NEW HAVEN — Democratic mayoral hopeful Shafiq Abdussabur has filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission alleging Mayor Justin Elicker has been using his city-paid phone number to solicit campaign donations, an allegation Elicker summed up as a "distraction"
“Elicker switched his campaign phone number over to the city’s Verizon account when he took office in 2020 and continues to use that same phone number to solicit donations for his campaign,” said Abdussabur campaign manager Gage Frank. “New Haven deserves a mayor who won’t use taxpayer dollars to further their career.”
Elicker called the complaint "frivolous," however, and said Monday, "The cellphone that he's talking about is my own personal cellphone. I pay the bill with my own personal money.
"We have a lot of important issues as a city," Elicker said. "Let's focus on those and not these types of distractions."
He said the cellphone line, originally his personal cellphone, was his city paid phone until January, but he made it his personal cellphone because he knew he planned to use it for campaign purposes.
"But how does the public know that? said Frank, who previously served as Elicker's campaign manager and later as his administration's spokesman. "You can't just take property back from the city" and there is legal precedent that backs that up, he said.
Abdussabur is one of three Democrats challenging Elicker for the Democratic nomination for mayor, along with Tom Goldenberg and Liam Brennan. The primary will be held Sept. 12.
There also are two independent candidates, Mayce Torres and Wendy Hamilton, who have announced plans to run in the general election.
The complaint also alleges that the Elicker 2023 campaign committee has failed to report assets of value, including decades of donor lists and data.
It alleges that "the Elicker 2023 campaign’s clearly held belief that these lists are the property of his previous campaigns and that they have value raises the question of why the contribution of this 'property' from each previous campaign committee to the next was not included in the mandated SEEC campaign disclosures."
The Abdussabur campaign has posted the full SEEC complaint at https://bit.ly/3NrHzna.
mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
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