{news} Ralph Ferrucci in Yale Daily News

[David Bedell]

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22256
Yale Daily News, Nov 6, 2007

Through third-party bid, Ferrucci fights status quo

Ben Beitler
Staff Reporter

Green Party mayoral candidate Ralph Ferrucci strides down Dixwell Avenue,
away from the Gothic spires of Yale and into one of New Haven’s more
dilapidated neighborhoods. It is the Sunday night before elections, and
Ferrucci means business.

“I mean this,” he says. “When I’m running for mayor, it’s for the win.”

Ferrucci, a perennial third-party candidate in New Haven elections, is
making his second bid for mayor in Tuesday’s election against Republican H.
Richter Elser ’81 and Democratic incumbent John DeStefano Jr.

This past weekend, Ferrucci went door-to-door seeking the support of
residents who do not normally vote and from those who might not have known
that they have an alternative choice to DeStefano, who is overwhelmingly
favored to win today’s election.

Ferrucci has focused his campaign on fighting police corruption, rebuilding
New Haven community centers and discrediting DeStefano, but many students at
Yale have expressed doubts about the Green Party hopeful’s promises —
especially his insistence on pressuring the University to donate more money
to New Haven.

Over coffee at the Book Trader Cafe, Ferrucci enumerated what he perceives
as the incumbent mayor’s failings.

“City Hall is so corrupt right now — the Democratic Party is so in bed with
DeStefano — that the only way to get him out is through an independent
party,” Ferrucci said. “A lot of people just don’t vote in New Haven. We’re
trying to attract new voters.”

On Monday, just one day before the election, Ferrucci’s campaign manager
Steven Pope stood on Dixwell as dusk fell, asking passersby if they had
registered to vote. After about 30 minutes, Pope noticed that the All Right
Corner Market was still open and convinced Ferrucci to try to talk to the
owner. Pope went into the cramped store first and told the man behind the
counter that Ferrucci wanted to talk to him.

After Pope left the store, Ferrucci walked in, and he and Robinson stood
together in silence for several seconds. Those close to Ferrucci say the
independent truck driver, who delivers cookies for Pepperidge Farms, is
comfortable around working-class people. Born and raised in New Haven,
Ferrucci graduated from the Eli Whitney Regional Vocational Technical School
in 1991 and later received a diploma for illustration from Paier College of
Art.

His father, Ron Ferrucci, said he always thought of his son as an artist and
was surprised when he entered politics.

And, he said, his son the candidate usually has trouble with public
speaking.

At the All Right Corner Market, Ferrucci broke the awkward silence by
mentioning a major part of his platform — taxing Yale.

“You gonna get his DeStefano ass out of there?” the man behind the counter
asked.

Ferrucci nodded.

“OK, I’ll vote for you,” the man said.

DeStefano said he is not worried about Ferrucci.

“I can’t say I feel threatened,” the mayor said. “I don’t think of elections
in that way. You do the best to get the chance to discuss the issues you
care about. If going door to door works for Ferrucci, then let him do it.”

Ferrucci’s platform is somewhat scattered and ambiguous — he wants to
channel money away from after-school programs and into youth community
centers, he wants the city to stop issuing Elm City ID cards and start
helping people become citizens, and he wants to press the University to give
more money to New Haven.

But he said his desire to provide New Haven with an alternative to DeStefano
is a driving force behind his campaign.

“The mayor does just enough to make himself look good,” Ferrucci said at
Book Trader.

This is not Ferrucci’s first time running against the seven-term mayor of
New Haven. In 2003, Ferrucci ran against DeStefano on the Guilty Party’s
ticket, with an eclectic platform including an initiative to run the city’s
school buses with vegetable-based bio-diesel and a pledge to forgo half the
mayor’s salary to fund a local homeless shelter. The Guilty Party had
entered the New Haven political scene two years earlier, when it was created
by local artist Bill Saunders as part of a piece for Artspace’s Citywide
Open Studios. In 2001, the Guilty Party ran Saunders’ drag queen alter ego,
Lil’ Miss Mess Up, for mayor. When organizers refused to give Lil’ Miss Mess
Up a place in a debate between DeStefano and his opponent, she crashed it.

Two years later, Ferrucci decided to run as the Guilty Party candidate,
mainly because no one else was running against DeStefano, he said. DeStefano
initially refused to debate Ferrucci in 2003, saying that his opponent was
more of a performance artist than a politician. Ferrucci made local bar Rudy
’s Restaurant his campaign headquarters and raised $850 from his
constituents, compared to DeStefano’s $220,000. And he wore a Che Guevara
T-shirt on Election Day.

“That campaign was all press, no actual campaigning,” Ferrucci said. “We
just wanted to get attention and alert people to how ridiculous the
situation was.”

Then Ferrucci received 15 percent of the total votes.

“That surprised a lot of people,” said Ferrucci. “That surprised me. I think
that really surprised the mayor.”

After that, Ferrucci decided to get serious about his bid for New Haven’s
highest political office, but Yalies remain skeptical of his platform.

Upon returning to campus from Dixwell on Sunday night, Ferrucci and Pope
attempted to engage Yale students on the street, asking them if they had
registered to vote in New Haven. The duo was largely ignored. Many students
simply walked past Ferrucci as he told them that he was running for mayor.

Yale College Democrats President Eric Kafka ’08 said he is suspicious of
Ferrucci’s plans to tax Yale because the University is a nonprofit
organization and is not taxable by law. The College Democrats have endorsed
DeStefano.

Ferrucci said he is uncertain about what will happen to the future of his
political career if his bid for the mayor’s office is unsuccessful.

“It’s been a long campaign,” he said. “If we lose, I’ll probably sit down
with Elser and talk about 2009.”