Yash Roy, Contributing Photographer

A Republican nominee has not won the New Haven mayoral election in 72 years. Ex-consultant Tom Goldenberg hopes to change that this November. 

After two-term mayor Justin Elicker defeated Liam Brennan in September’s Democratic mayoral primary, Goldenberg is the last major challenger for the mayoral seat. Goldenberg started the race as a Democrat but failed to make the party primary ballot. He was cross-endorsed by the Republican party as well as the Independent Party and is running to “represent the [political] middle” in New Haven politics. 

“In our cities, there needs to be a space for independent thought … for [there] to be a really viable option,” Goldenberg said. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

From Sanskrit teacher to coder, consultant and now mayoral candidate

Goldenberg grew up in West Haven in a family of public school teachers, who he said taught him the importance of education. In high school, he started playing jazz piano and was accepted into the music program at the State University of New York at New Paltz. 

He studied jazz and classical Hindustani music, where he became interested in Indian culture, yoga and meditation. In 2003, Goldenberg paused his education and went to India, where he stayed in a coastal village in Kerala.

Goldenberg said that he witnessed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, after which he remained in India for nine years. 

“I happened to be on the second floor of the building when the waves came. [When I looked] out the window, it looked like a river  … 20-foot waves just washing through,” Goldenberg told the News. “I ended up staying there after the tsunami, helping to rebuild villages.”

Goldenberg said that he learned Sanskrit in India and taught the language for three years at Amrita University. 

Years later, Goldenberg credits his time doing community service in India as inspiration for his political career.

Upon returning to the United States in 2012, Goldenberg finished his undergraduate degree and, almost in his thirties, returned to New Haven. He said he worked in several hospitality positions, as a bartender and a server, in different restaurants in the city. 

“The fact that I’ve had that type of experience working in a blue-collar, hospitality type of position means I understand what it’s like to struggle for the rent, ” Goldenberg said. “I understand what it’s like [being] in different types of jobs.” 

In 2015, he moved with his wife to New York City, where he learned to code and landed a job at a small startup, Agolo, before moving on to his financial technology startup, which he said was not “an amazing success.”

Goldenberg returned to New Haven in 2018, initially joining Boston Consulting Group before moving to McKinsey a year later.

While at McKinsey, he worked with the semi-private JobsOhio program, a Republican-created initiative to boost job growth in the state. The program has been criticized for lacking transparency and under-delivering results. Goldenberg told the News he cannot comment on details of the program.

“I made it known … in the interview process that my goal was to work more with the public sector, and they were very supportive of that,” Goldenberg said of his experience at McKinsey. 

McKinsey is a multinational consulting firm that has come under fire in recent years for serving a range of clients, including the opioid-producing Perdue Pharma, the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Goldenberg said that he cannot discuss specific McKinsey projects because of his non-disclosure agreement but added that he was not involved with “any controversial stuff,” instead working with local municipalities, a public pension fund and International Development Bank, among other entites. He called McKinsey a great learning experience as he researched policy issues in a fast-paced environment. 

Goldenberg said that while working for McKinsey, he could not engage in politics because of the company’s policy. Instead, for four years, he mentored Black and Brown entrepreneurs in the city through the Collab nonprofit and was involved with Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, where he served on the board. 

Simultaneously, he completed his Masters in Business Administration at Columbia University, where he said he worked with former Philadelphia Democratic mayor Michael Nutter to develop policy solutions for New Haven. Last month, Nutter came to New Haven to endorse Goldenberg. 

“An independent Democrat” on Republican and Independent Party ballot lines 

In Dec. 2022, Goldenberg left his job at McKinsey and filed papers to run for New Haven mayor. 

“My whole life, whether it’s going to India and rebuilding villages or it’s becoming a technology entrepreneur, is making a dent in the universe, having impact,” Goldenberg said. “This is the city where I went to high school, grew up around here, [and] I’m raising a family [here]. I love this city.”

A registered Democrat, he did not qualify for the Democratic primary after falling short of the signature threshold.

The Republican Party of New Haven cross-endorsed Goldenberg in July. Anthony Acri, a registered Republican now running for city clerk, told the News that the New Haven party chapter “is not a hardline-conservative MAGA group” but instead focuses on local issues. 

