New Haven Independent

Ferrucci, who ran his whole campaign out of the Elm Street bar when he ran for mayor on the Guilty Party ticket in 2003, sat down with a couple friends and some Belgian frites to watch the TV broadcast. Ferrucci, a New Haven native in his 30s, came in his usual outfit: All black, with a rock T-shirt and a campaign-pin-studded dress jacket. This year, the pins are Green Party green: “Ferrucci for Senate”.

“Hey, how can you be in two places at once?” a Rudy’s regular asked Ferrucci, looking up at the screen.

“We filmed it yesterday,” replied the candidate.

After making earlier runs for New Haven mayor and congressman, Ferrucci saw the biggest moment in his political career Wednesday as he stood up on the stage of Hartford’s Bushnell alongside Sen. Joe Lieberman and Democratic challenger Ned Lamont in a five-way candidates’ debate. The debate, cosponsored by WFSB-TV, Channel 3, was broadcast Thursday night at 7 p.m. (Footage is available on this website)

“It took me two hours to calm down” after Wednesday’s excitement, Ferrucci told a friend through his cell phone, standing in the Rudy’s front doorway as a half-dozen patrons followed the debate inside.

“Hey, dude, is that you?” asked a man at one of the heavily carved tables.

“Yeah, it is me. That’s why it’s on!” said Ferrucci.

As the Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger, described Lieberman as “one of the most liberal senators,” Ferrucci coughed loudly. During the debate, he stressed immediate withdrawal from Iraq, ending the nuclear arms race, and fighting for working families.

“You should’ve talked about Wal-Mart more,” suggested a local carpenter.

“I can’t, I deliver to them,” said Ferrucci, who makes a living driving a truck, delivering Pepperidge Farm cookies.

“Listen to this!” he said to a trio of pint-sipping debate-watchers as he came on the screen touting solar power and decrying energy deregulation. “I’m the only candidate who called for regulation.”

Ferrucci said two people coached him before the debate: Ralph Nader, the former Green Party presidential candidate, and Tom Swan, Lamont’s campaign manager.

Nader told him to attack Lieberman for being “one of only two Democratic senators to be endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.” He told him to mention NAFTA, which Lieberman supported.

In Ferrucci’s closing speech, which he said he delivered without a script, Ferrucci took Nader’s advice: “I’m sorry to say this, Joe, that NAFTA does not support American jobs.” He slid in another Nader tidbit, spoken against congressmen in general: “You take money from pharmaceutical companies, yet you say, ‘I’m gonna support universal health care.’”

Ferrucci said Tom Swan gave him some anti-Joe blows that Ned wasn’t going to use. One example: “Joe, you’re running an outsider campaign from within Washington.” Ferrucci said he didn’t use Swan’s tips because the debate “didn’t go that dirty.”

Stepping outside the Bushnell after the debate Wednesday, Ferrucci told inquiring reporters: “It was nerve-wracking, I’m not going to lie.” Was there anything the candidate wished he had said? “I wish I went after Lieberman a bit more on NAFTA.”

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