Cafero’s warning to Democrats: Ignore us at your peril

House Republican Leader Larry Cafero said in recent conversation with this writer that the “common sense budget proposal” being put forward for the second session in a row by Republicans needs to be considered and acted upon by the Democrat majority. The Republican proposal is based on seven common sense principles.

• Spend no more than you make.

• Borrow only what you can afford to pay back.

• If it is not broken don’t fix it, but if it is not working get rid of it.

• The more government tries to do the less it does well.

• Government doesn’t create jobs, people do.

• We should have all the government that we need but only the government that we need.

• Empower local governments to make local decisions.

Cafero says there has got to be a change in philosophy on the part of state Democrats.

“When you start out with the premise that the money that you (taxpayers) earn is the government’s money and if you are lucky, you’ll be allowed to keep it, when that is truly your philosophy then you feel free to spend anything you want. When your philosophy is that government can solve every problem, therefore all we need is the money, then that is how you get a mindset that has resulted in the fiscal crisis we are in.”

Even though the Common Sense proposal was ignored by the Democrat majority last session, Cafero is confident that this time things may be different.

“I think, not willingly but reluctantly we are going to be listened to because there is a new dynamic at work. Even though for the first time in state history we have an entire federal delegation that is democratic as well as all statewide office holders from governor to attorney general being democrats and both chambers of the legislature being majority democrats, there were a couple of things that sent shockwaves through the Democrat Party this election cycle. One thing being that while Connecticut missed the Republican wave that swept across the rest of the country, House Republicans began the election season with 37 out of 151 members and for the first time in a long time we (Republicans) held all of our seats and picked off 14 Democrats and now we have an opportunity to pick up even more seats in the special elections. We (Republican legislative candidates) had a common platform that we campaigned on, “The Common Sense Commitment to Connecticut.” It paid off because people got it.”

In other words, Democrats may hold the reins right now, but the people are watching.

Malloy faces his own “Sputnik Moment”

Governor Dannel Malloy jets back from D.C. after taking in the President’s State of the Union address.


President Obama appealed to Congressmen and Senators to heed their better angels and move forward in unity. He made the obligatory call for the nation to throw off the shackle of foreign oil dependency which every president since Nixon feels the need to make and then apparently, immediately forget. There was a call to freeze domestic spending and offers of dubious savings measures like tax increases on oil and gas companies. By the way, he offered that same thing to a Democrat-led Congress last year and was ignored.

On the other hand, the President talked about redoubling our efforts at putting money into things like roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives. Hmmm, how do you freeze something and redouble it simultaneously? I’m sure it’s a pretty neat trick to watch if one can pull it off.

And when calling for job-creating investments in biomedical research, information technology, and clean energy technology The President harkened back to the space race touched off by the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Satellite.

All in all, the President’s speech was like a fluffernutter sandwich, a decent flavor but not much there. But hey, he looked good serving it right?

Connecticut faces an ocean of red deficit ink, a school system that is failing far too many of our children and a jobs outlook that is shaky at best. Our beloved state has to negotiate an economic minefield in order to get back on the right track and this Governor must lead the way.

If Governor Dannel Malloy’s February budget address is as devoid of real substance and real solutions as this SOTU address, I hope that he at least picked up some pointers on delivery style from the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Mayor Timothy Stewart says “I got it done in New Britain and I’ll get it done in Harford!”

I recently spoke with New Britain Mayor Timothy Stewart, who is seeking the 6th district Senatorial seat vacated by Donald DeFronzo. Stewart’s opponent in the February 22nd special election is Democrat Terry Gerratana. When asked to list the biggest differences between himself and Gerrantana, Mayor Stewart pointed out that while he has been serving the citizens of New Britain in public office and demonstrating the type of leadership skills that are so badly needed in the state at this time his opponent has been sitting on the sidelines.

“She’s been removed from the politics of the state for almost a dozen years now and has been out of touch with pretty much everything that’s been going on in the community as well as the state.”

Stewart also addressed the question of his possibly wanting to serve simultaneously as Mayor and State Senator.

“No, I never said that. What I said was, the city charter does not prohibit a person from serving in both capacities. In fact, I think it would be quite interesting to serve in both because nobody understands the needs and wants of the community more than the mayor and to have him in Harford seeking the funding that he needs to plug the holes in his budget is a good thing, but no I never intended to do both. This is just typical democratic rhetoric because they see an end to my tenure here and can’t wait to get into my seat. Unfortunately the Mayor Pro-Temp who by charter would take over in my absence happens to be a Democrat not of my choice. The council picks (it) and they chose someone whom I would never want to sit in my seat because he doesn’t have the capacity to run the city.” The Mayor Pro Tempore is Democrat Michael Trueworthy.

Stewart says he is confident that he will be able to make headway against the democrat majority in the state legislature, serve as an advocate for taxpayers and an agent for change when it comes to the way things are done in Hartford.

