The wooing of Latino voters provided one of the few clashes between New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy. The two Democratic mayors are seeking the right to challenge Connecticut's Republican Governor Jodi Rell in November:
At a debate sponsored by the Puerto Rican Affairs Commission's Toastmasters Club, the two governor wannabees tried to out pander one another.
According to Connecticut's Channel 8 WTHN, the first question concerned illegal aliens and the candidates responded by highlighting what they have done for illegal aliens in their own cities:
"I have taken a clear stand that with demonstration of a birth certificate or matricular document, we issue id photos to residents of our city," says DeStefano.[. . .]
Mayor DeStefano said tonight he urges his police force not to be like a federal patrol and treat illegal immigrants as citizens.
Mayor Malloy said the nation must create a system to allow millions of illegal immigrants to be legalized, moving them "up the ladder to citizenship."
the Hartford Courant's Mark Pazniokas reports that the candidates became a bit snippy.
DeStefano ridiculed the Latino hiring record of Malloy, claiming 500 Latinos are employed by the city of New Haven, compared with only 100 by Stamford.
Malloy hit back, blaming DeStefano's opposition for recently costing Jorge Perez his position as president of the New Haven Board of Aldermen:
"There is a way to demonstrate fidelity with the Latino community, and I happen to think that when Jorge Perez was not elected as the head of the aldermanic board in New Haven, it was a huge breach of trust, not just in New Haven, but on a statewide basis," Malloy said.[. . .]
"They had the second highest Latino municipal official in the state. He took him out. That's what he did," Malloy said. "It gets under his skin a little bit. You saw that reaction tonight, but that is a reality."
Malloy has been endorsed by Jorge Perez and other ranking Latinos, including Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez.
The Associated Press provides more detail:
DeStefano boasted how his city employs about 500 Latinos while Malloy's employs less than 100. And he told the crowd at the Legislative Office Building that his last two chiefs of staff and the city's police chief are Latino, while chiding Malloy for touting how he has been endorsed by Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, a Latino."I don't need to talk about other people because I can talk about what I've done," DeStefano told the crowd. He also pointed to various bilingual programs in New Haven schools and other initiatives to help Latino families.
But Malloy said he is proud of his city's record and said he has been targeted by anti-immigration groups who believe he has been too supportive of Latinos and others. Malloy said no mayor in Stamford's history has been more aggressive than he has in hiring minorities in city government.
[. . .]
Both Malloy and DeStefano said their respective cities do not discriminate against undocumented immigrants if they seek city services. And both Democrats said they believe there should be a way for illegal immigrants to legalize their status in the U.S.
"We need to secure our borders. There are homeland security reasons, there are reasons that simply make sense to protect all of our citizens," Malloy said. "But we should never turn against the people who have worked so hard in this state and in this nation to make us the success we are."
Neither Democratic candidate seems to understand that the border will never be secure as long as cities encourage illegal aliens to continue to invade the United States by providing illegal aliens services and "treating them as citizens."
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