Ward One alderperson. Already, three have officially declared that they are seeking the position—Lex Paulson, ES '02, Irene J. Liu, SY'02, and Michael Montano, TD '03. Joining them soon will be Anne Leone, TD '02, and possibility Ben Healey, BR'04.

All five candidates rank issues of social and economic justice as foremost among their priorities. Liu is currently co-executive director of Student Health Outreach of New Haven-Yale (SHOUT), which enrolls eligible children in government-subsidized private health care plans. Montano has been involved for the past two months with community activists to stop the reopening of the English Station power plant. Paulson interned for the child advocacy group Connecticut Voice for Children. Leone is an officer in Student Legal Action Movement (SLAM), which focuses on prison reform through primary channels like public education. Healey, who only arrived in New Haven four months ago, quickly became involved in Dwight Hall through the Social Justice Network (SJN) and Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC).

Traditionally, the Ward One alderman has been deeply involved with progressive groups at Yale. But the position requires more than just an active involvement in the Yale community. Robert Smuts, SM '01, former vice president of the Yale College Democrats who has been an active participant in New Haven and campus politics, commented, "The alder must respond to something as benign as the construction of street lamps and as complicated as navigating through the local political order."

Setting up a search committee

A committee set up to examine Yale for potential Alderman is hard at work in the selection process. After declaring their intentions to seek the Ward One alder position, the candidates will be interviewed by a subcommittee of the Ward One Committee. The search committee, which interviews all the candidates, chooses up to four who move on to face the entire Ward One committee in late February. The Ward One Committee will then decide as a whole which candidate the Democratic Party will endorse for alderman.

The members of the Ward One Committee have not yet been publicized. With the exceptions of Stiles, Morse, Davenport, and Pierson, every residential college and all of Old Campus are included in Ward One's boundaries, making it an essential undergraduate voting block and giving Yale students a prominent role in New Haven politics.

In the past, this power has caused friction between Ward One and other wards. The majority of committee members have usually been liberal Yale undergraduates who have no interest in living in New Haven after graduation. The city's dominant political structures have in the past tried to control Ward One. New Haven Advocate Editor Paul Bass, JE '82, has covered New Haven politics for over 20 years and recalled that in 1989, Ward One's voting place was taken out of ward boundaries, presumably in an attempt to lessen the ward's influence.

Co-chairs of Ward One, Reverend Frederick Streets, DIV '75, and Bruce Blair, TC '81, have years of experience working with Yale and the rest of the New Haven community. Streets, as the Yale University chaplain and a member of the Board of Police Commissioners, holds a position of considerable moral weight in the city. Blair is also affiliated with the religious community as abbot and head of the New Haven Zen Center. He is also a part of the city's Environmental Advisory Board. These men's strong ties with the New Haven community distances them from Ward One's chief constituents. During the March 2000 elections, both Streets and Blair ran unopposed, retaining their offices as co-chairs.

Arbitrary arbiters?

Ward co-chairs are required by law to appoint committee members, but "with the level of apathy that runs through so many in the student body," Gonzalez said, "anyone who wants to participate can and is encouraged to."

Gonzalez bristles at the idea that the process of appointment might be unfair. "In the midst of all this talk about the process being undemocratic, I am waiting for some unknown victim to emerge to say that we've denied them," he said. To maintain the integrity of the search process, Gonzalez said that the students with whom he worked along with the co-chairs decided that they would conduct a low-key search process in the fall.

Smuts, currently assistant registrar of voters for Ward One, was one of the students who worked alongside Gonzalez to recruit students to serve on the Ward One Committee. "A tremendous amount of effort is found here, more than any other ward, and we have tried to reach the most diverse group of people this year," Smuts said.

Grace Rollins, CC '01, a former coordinator of the Women's Center, was on the search committee. "We didn't want to make it a magnet for ambition or insincerity," Rollins said. "This search for diversity is unprecedented."

Joseph Cohen, JE '02, who was approached as a potential candidate, worked extensively on voter registration through Stand Up and Vote and is currently coordinator of the College Resource Center, which provides high school students with college counseling. "It is not clear to me how things have been done in the past, but my impression from talking to the members of the search committee is that this has been the most extensive outreach effort," Cohen said. In the end, Cohen decided not to run. "I am from New Haven. I would like to get away from it for a couple of years. If I want to get involved in city politics later, I can."

The future of the process

As of yet, no date has been decided for the endorse ment that, according to Smuts and Singh, is expected in early March.

Ward committees in New Haven are required by law to endorse an aldermanic candidate. Singh supports the endorsement mechanism. "The outcome will be [one] that is more democratic and more informed than a primary, where the focus will be more on vote-getting than the endorsing the best candidate," Anika Singh, BR '01, explained.

Joshua Civin, CC '96, LAW '03, who served as Ward One alderman from 1994-97, said that he had always thought the process was not as democratic as it could be. "The very fact that there is an endorsement before a primary is unusual in comparison to other states. It harkens back to an older kind of politics," he said. When Civin was an alderman, he tried to change the Ward One Committee mandates, which must comply with Connecticut state law and thus would not be easy to change.

Nonetheless, Civin stresses that it is wrong to see endorsement as a coronation process. Within the confines of state law, Civin feels that this process is as open as it can be within the confines of state law and more open than any other ward in the city.

Gonzalez talked extensively about the disappointment with which he felt the endorsement process has been portrayed thus far. "I am outraged that the charge of undemocratic process has been laid upon us [without] a single piece of evidence proving that we have excluded or discriminated against anyone," he said.

Gerry Garcia, ES '94, Ward Nine alderman, said, "Ward One's endorsement process appears to me to be consistent with, but different from, the traditional process of selecting a member of the Board of Alderman."

He continued: "Thus far, the selection process in Ward One has involved people within an interest in Democratic politics and possibly and necessarily with committee membership. Therein lies the challenge. You can be part of the process or not. But this seems to be a system outside the existing process but beholden to the existing process."

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