“I’ve been able to get elected and get things done on a council with overwhelming odds against me. My first two terms as mayor, my city council was 15 to zero against me and I still made some major changes in the way we operate around here in the city of New Britain and I think that if we (Republicans) pick up a few more seats we can really be a force to be reckoned with. I’ve always said that it’s not about me and it’s not about political parties. It’s about ideas, doing the right thing and making common-sense decisions. When you put good things in front of people they have no choice but to say yes.”

Healy: “Malloy is going to drop a Stink-Bomb on the state!”

“Winning takes repeated attempts and we will get there.” That was the message Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Christopher Healy had for an enthusiastic crowd of party supporters and officials including yours truly at an event hosted by Our Connecticut Grand Young Party in Fairfield Thursday night. Healy said the party wants to continue the communication process not only with current supporters but to branch out and bring new people in as well saying, “We are the party of Main Street.” Healy expressed confidence in the slate of Republican candidates competing for election on Feb. 22nd as well the outlook for 2012.


The party chairman was somewhat less charitable when it came to commenting on the new Governor. “I think Dannel Malloy on February 16th is going to lay a stink-bomb on this state that is going to curl your hair.” Healy said referring to the date Governor Malloy is scheduled to unveil his first budget.

The ever poised, Linda McMahon also spoke at the event and while she didn’t make any big announcements concerning another Senate run, she graciously thanked her supporters and said that she will continue to be very active in the coming months, seeking the best ways to serve the people of state, saying, “I am not deterred at all, from continuing to work the people of Connecticut.” In addition to making Connecticut “Open for business” Education is another area where McMahon says she will be very active.

Susan Bysiewicz to run for Governor…no wait, Senator... no, make that Attorney General… whoops, ok back to Senator

Former Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz filed her paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and the secretary of the Senate to run in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by U.S. Sen.Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., her campaign announced today.


At this point Susan Bysiewicz has something in common with millions of Americans across this great country, she just wants to land a job, any job it doesn’t matter what it is…so long as it occupies a lofty place in some branch of government. Ok, maybe she’s not like us after all.

By jumping back into the political arena Bysiewicz is side-stepping the opportunity to pick up some actual law-practice experience with the firm Updike, Kelly, and Spellacy. Although, to be fair I have to say that Bysiewicz says she will split her time between campaigning and working for the firm. It will be interesting to see if both the Democratic Party and the voters of Connecticut are willing to indulge her seemingly limitless sense of entitlement. I’ll give her one thing; Susan Bysiewicz is willing to work really hard to avoid getting a real job.

A conversation with Mark Boughton on Education, Politics, & the Dannel Malloy Administration

I took a break from watching the NY Jets beat the Patriots on Sunday to chat with Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton about education and state politics. My favorite team, the Cleveland Browns are watching the playoffs from home as usual so I didn’t mind missing a few snaps. Below is the interview followed by my commentary.


CCC:

Education was front and center in Hartford recently, aside from money or the lack thereof, the thing we hear about most is the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers, as someone who has spent years in the classroom as a teacher, in your opinion how can we best address the achievement gap in the state?

Mark Boughton:

“For years I was not on the school choice bandwagon because I didn’t feel we put enough resources into our public schools, but the new economy, an economy that is much different from anything we’ve ever seen, now requires that we re-evaluate the way we do things. From a financial, fiscal standpoint, we really need to increase competition within our school districts because that will create and drive efficiency which will in turn drive the necessary changes that we’ll need to deal with the reality of a new economy where there just isn’t the money that there used to be to do the things that we need to do.

Giving parents a choice, seems to me, particularly in the urban cores of Connecticut, the easiest way to elevate standards and get better efficiencies out the system. What I mean by that is it seems kind of silly that a student should have to walk by a successful parochial school or a successful charter school even, in order to get to their failing public schools.”

Boughton cites The Amistad Academy in New Haven and the Achievement First Academy Middle School in Hartford as two examples of charter schools that are making strides in closing the achievement gap. He adds that freeing teachers from archaic union rules and regulations and driving more of the money toward students with technology and resources that allow children to learn the way they learn now, which is much different from the way previous generations learned are also among the key elements of success. Boughton said there should be more charter schools in Connecticut and there needs to be fundamental change in state government to insure that “the dollars follow the children,” meaning that if the state of Connecticut allocates nine thousand dollars a year per student then that nine thousand dollars should follow that student to the school of his or her choice.



CCC:

I recently spoke to a group of high school seniors in Waterbury and found that many of the students didn’t believe they had a shot at much of anything, let alone achieving success. What can the education system do to address that kind of dismal outlook within the student body?

Mark Boughton:

“I think part of the problem is by the time you get to high school, if you haven’t had success, and I’m not going to say people aren’t redeemable because they are, but it makes it a lot harder to be successful. You get sort of a defeatist attitude that there isn’t anything better for you. But when you capture kids when they are young and you bring them into a program that has success, now all their options are open, now college is not something out of reach. Now a career is not out of reach. They can do anything they chose to do with their lives. That feeling of helplessness and hopelessness now goes away.”



