Courtesy of Andrea Zola and Amanda Martinelli

Change is coming to Wooster Square in January: Ellen Cupo, first elected to represent Ward 8 on New Haven’s Board of Alders in 2019, is not running for reelection. 

Democrat Amanda Martinelli and Republican Andrea Zola are vying for her seat, which encompasses Wooster Square, Mill River, Ball Island and parts of Fair Haven and the Annex. Martinelli, who received Cupo’s endorsement, said she is running for alder to strengthen the community in the ward. Zola, meanwhile, said she is focused on public safety — particularly traffic control — as well as job creation and education. 

Cupo, an administrative assistant in Yale’s women’s, gender and sexuality studies program and an organizer with UNITE HERE Local 34, said she is stepping down so that she can spend more time with her family, including her young son, who was born the same day she was first elected. 

“This community work has to be more than just one person,” she said in a phone interview. 

In Ward 8, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans more than ten to one, according to data from the city’s Registrar of Voters.

Zola brings political lineage, focus on safety and jobs

Zola, a lifelong New Havener, is no stranger to local politics: her great-uncle, Biagio DiLieto, was mayor from 1980 to 1989. 

“It’s really a legacy thing for me,” Zola said in a phone interview, referring to her “relatives on both sides who were politicians in New Haven and Hamden.” 

Zola is currently a Ward 8 co-chair on New Haven’s Republican Town Committee. She previously served on the Wooster Square Monument Committee, where she helped select a replacement for the park’s Columbus Statue, and she currently owns and operates Little Dandelion Cafe in Wooster Square.

She has run for Ward 8 alder before. Zola challenged Cupo in 2023 and won just under 15 percent of the vote. 

Last fall, meanwhile, Zola ran for a seat in the Connecticut House of Representatives, losing to incumbent Roland Lemar — a former Ward 9 alder — by 72 percentage points. 

Recently, Zola said that she has observed a new energy in the New Haven air.

“During this time period, I’ve noticed more people saying that they are comfortable acknowledging that they’re conservative or Republican,” she said. 

Zola picked up the endorsement of the Connecticut Young Republicans last month.

She supports the insurgent mayoral campaign of GOP underdog Steve Orosco, she said, and added that, “I’m also supporting any other politician who’s willing to step up to the plate during

such an uncertain time.”

Zola said that “we are currently living in a BANI world,” referring to the term coined by futurist Jamais Cascio that stands for “brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible.” 

“We really have no idea what could happen in the next 24 hours,” Zola said. 

Zola said she is focused on “staying positive in any kind of leadership role or seat while we’re experiencing a BANI time, and staying focused on constituents and also staying positive for everyone, no matter what party they’re affiliated to.” 

Zola said she is excited to see new businesses and housing in Ward 8 but cautioned that such development requires increased traffic control. Traffic, she said, is the biggest issue facing the ward, and one on which she would focus if elected. 

Zola said job creation is also important to her as a small business owner, as well as education. “Our school system really needs help,” she said.

The Republican candidate thinks she has a good shot at winning the seat. 

“Really, anything can happen, anything goes,” Zola said.

Martinelli aims to strengthen Ward 8’s sense of community

Martinelli, who was raised in Thomaston, Conn., has lived in Wooster Square for a decade, she said. She previously worked for the Catholic Community Foundation and the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut for a combined decade and is currently writing a book.

She is running, she said in a phone interview, to “build a community sense back here in New Haven” and to expand the “close-knit community” of Wooster Square to all of Ward 8. 

“In a world that we are really divided, I don’t want that to be here,” Martinelli added.

For the aldermanic hopeful, the biggest issues facing the ward are affordable housing and safety. Like Zola, she is concerned about high traffic. 

If elected, Martinelli also wants to work with developers to balance growth with quality-of-life concerns, she said. 

“I want it to be impactful, and I want it to be where people aren’t going to be priced out of their neighborhoods,” Martinelli said. 

She also said she would also focus on funding New Haven’s public schools.  

Cupo is enthusiastic about Martinelli’s campaign.

“I’m really excited that I have a neighbor who is stepping up, who is trying to meet this moment, understanding that there is so little we can do nationally, but we can do a lot at home,” Cupo said.

Cupo said that if Martinelli is elected, she will be “ready to help her figure out how to be successful in the ward.” 

“More than ever, we need to be a community that knows one another, that says hello in the street,” Cupo said. “I’ve had neighbors that have been kidnapped by ICE, and there’s just a lot of work to do. So it’s both community building in the neighborhood, but also making sure that we’re protecting people.” 
482 people voted in the Ward 8 alder race in 2023, not including those who voted for write-in candidates, according to data from the Registrar of Voters.