Furlow Readies Run For Edgewood Alder

by Thomas Breen

Randall Furlow, a long-time Ward 24 Democratic co-chair whose cousin currently serves as the Board of Alders’ majority leader, plans to run for an open Edgewood alder seat after Evette Hamilton steps down from the role later this month.

Furlow, 47, told the Independent about his upcoming campaign plans during an interview on Tuesday afternoon outside of the newly opened Trowbridge Recreation Center in the Hill.

Furlow has spent the past 12 years serving as one of two co-chairs for the Ward 24 Democratic Ward Committee. A New Haven native, he works as the pastor of a Waterbury-based church called Ekklesia Global Worship Assembly. He is also the cousin of Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity/Beverly Hills/Westville Alder Richard Furlow.

“It’s my time to step up into that space and complete what we’ve begun,” Furlow said about why he plans to run for the soon-to-be-open Ward 24 alder seat. (Click on the video above to watch a brief interview with Furlow on Tuesday.)

Hamilton, a former chair of the Board of Alders Finance Committee, was first elected as Ward 24 alder in 2011. A long-time Local 34 member, she was one of more than a dozen Yale union-affiliated candidates to topple incumbents and surge into power that year — kicking off more than a decade of UNITE HERE influence in City Hall. She recently announced that she will be resigning as alder on Sept. 30.

A special election to fill that seat will take place on Nov. 10 — marking the city’s third special election for alder so far this year. Furlow said he plans to officially file to run in the Ward 24 alder special election after Hamilton vacates the role.

“Educational equality is something that is very important to me,” especially since he has four children who have been educated in New Haven, Furlow said when asked about what his top priorities are if elected. He also said that his experience as a pastor, a job in which he deals “with all of the needs people come to the church with,” has been an inspiration to him to run for alder.

How might his relationship with his cousin affect his work as alder, if he is elected? Would he feel comfortable, for example, voting differently than his cousin on matters before the board?

“My cousin is amazing,” Furlow said about Richard Furlow. “He is a well-respect part of the leadership of the Board of Alders.” That said, “we’re both strong men. We both have our own opinions. We have our own thoughts about things. I think that voting as an alder, I’m not going to look over to him to see how I should vote.”

Furlow said he’s confident that his cousin will “respect the fact that I have my thoughts, my opinions,” and he feels the same way. “I think that’s what democracy is all about.”

At the end of the day, Furlow said, if elected, “I’m in here as an alder, and not as his little cousin.”

Randall Furlow (right) with New Haven Rising’s Jaime Myers-McPhail and Mayor Justin Elicker on Tuesday.