Democratic and Republican candidates for New Haven’s September primaries are facing a bit of a setback. Both parties missed the filing deadline Wednesday for their candidates to be on the ballot.
The most notable name affected was state Sen. Toni Harp. Harp was endorsed as the Democratic mayoral candidate by the Democratic Town Committee on Tuesday. Now, she has to petition to get on the ballot. She needs roughly 2,400 signatures.
The blunder also hurts Michael Smart, who was nominated for city clerk, and 30 other Democratic aldermanic candidates.
“You never anticipate not being on the ballot after you’ve just been endorsed by 52 delegates to a Democratic convention,” Harp’s campaign manager Jason Bartlett said.
GOP Chairman Richter Elser openly admitted that the Republican mess-up was his fault.
“I simply got the day wrong to turn in the one piece of paper that was my job to turn in,” Elser said.
But Elser said it will admittedly be easier for the four Republican aldermanic candidates to get their needed signatures.
“They have to get 5 percent of the registered Republicans in each of their wards. In most cases around New Haven that means from 5 to 10 signatures,” Elser said.
All of the signatures are due by Aug. 7 in order to get on the Sept. 10 primary ballots.