In a hyperlocal embrace of political change, Upper Westville’s Ward 26 Democratic Ward Committee voted decisively on Sunday to support four-month Westville resident Eli Sabin for state representative over four-decade incumbent Patricia Dillon and fellow challenger Justin Farmer. The committee vote at Kehler Liddell Gallery was one of seven straw polls that will inform the Democratic Party’s formal endorsement of a candidate in the race in May. Sabin, Dillon, and Farmer are all running for the Democratic nomination to represent Connecticut’s 92nd District in the state House of Representatives, a district that encompasses parts of Amity, Westville, Edgewood, Dwight, West River, and the Hill. Read more about the race… Dillon’s fundraiser touting “deep experience” Farmer’s “individual team sport” fundraising pitch Sabin’s canvassing efforts in Edgewood and small businesses in the Hill Dateline New Haven interviews with Sabin, Farmer, and Dillon A window into each campaign’s donors …and stay tuned for more coverage! On Sunday, Sabin — a former East Rock/Downtown Alder, current legislative coordinator for CT Voices for Children, and soon-to-graduate Yale Law student — received support from 21 committee members. Nine members voted for Dillon, who is serving her 21st two-year term in the seat as the House’s deputy majority leader, serving on the Judiciary, Environment, and Appropriations Committees. One member voted for Farmer, an activist and former Hamden Legislative Council Member who pioneered a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) slate in the town. Fewer committee members decided to weigh in on the governor’s race. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont received votes of support from 20 committee members, while challenger Josh Elliott, a Democratic state representative from Hamden, received 8 votes. The ward committee’s poll functions as a non-binding recommendation as Ward 26 Co-Chairs Sharon Jones and Laura Cahn decide whom to endorse at a New Haven Democratic Town Committee (DTC) meeting planned for May 21 at the Betsy Ross Parish House. Historically, various Democratic Party ward co-chairs have taken a variety of approaches toward advisory votes taken by their respective committees, whether casting a double vote in support of the winner of the ward committee poll, splitting their votes to reflect dissent in the committee, or simply voting according to their personal opinions. During the DTC meeting on May 21, Jones and Cahn will join co-chairs from wards 2, 3, 23, 24, 25, and 27 in voting on whether the local Democratic Party should endorse Dillon, Sabin, or Farmer for the seat. The candidate who receives support from a majority of those co-chairs will automatically make it onto the Aug. 11 Democratic Primary ballot as the party-endorsed candidate, while the other two candidates will need to gather petition signatures from 5 percent of party members in the district. Cahn (who has personally expressed support for Dillon) and Jones said they will confer at a later date to determine whom they will be endorsing in their capacity as co-chairs at the May 21 DTC meeting. Marjorie Wiener. Ward 26 committee member Marjorie Wiener said she was surprised by the outcome of the vote on Sunday. “I really thought it was going to go to the experience,” in support of Dillon, she said. Wiener said she decided to support Sabin because it’s important to her to “try to let younger people take over” from her own generation. “I met Eli and I was impressed.” Candidates Weigh In On Immigrant Rights Jane Kinity presses the candidates on their immigration platforms. At a speedy forum prior to the vote, all three state representative candidates had a chance to make their pitch and respond to questions from New Haveners both within and outside of the ward. The topics ranged in scope from neighborhood identity to national political dynamics. Dwight resident and Ward 2 Co-Chair Jane Kinity asked a question rooted in her perspective as a Kenyan refugee and the founder of International New Hope for Refugees and Immigrants. She pointed out recent cuts from the Trump administration impacting organizations that serve refugees and immigrants. “If I elect you, how can you help refugees and people looking for papers?” she asked. She added a practical layer to the question: “Where are you going to get this money from to help to feed the people right now?” Sabin was the first to respond. “I think that right now, in this very dark moment where our federal government is attacking our immigrant and refugee neighbors,” he said, “it is crucial for our state to be standing on the side of our people and protecting our neighbors and our community members.” Sabin said he believes the state should be “putting its money where its mouth is.” The state should provide “financial support to help people hire lawyers,” he said, as well as “support to help the families when someone is taken or arrested.” At the moment, he noted, “a lot of that work is happening through groups like yours, through mutual aid and volunteers.” During the forum, Dillon tackled Kinity’s question about funding.“I would have no problem taking a serious look at some kind of a wealth tax,” she said. After the forum ended, she elaborated, “it’s terrifying that a parent doesn’t know whether their children will be safe” or “yanked off the street,” she said. She pointed to a bill recently set forth by the Judiciary Committee, on which Dillon serves, proposing a number of protections: it would restrict immigration enforcement in “protected areas” such as schools and hospitals, enable state residents to sue federal law enforcement agents for violating constitutional rights, and ban the use of data from license plate cameras for immigration enforcement purposes. “Whether or not we have funding for lawyers” remains to be seen, Dillon said. Farmer, meanwhile, pointed out that there is a shortage of immigration attorneys in the state. He called for more of a focus on community organizing and “cultural change” to undo “neoliberal policies… that not only cost all of us money” but cause “affliction.” “Yes, we need money toward our nonprofits and wrap-around services, but we need to actually be serious about how we’re going to put policy into actions,” Farmer said. “We have a crisis and we need to be serious about organizing.” The issue is personal for Farmer, who recalled speaking publicly for the first time at the outset of his campaign about how “three of my family members were deported by the time I was 10.” Question Probes Westville Roots Ward 26 Alder Amy Marx with co-chairs Sharon Jones and Laura Cahn, who organized the meeting. One pre-submitted, anonymous question asked the candidates how long they’d each lived in Westville and “what brought you here.” Two of the candidates have lived in the neighborhood for less than a year: Farmer moved in July, and Sabin moved in January. Sabin said he came to Westville because “I’m graduating law school next month, and “I always have been thinking that as I was heading to graduate from school, that I would love to live in Westville.” He added that his parents live in East Rock, the neighborhood where he grew up and had previously been living. “I though it would be a little nice to have a little more than six blocks between me and my parents,” he said. Sabin had announced his move to Westville the day his lease started on Jan. 1, hours before he was supposed to be inaugurated for another two-year term as an East Rock/Downtown alder. He emphasized his childhood roots in the neighborhood. He grew up in East Rock, he said, but went to Hebrew school at Beth El-Keser Israel, attended high school at Hopkins, and grew up playing baseball and soccer in the neighborhood. Farmer had earlier pointed to his family members who have called Westville home. He’s lived most of his life in Newhall, close to the New Haven-Hamden border. “If it was up to me, we would have stayed in Newhall,” Farmer said, but he said that his partner “wants 12 kids” and envisioned raising them in a different neighborhood. “We talked about places that we want to be in community. Westville is that place,” he said. “It’s a small knit community. Most of the activists and organizers in our city live in this part of the city. Access to our parks. In terms of spiritual community, we have connections here as well.” Dillon, meanwhile, described moving to Westville in the 1980s after living on Winthrop Avenue for a far simpler reason. “The house we bought at the time had a tree house in the back. And that is why we bought the house,” Dillon said. “The tree house is no longer there. The wood rotted,” she added, to laughter from the room. The committee convenes to discuss voting logistics. 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