New Haven Independent

In an interview with the Eagle, Reed said many people in Branford have urged her to run for state office. First Selectman Unk DaRos told the Eagle he will support her and since he is the de facto leader of the Branford Democratic Party, it is likely she will get the party’s nomination in May. “It’s time. We need new blood up there,” he said.

“Obviously, I have not yet announced and my party’s nomination process has a way to go,” Reed said. “But I am honored and quite frankly humbled that so many people are urging me to run for the state legislature.”

Reed, a former television anchor and Emmy award-winning film maker, is now serving her third term on the Branford RTM, where she chairs the education committee, a group that each year confronts the relationship between inadequate state funding of education and rising property taxes.

She founded Hands across Our Pond, an initiative uniting CT and New York in opposition to the Broadwater floating liquefied natural gas barge proposed for Long Island Sound. She introduced the first resolution against Broadwater in the RTM four years ago. (While New York has turned it down, Broadwater officials may well appeal.)

The Democratic Town Committee meets Tuesday at the Community House at 7:30 p.m. Reed is expected to invite the delegates to join her when she formally announces her candidacy on Sunday, April 27.

Peter Panaroni, who has held the Democratic seat in the 102nd District for nearly 12 years, may not run. His wife died recently and Democrats high in the party are privately encouraging him to step aside, saying it is time for change. He did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Panaroni has come under intense criticism in the past two years on a variety of issues: He failed to handle serious inland wetlands violations on his 44 Tabor Drive property, but eventually came into compliance, he failed to pay $50,000 in business taxes while holding a top state office, he sued the town of Branford in a zoning dispute, he sought favors from the prior administration, Cheryl Morris and Ed Marcus regarding his business property and he invoked the fictional Mafia godfather Vito Corleone as his hero at a July 2007 DTC meeting.

He even toyed with running for First Selectman against Unk DaRos, a move that prompted DaRos to reveal that Panaroni sought the same land favors from DaRos when DaRos first served as first selectman. Only Unk told him to take a walk.

Meanwhile, Reed has formed a campaign team. Her campaign manager, Tootsie Laske, served as town clerk for many years and was the highest vote getter in general elections. Reed’s treasurer, Anthony Giardiello, is the majority leader of the RTM.

Reed has a track record for building bi-partisan coalitions to tackle issues the community cares about.



“… I’m very proud of the role we played in helping to defeat Broadwater. To me it is a model for tackling the other problems that confound us. Victory is possible when you organize grassroots people power and combine it with effective political, economic and environmental leadership and a menu of rational, doable alternatives. You also have to have the persistence to do what it takes for as long as it takes. That’s the commitment I make when people do me the honor of asking me to represent them at any level of government.”

To that end she is currently involved in expanding a statewide citizens’ coalition to intensify the fight for property tax reform. She was instrumental in having Branford join a statewide lawsuit asking the courts to mandate fairness for Branford and other towns currently short-changed by Hartford’s Education Cost Sharing formula. The case is now before the Connecticut Supreme Court. Oral arguments are scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m.

“As chair of the RTM Education Committee, I am once again infuriated that Branford gets back so little of the money that we send up to Hartford. When you combine our income taxes with our sales and use taxes, Branford sent at least $70 million annually to the state coffers. And we get back chump change. It costs at least $12,000-a year to educate a child, but when you crunch all the numbers and factor in grant reductions, the state is sending us less than $400 per student. That’s outrageous.

“The Branford school budget,” she went on, “is fast approaching 60 percent of the Town’s total budget. And 96 percent of the school budget comes from residential property taxes. Our kids deserve a great education and if we are to continue to be able to fund Branford’s schools, we have a crying need for real property tax reform.”

In the last decade Panaroni has won election easily but there had been little public scrutiny of his record until he ran for office in 2006 and his opponent Republican RTM member Peter Black released a long history of Panaroni’s legal problems.

According to a website that evaluates the state’s legislators, Panaroni has the lowest rating of any Democrat in Hartford—25 percent. The rating is based on votes delivered by elected officials in the House or the Senate last year. The votes deal with issues in which there is a real division of opinion, according to the site, electionvolunteers.org, which tracks how legislators vote. Click here to view the site.
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