NH Register: DeStefano says hell champion workers

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NH Register: DeStefano says hell champion workers

The New Haven Register July 23, 2006

By Andy Bromage

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. is explaining to Middletown senior citizens, with slicing hand gestures, why a property tax freeze for the elderly would make good public policy when he adds what has become a familiar coda on the campaign trail: "And it's the right thing to do."

The refrain might be tossed aside as yet another sound bite, but these seven words actually speak volumes about the values motivating DeStefano's quest to be the next governor, he and those closest to him say.

New Haven's seven-term mayor speaks passionately about working for a living and running for office to "do stuff like the Yale cancer center, not preside in the marching parades."

DeStefano's administration famously held out on zoning approvals for the cancer center until Yale-New Haven Hospital agreed to let its workers vote on unionization. The hospital ultimately agreed, zoning approvals sailed through and DeStefano dodged a torpedo that threatened to sink his aspirations for statewide office.

Some saw the showdown as blatant pandering to organized labor, a longtime base of political support, but DeStefano insists it was a fight for middle-class values.

"I come from a city of workers," DeStefano said. "Everyone should work for a living but work should pay. Where I stand is going to be with working families all the time."

As a candidate for governor, DeStefano has packaged himself as a champion of the middle class, campaigning on universal health care, a "moral" minimum wage, property tax reform and taxing windfall profits for energy companies. He is running hard to the left, hoping that voters will turn on the moderate Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in November and elevate him to the Capitol.

First, he must beat Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy in an Aug. 8 Democratic primary that, with just 16 days left, is seen as a dead heat. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday gives DeStefano a 20-point lead over Malloy, the endorsed Democrat, but fully half of all respondents said they were likely to switch their vote before the primary.

So the mayors have taken their tug-of-war to the airwaves in paid commercial advertising funded through the millions they have raised in two and a half years on the campaign trail, and on debates aired live on television and radio.

In a recent interview, DeStefano discussed his motivations for running for governor, the lessons he has learned as mayor and the role his Catholic faith plays in his life.

The mayor walks from City Hall to St. Mary's Church in New Haven for morning mass five days a week to clear his head, he said. Church helps to keep his public life in perspective, DeStefano said, just as his upbringing in the city's Morris Cove section and his family life have guided his management style.

"I grew up in a household where it was always abundantly clear that I was loved by my mother and father," he said. "I never had any doubt about that. The city, to me, is just taking the idea of family and working together beyond the idea of blood relationships. It's that these values are shared across races, across income groups and I saw it in the city and I saw it during my presidency of the National League of Cities."

DeStefano said the cancer center agreement illustrates the kind of teamwork that have come to define his 13 years as mayor and what he envisions for the state. New Haven has undergone a big-budget renaissance on DeStefano's watch - with billions poured into public schools, public housing and downtown development - and his campaign proposals are equally grand.

DeStefano wants to spend $6 billion over 10 years to overhaul the transportation infrastructure and $175 million on new energy initiatives.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said it's DeStefano's bold ideas and tough political edge that make him an effective leader.

"I've watched John DeStefano turn this city around," said DeLauro, who said she grew up in city politics with DeStefano. "You don't do that by not having vision and ideas, you don't do it by sitting back and not being a leader and you don't do it by saying 'yes' to everyone. John has been out in front. He has led the pack on looking at new ways to address very serious problems the state has."

State Senate Majority Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and DeStefano waged a bitter primary fight for mayor in 2001 but have since mended fences, and Looney now counts himself among DeStefano's supporters. Looney also said DeStefano's aggressive approach is an asset, but said it's unclear whether Connecticut voters are ready for an activist executive.

"On paper, we are a state with far more Democrats than Republicans, but we have more unaffiliated voters than anything," Looney said. "The state has become increasingly suburban and voter turnout in the Democratic central cities tends to be lower. That is the key question and it is the challenge."

What DeStefano can count on is the largest mustering of organized labor support for a candidate in over a decade. Forty labor groups representing 160,000 workers have endorsed DeStefano for governor and in June he won a rare endorsement from the Connecticut AFL-CIO.

Locally, DeStefano has earned a reputation for teamwork but also for hardball politics and a vindictive streak. DeStefano was widely seen as orchestrating the ouster of Jorge Perez as president of New Haven's 30-member Board of Aldermen because he and the mayor clashed from time to time. Perez was replaced by DeStefano-backed Carl Goldfield and new committee chairs friendlier to his agenda.

DeStefano campaign spokesman Derek Slap said there was a "groundswell" of support among board members to change leadership and defended the mayor's record.

"The mayor has gotten things done and that's the test of being an effective mayor and an effective administrator," Slap said. "It's not a popularity contest. I don't think anyone would say New Haven's not a better place now than it was before."

DeStefano said he is prepared to place his fate in the hands of voters.

"If I walked away from the race, win or lose, feeling like I talked about the things that I thought were important, what's better than that?" DeStefano said. "I think about getting through everyday in a fashion I can feel comfortable with, my family feels comfortable with and my city feels comfortable with. I could live with Aug. 8 at 11 o'clock, however it turns out, as long as I can answer that. Because there are bigger things in life than elections."

NH Register: DeStefano says hell champion workers

NH Register: DeStefano says hell champion workers