CCC:

Federal stimulus money was used to shore up the annual Education Cost Sharing grants that Connecticut sends to each local school system. The stimulus grant, which accounts for 14 percent of the state education grant, runs out in July. How much impact would a loss of those funds have on Danbury?

Mark Boughton:

“It’s going to have a tremendous impact if those funds aren’t replaced but understand, even if the city were to give the board of education the same amount of money this year as they got last year there are still going to be massive layoffs. And that’s what I mean when I talk about the structural problems that we face in education. Even if you tread water you are still losing ground because of the way system is designed and the amount of unfunded mandates that have to be paid for. Even if the budget were held flat you would still see layoffs and reductions in services. That’s why we can’t just deliver the services the way we used to and expect better outcomes. That’s what we’re doing right now, we’re trying to raise the bar on achievement, close the achievement gap, but we have fewer resources and we have not changed the important thing which is the organizational structure of our schools. Fewer administrators, more teachers, and getting rid of some of the union rules that oversee staffing, in particular we need to have merit pay for teachers so that good teachers who are successful get paid more and if you don’t do a good job you don’t get a raise next year which by the way is what we do in private industry every day. Those are the things that motivate people and will breed success in our schools and ultimately will be what is best for children.”



CCC:

Politically speaking, what can we expect from the new administration going forward and what would you like most to see from the Republican Party in the immediate future with an eye toward 2012 and 2014?

Mark Boughton:

“The Republicans are going through a bit of catharsis right now of understanding why they lost, but it’s really not that difficult. The reason why we lost is that we don’t have a ground game to match that of the Democrats. We were right on the issues, we won 129 out 145 towns so that tells me that our message was there but we couldn’t deliver our voters to the polls on Election Day. My personal goal for the next three or four years is working with party leaders to develop a get out the vote effort which is more than just some of the traditional things but a true voter ID, getting them to the polls on election day effort. Also we have to fight it out in the urban cores, even though we probably won’t win those cities we can’t ignore them because a lot of the issues that the residents of our large cities face, we are on the right side of those issues we agree. It’s just that they don’t know what our message is because we haven’t been there to tell them. We need to work on conducting outreach. We have to have a Republican party that looks more like the people we serve and that means we need a better recruitment effort in terms of African Americans and Latinos, who actually tend to be more conservative politically and agree with our views, it is just that the republican party, the name or brand if you will, has become so tainted and we’ve got to turn that around.”

“In terms of the new administration, their challenges are many and frankly I’m concerned already by some of the discussions I’m hearing. I’m concerned by the large numbers of legislators that have jumped ship over to the new administration because the members of the democratic super-majority in the legislature were the very people that got us into this mess to begin with. Why would you hire them? It’s like hiring the people that set your barn on fire to put it out. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s going to take a lot of courage to make the structural changes that we need and I don’t think they have it. I’m disappointed in the administration initially but I’m optimistic for the state and I’m optimistic that we’ll get there but I think we are definitely challenged by some of the decisions already made by the new administration.”

End of Interview



So far this semester I’ve spoken to high school juniors and seniors in Hartford, East Haven, Waterbury, and Wolcott. I’ve seen first-hand how badly some of Connecticut’s students are educationally short-changed by a lack of proper resources needed to deliver a quality education. I have also seen a definite lack of hope and motivation in many of our students.

Let me be crystal clear on this point. It is NOT because they don’t want to be successful. Nobody wants to be poor and nobody sets out to be a failure. It’s just that too many of our young people DON’T SEE ANY WAY THAT THEY CAN achieve success. So while I agree with Mayor Boughton that Connecticut’s education system must be fundamentally changed from the top down, I would add that we need to do a better job of getting the message to our children that can indeed achieve great things. That kind of change in attitude comes from the bottom up. A combination of structural reform in our educational system and students motivated to learn will close the achievement gap.

In November of 2010 the Connecticut Republican party walked face-first into a stark reality. We need more support from the big cities in order to win elections. Andover, Bridgewater, and Cromwell aren’t enough to carry us anymore. Therein lays a challenge. How do republicans get more support from the minority communities that make up a large portion of the population in our large cities?

As an African American I can say with some authority that black and brown folks simply aren’t buying what the Republican Party is selling, partly because republicans are doing a poor job of selling and partly because of perception of the party in minority communities. However, if we can indeed mount successful outreach and recruitment efforts in the urban cores of the state and increase our support base there by even a small fraction, the political landscape in Connecticut will shift. How do we do that? I’m working on it. I’ll get back to you.

Meanwhile, to my fellow Connecticut residents who live in our large cities I say this. When both parties are actively and vigorously competing for support and fighting to represent your interests, you win! Competition breeds excellence, it’s a beautiful thing.

Wayne Winsley