NEW HAVEN, CT — Jason Bartlett, who has managed mayoral campaigns for three Democrats, filed paperwork with the City Clerk's office Thursday in a bid for the 2027 Democratic mayoral nomination. He is challenging four-term incumbent Justin Elicker, who is seeking reelection, the New Haven Independent reported.
Bartlett, 60, announced his bid on WNHH FM's "Dateline New Haven." He said he is assembling a "Ground Up" slate of alder candidates. "We need a vision," he said.
Bartlett ran Toni Harp's campaign when she won her first term as mayor in 2013 and later served as her youth director. Elicker unseated Harp in 2019.
Waterfront Districts, Free Buses and Co-ops on Bartlett's Platform
Bartlett's central idea is rebuilding the waterfront to add housing, entertainment and jobs. He would create two waterfront districts with authority to issue bonds for infrastructure. One would stretch from West Haven through City Point and Long Wharf to Ball Island, where he would replace Elicker's proposed outdoor swimming pool with other community-proposed ideas. The second would cover Morris Cove and the airport area, with a focus on environmental protection and resilience.
The plan relies on tax increment financing. Under a TIF, the city freezes tax collection at a site, and developers pay higher taxes once they build. The new revenue above the old rate would flow into a dedicated fund that pays off the bonds instead of the general fund. In an illustration the Independent offered, a site that paid $37,000 a year in taxes before a project would keep sending just that amount to the general fund for the life of the district.
The New Haven Independent reported that TIF revenue would also fund the start of water-taxi service, with initial routes linking the harbor to Morris Cove and Tweed New Haven. Bartlett eventually envisions ferries serving New London, Long Island, Milford and Bridgeport. His seven-page paper also adds a workforce "pipeline" for local workers and a dedicated education fund.
His other proposals include a city position to help tenants buy their buildings and run them as co-ops, a youth conservation corps working in the city's parks all year, and an end to homeless encampment sweeps. He would also create a city-monitored area where people experiencing homelessness could live in tiny houses. On transit, he would drop the bus rapid transit plan for dedicated lanes and make all bus rides free, expanding routes and buying a city fleet of natural-gas buses.
Elicker Questions Bartlett's Public Record
Elicker said his administration has focused on housing, education and public safety. He pointed to 1,500 new housing units built over the past year, close to 20 percent of them affordable, and a goal of 10,000 units over the next decade, 30 percent affordable. He also noted that recorded shootings fell to their lowest level in 15 years. "It's nice that people running for mayor have ideas," Elicker said.
Elicker also said Bartlett "has not shown up at public meetings." Bartlett responded by pointing to his decades as a state legislator and city official. He cited his opposition to an APT Foundation methadone clinic proposed for Long Wharf and to Elicker's English Station pool plan.