“We liked [Goldenberg’s] ideas on crime, we liked his ideas on education, and overall, we liked his moral and ethical outlook on what’s going on in the city,” Acri told the News.

Goldenberg said that he accepted the nomination to “represent the middle” and is ready to work with everyone in the city who supports his program. He told the News he did not change his policy views because of the Republican nomination and remained “pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ, pro-respect for immigrants [and] refugees.”

Acknowledging that the Republican line alone would unlikely help him win, Goldenberg also worked to receive an endorsement from the Independent Party of Connecticut.

“I frame this really as an election between two Democrats,” Goldenberg told the News. “One Democrat is on the Democratic line, the other is on the Independent and Republican lines, but it’s a decision between what I call a “machine Democrat” and “independent [Democrat].”

Goldenberg accused the New Haven Democratic Party of favoring Elicker. 

Elicker told the News that he believed he earned the Democratic nomination through his hard work in the city.

“It is not easy to gain the Democratic nomination,” Elicker said. “Unlike Goldenberg, I was able to get enough signatures to get on the [primary] ballot when I was not [an incumbent] and was able to win the election in 2019. It’s not about a machine that somehow gets people the election.”

In New Haven, a heavily Democratic city, Democrats outnumber Republicans 32,452 to 2,619. There are also 15,205 unaffiliated voters.

Goldenberg, however, expressed optimism about his electoral prospects, citing “pretty close”  mayoral elections in 2013, when incumbent Toni Harp defeated Elicker, and in 2019, when Elicker defeated Harp.

Elicker won the 2019 general election by 41 points over Harp. Harp won the 2013 general election by nine points.

Goldenberg has also failed to garner as much financial support from individual donors as Elicker. While Elicker raised a total of $62,331.09 from individual donors from July 1 to Sept. 30, Goldenberg raised just $13,161.59 over the same time period.

Goldenberg says he’s running to increase transparency and improve the economy

Goldenberg largely focused his campaign on criticizing the current city administration for an  alleged lack of transparency. 

In a press conference last month, he accused Elicker of working with the APT Foundation, which runs methadone clinics in the city, to find the foundation a property and sell it for one dollar as part of a larger conspiracy between the mayor and the foundation.

While Goldenberg provided emails between APT and Elicker which he alleges demonstrate this conspiracy, the News could not independently verify it.

Goldenberg also accused Elicker of disproportionately raising property taxes in predominantly Black and Brown communities.

Talking to the News, Elicker denied Goldenberg’s allegation. He said that the city hired an independent contractor to evaluate property values at their last reassessment in 2021.

Goldenberg also touts his consulting experience to say he can grow the New Haven economy. 

“We get jobs by really … becoming a hub for certain industries,” Goldenberg said. “I’m thinking of bioscience, I’m thinking of climate technologies, a new one that’s going to have a lot of federal funding, … [and] healthcare innovation.”

He promised to work closely with Yale University and private companies to create a business-friendly environment in the city and create new jobs. To promote the Black business ownership rate, he said he would also create programs prioritizing local minority business owners for city contracting. A similar program already exists in the city.

Instead of making Yale contribute to the city’s general fund, Goldenberg plans to partner with the University and ask it to invest in city infrastructure that would benefit both students and New Haven residents. Exact details of such cooperation would be negotiated later, Goldenberg said. 

Goldenberg expressed confidence that despite having no experience in city politics, he will be able to implement his policy visions. He believes that stakeholders will support his policies because he is “standing for solving problems.”

A registered Independent Party voter, Francesco Gervasio attended the party caucus when Goldenberg was nominated. Gervasio, who is blind, said that Goldenberg was accommodating of him and added that Goldenberg would be a good mayor as he cares “about little people, as much as the [wealthy] people.”

Goldenberg told the News that he wanted to give voice to people like Gervasio, who “for the first time felt included in the political process.”

New Haven’s general election will take place on Nov. 7.

Correction, Oct. 17: This headline was updated to reflect the fact that Tom Goldenberg is on the Republican and Independent ballot lines in the general election.