{news} New Haven mayoral race in Hartford Courant

[David Bedell]

The Guilty Party candidate is described as "the greenest of the candidates." 
  But notice that the Guilty Party lost their ballot access through an 
oversight (missing a filing deadline?), so the candidate has to run as a 
write-in.  That's too bad.  Ralph, could Green and Guilty join forces next 
year if we secure a ballot line?


http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-nhelection1030.artoct31,0,1397155.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

Who Wants To Be New Haven's Mayor?
A Preacher, An Outreach Worker, A Store Manager ... Oh, And The Incumbent

By KIM MARTINEAU
Courant Staff Writer

October 31 2005

NEW HAVEN -- An outreach worker for teenage moms, a night manager for Stop & 
Shop and an evangelical preacher who once worked security for President 
Nixon all have one thing in common.

They want to be New Haven's next mayor.

None has run for political office before but each aspires to unseat longtime 
Mayor John DeStefano Jr., a Democrat who is running for his seventh term at 
the same time he's running for governor. With DeStefano busy traveling the 
state, the three mayoral hopefuls have seized on his distraction to portray 
their Goliath-like opponent as an "absentee mayor" too busy running for 
higher office to run the city.

Gary Jenkins, 54, is a former Marine who worked security for the Nixon White 
House. He has also been a TV anchor, a state prison spokesman and worked on 
DeStefano's campaign twice before landing a job as a spokesman in the 
mayor's administration. Now Jenkins wants his old boss's job. A preacher at 
Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Jenkins claims DeStefano has lost New 
Haven's pulse. Wearing a three-piece suit with a "Gary Jenkins for Mayor" 
button pinned to his lapel, he launched into his campaign pitch at an art 
gallery in Westville Thursday night.

As Jenkins' voice boomed, he sounded as if he were standing before a pulpit 
instead of a wall of paintings and a spread of wine and cheese at a sparsely 
attended political function. Though he is a registered Democrat, Jenkins is 
running as an independent.

If elected, Jenkins says he would lower taxes and lure families to New Haven 
by building a multiplex movie theater downtown, along with an arcade and a 
roller rink. "I'm going to be the king of fun in New Haven," he promised.

Leslie Harper Blatteau, 30, also wants to be mayor. Blatteau sings in two 
bands, writes plays for a theater company she founded with a local 
hairdresser and teaches aerobics to expecting mothers and women who have 
just given birth. Her day job: helping teenage mothers stay in school. 
Originally from Philadelphia, she settled in New Haven after graduating from 
Yale. If elected, Blatteau says she would expand affordable housing and day 
care, make school lunches more nutritious and encourage more citizens to 
bike.

Blatteau is running on the Guilty Party line, a party formed in 2001 by her 
campaign manager, Bill Saunders, a punk rock musician who ran for mayor the 
same year under his stage name "Lil Miss Mess-Up." Mess-Up made national 
news after crashing a mayoral debate in a polka-dot dress and fishnet 
stockings, holding a racket-size lollipop.

Two years ago, the Guilty Party was the only party to run a candidate 
against DeStefano: Ralph Ferrucci, an artist who drives a Pepperidge Farm 
truck. After winning an astonishing 12 percent of the vote, Ferrucci 
propelled the Guilty Party into the "Harper's Index" of Harper's Magazine, 
which tracks the world's economic, political and cultural climate. 
Ferrucci's showing guaranteed the party a place on the ballot this fall, but 
because of an oversight by party managers, Blatteau could only secure 
"write-in" status. That means anyone who wants to vote for her must reach 
for a slip of paper inside the voting booth and write her name.

On Thursday, a painter and friend of Blatteau's opened the doors of Kehler 
Liddell Gallery in Westville to introduce the public to this year's quirky 
slate of candidates. DeStefano was a no-show, though he did participate in a 
debate held by the NAACP last week. Eric Brown, 47, a customer service 
manager for Stop & Shop, didn't make it either. Last week, the Green Party 
candidate was on a Caribbean cruise he scheduled a year ago, he said, and on 
Thursday he had to work. Brown is active at St. Matthews Unison Free Will 
Baptist Church in New Haven, where former Mayor John Daniels is a deacon.

DeStefano's campaign manager, Tyrone McClain, said the mayor stands on his 
record of cutting crime and improving education. The attacks do not merit a 
response, he said.

So far, DeStefano has raised $146,600, campaign records show. Lawyers, 
architects and those in construction gave generously. Jenkins, the next-best 
financed candidate, raised $2,400 by holding four street-corner "fish fries" 
and an event at a bowling alley. Blatteau raised $800 by performing at Café 
Nine with her punk band, Hygiene Wilder, on her birthday.

The money bought postcards with her face superimposed over city hall. A 
sharpened pencil reminiscent of mini-golf is taped to each card to remind 
voters whose name to write on Election Day.

The greenest of the candidates, Blatteau learned one political tip this fall 
from Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's stepson - never tell someone "nice to meet 
you." If you're a seasoned politician, chances are you've met them before. 
"Nice to see you," avoids hurt feelings, she explained over a cup of green 
tea at the Educated Burgher last week.

"That makes sense to me!" she said.

Jenkins, a polished public speaker, says he doesn't take advice, and 
slipping once again into preacher mode, explained why: "All these sneaky 
tips people have - that's for them. I'm just going to be me. I can't and 
WILL NOT sculpture my personality based on someone else."

At the gallery on Thursday, Yair Minsky, a Yale math professor originally 
from Israel, listened as Blatteau talked about the high cost of rent and day 
care in New Haven.

By the time he left, he was still confused about the Guilty Party but liked 
what Blatteau had to say. "I'd consider voting for her," he said. "Maybe if 
she gets enough votes, she'll spur things to happen."

Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant