According to Newman, when we engage in local politics we're marginal, "disconnected from the real ideological battles in the country" when we engage in national politics we're "spoilers." And when we fight battles at a local level which actually have a tangible effect on peoples lives, Newman denigrates "the whole enterprise (as) marginal to real political fights that face working class families." Incidentally, while Newman was writing that, families in Fair Haven got an illegally dumped, rat infested pile of trash removed from a lot next to their houses. This matter was just as "marginal" to the Democrats who run this city as it would be to Newman.
I don't imagine there's a whole lot of interest in New Haven politics on this list, though I wouldn't be surprised if similar sorts of issues came up in various places where LBOers are reading this. So maybe it's worth grinding down the last remaining shards of Newman's claims so as to challenge Newman's larger point that progressives can safely leave city politics in the hands of "ultra-liberal" Democratic hacks such as New Haven Mayor John Destefano The facts are that Destefano:
-Has never "denounced" Yale at union rallies. (Newman knows this is a lie-I'm was at the same rallies) but has consistently trumpeted a "new spirit of cooperation" between Yale and New Haven, including:
a) stacking city boards and commissions with Yale functionaries. b) Refusing to locate a community college downtown because Yale opposed it. c) Spiking efforts undertaken by the board of alderman to increase municipal service payments from Yale university. d) Supporting huge tax breaks to the biotech industry which go directly into the pocket of Yale and a few companies spun off from Yale and have produced virtually no jobs for New Haven residents. Vehemently opposed by the unions. See http://www.ctneweconomy.org/Incubio.pdf
Whether Destefano's coziness with Yale will have serious negative consequences for the Yale organizing drive remains to be seen. Union leaders, however, are by no means confident which is why they came very close to backing Destefano's challenger in the last election, only pulling out when it was clear that he was going down big. It is also why they crossed the mayor by giving de facto endorsements to several Green candidates for alderman.
Advancing within the existing party structure requires both money (raised locally from lobbyists, real estate interests, and contracting firms ) and "credibility" which is achieved by making "responsible" choices as defined by the centrist Democratic consensus. So it should surprise no one that an ambitious politician like Destefano:
- Signed off on a highway widening project opposed by every major environmental organization in the state
- Invited into New Haven an oil fired power plant and only now publicly opposes it (now that the city's opposition is mainly symbolic) after his political cronies were removed from the power company's board of directors.
- Has for years failed to lobby the state legislature to close down another power plant operating in the city, the most polluting plant in the state.
- Is currently blocking attempts to enact campaign finance reform at a municipal level.
It is correct that by the existing standards of the Democratic party, a conventional big city hack like Destefano seems like an "ultraliberal". That's precisely the point the Greens are making.
So what are you doing in your home town?
-- John Halle Green Party Alderman Ward 9, New Haven, CT