New Haven Independent

State Senator Ed Meyer (pictured), a two-term Democratic incumbent, told the group: “I said no special interests anymore. We call it clean elections. We are way ahead of the country with this program and we are very excited about it.” He said he welcomed his opponent to the Senate race.

Sen. Meyer and State Rep. Pat Widlitz, who represents a small section of Branford, are each up for re-election this year, and both spoke to the group. State Rep .Peter Panaroni, who confessed to the DTC one July night last year that his hero was Mafia Godfather Vito Corleone, is also up for re-election if he chooses to run. Widlitz explained that Panaroni was absent from the DTC meeting because his wife is seriously ill.

The New Rules

Meyer explained the new public financing campaign law under which he plans to run for office. It means, he said, that a candidate cannot take funds from state contractors, from lobbyists, from other special interest groups. Nor are PACs [political action committees] permitted. A state senate candidate has to raise $15,000 from his or her district, and the funds must come from 300 or more people contributing that amount money but no more than $100 each. You have to give at least five dollars. The effect of this will be that if a Senate candidate raises $15,000 he or she will be able to receive $85,000 in public funds.

He said he has an opponent, “an exciting and good opponent. He is new to the district. He is 33 years old, married with one child. He lives in the town of Madison. He is a lawyer. He is an Iraqi veteran.”

Meyer did not name him. He is Ryan Suerth, 33, a former field director for U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons and a member of the Republican Town Committee in Madison.

“I am excited about having an opponent. One of the great things about public financing is to make politics competitive. And when 75 percent of our state legislators have no opponent or a nominal opponent the system doesn’t really work. And I am hoping that public financing will help it work.”

Meyer explained that not every person running for office will use public financing. “You can opt out of it,” he said. “We couldn’t make it mandatory. But I have elected to go into the program, and I think it is good for Connecticut.”

Political competition is good for Connecticut, he said. The new law covers all state legislators and all state wide offices and the cost is about $10 million a year. ….we can get rid of that influence… it is very serious here in Connecticut…a corrupt influence. I think we all will come out a head. He said political action committees or PACs are out.

Widlitz told the audience that as a state representative she must raise $5,000 not $15,000 from 150 not 300 contributors. “Don’t spend all your money on Ed,” she chuckled.

“It’s going to make a difference, especially in committees like the energy committee,” one of the committees on which she sits.

“When you have the utility lobbyists there and let me tell you they put on the pressure on legislators and you start to see things happen … you wonder why your electricity rates are so high. If we can take those special interests out, that would be a really big deal,” she said.

Less Local Democracy

As it turned out, the DTC was not as welcoming of contested elections. Its board election went off without a hitch because there were no opponents. By pre-arrangement, specific delegates, previously contacted, rose on cue to nominate each candidate, beginning with Frank Carrano, the current chair. It took them less than five minutes to nominate, second, take a voice vote on five candidates and even applaud each one as they won a two-year term.

The DTC members elected all the incumbents except the secretary, who stepped down and was replaced without contest. All 97 delegates had received letters from the incumbents asking for their vote.

Carrano, who also serves as the chairman of the Branford Board of Education, won re-election after a behind-the-scenes effort to unseat him failed. First Selectman Unk DaRos, the party’s leader, at first seemed willing to entertain the idea of new leadership, but he later backed off.

Some Democrats are concerned that Carrano holds two key town posts. He serves as chair of the Board of Education, a prestigious position, and one that could influence how DTC delegates who also sit on the BoE will vote on any number of issues. Other DTC delegates serve as town officials or sit on boards that oversee the school budget, the largest item in the town budget and one that concerns Carrano deeply. Still other Democrats believe leadership roles should be extended to others. Carrano doesn’t see a conflict.

“Over the past two years there has been no suggestion that there was any conflict of any kind in my carrying out my responsibilities as chair of the BoE and DTC,” he told the Eagle..

He said he had been actively engaged in politics since serving as an assistant register of voters in New Haven at age 18. A union activist and president of the New Haven Central Labor Council, he said he had been involved in countless campaigns at the local, state and national level and that he had something to offer the Branford DTC, specifically a desire to “engage more citizens in the political process.”

“I don’t view any of this as a conflict either real or perceived. I believe that I have a right to participate fully in the political process and shouldn’t be denied that opportunity just because the voters also expressed confidence in my ability to participate in the important work of educating our young people.”

The theme seemed to be unity above all else, and smiles and good will were evident. It was a far cry from the election two years ago when Carrano became the Democratic chair by one vote, winning over Jim Bruno, former First Selectwoman Cheryl Morris’s RTM leader.

In 2006, a deeply divided Democratic Party moved to elect Carrano its leader after a serious split occurred within the party between the Cheryl Morris-Ed Marcus team and others in the Democratic Party. The rupture followed a vicious letter-writing campaign overseen by former party leaders looking to win a primary in Short Beach against a group of newly elected novice delegates from the 3rd district. Their adviser, Warren Gould, returned as a delegate to the DTC at this meeting.The Short Beach group won.

The fissure deepened as the Granite-gate controversy erupted. When the DTC voted to have Morris fire Marcus, she refused, a decision that provoked ongoing dissent and transformed her term in office. Looking at the current DTC the other night, there were few left from the Morris faction.

Bruce Morris, Cheryl’s husband, a former state senator and an influential Democratic State Central Committeeman, is no longer a member of the Branford DTC. Bruce Morris’s term as a member of the state central committee ends in May, and he has told state officials he does not plan to run again, sources told the Eagle. Other candidates are now lining up .

In January, acting on a motion made by delegate Moshe Gai, the DTC asked Bruce Morris to step down from his state position because he did not back DaRos, the Democratic nominee for first selectman. The DTC ‘s action came long after the campaign and the election. Bruce Morris was instrumental in his wife’s unsuccessful First Selectman’s campaign. She ran as an Independent. Morris would not step down from his state position.

Besides Carrano, Sandra Reiners, who is also the moderator of the RTM, was re-elected vice-chair, Chris Sullivan was re-elected vice-chair and Victor Cassella was re-elected treasurer. Donna Jean Oddie replaced Jean Routt, who stepped down as secretary.

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