Aspiring State Dem Chair Pitches Independents

Nick Balletto has an elevator pitch ready for the state’s largest bloc of voters, assuming fellow Democrats elect him to their highest statewide party position.

Balletto (pictured with President Obama during an October campaign visit), a former New Haven alder and Democratic town chairman, has announced his intention to seek the position of chair of the state Democratic Party.

If he succeeds in winning the scheduled Jan. 21 vote in Hartford of the party’s 72-member central committee, Balletto will oversee the leading political party in the state. But not the largest — or determinative — bloc of voters.

That would be independent/unaffiliated voters, the group that now swings elections in Connecticut. The state has 915,957 registered unaffiliated voters, compared to 785,887 Democrats and 434,708 Republicans, according to the most recent available count.

Balletto, who’s 48, said in an interview Monday that he would focus on luring those independents into the Democratic fold.

“We’d like to open the party,” he said.

He was asked to preview the pitch he’ll give them. His response:

“We have a lot to offer. We have the best qualified candidates. We have a party that fights for all individuals every single day. And obviously our primaries are very active in Connecticut. We do have primaries when have open seats. We would love to have as many people involved in the process

“You have your input in a primary to who steps forward [as a registered Democrat]. Connecticut is a solidly blue state. So thank God we have continuously through hard work been successful. We would love people to have as much input into which candidates we put forward.”

Balletto was asked if ​“opening the party” would include opening up party primaries to unaffiliated voters as a way to welcome them into the fold, an idea floated back in the 1980s by then‑U.S. Sen. Lowell Weicker before he left the Republican Party to run for governor as an independent.

Balletto didn’t have an answer. He said he has not thought over the question. ​“I haven’t gotten that far yet,” he said.

A product of New Haven’s Morris Cove neighborhood, Balletto cut his political teeth working for a legendary local Democratic Party boss, the late Arthur T. Barbieri (aka ​“The Mustache”), in his waning years in power. ​“The one thing I learned from Arthur was to be good to people. He always told me: ​‘If you sit on the porch long enough, people come around again.’ We do all come back.”

Politics has changed dramatically from the days of Barbieri and the mid-20th century boss of the state Democratic Party, the late John Bailey. In those days a chairman was a feared powerbroker. He could get laws passed and candidacies quashed in back rooms without public scrutiny or public input. That was before the post-Watergate campaign laws that, among other changes, enabled candidates to petition onto party primary ballots.

Today the state chair is called on to recruit candidates, broker arguments among party factions, represent the party in the media, and raise money — lots and lots of money.

So far no one else has emerged besides Balletto to seek the state party job. The current chair, Nancy DiNardo, is retiring; she announced her support for Balletto, who currently serves as her vice-chair. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro announced her support, too, for Balletto. ​“Nick got his start in politics as a teenager and he has a unique passion for it. … He has a keen political acumen that will no doubt serve state Democrats well,” a release issued Friday quoted DeLauro as saying.

Jason Bartlett, a State Central Committee member, said he’s inclined to vote for Balletto. He said Balletto faces an important challenge: recruiting candidates.

“In the country we’ve lost a great deal of state legislatures. Democrats have not done well. He’s got to make sure that doesn’t happen here,” Bartlett said. ​“He has to meet with grassroots groups and make sure we have the next group of leaders, a bench. He has a big responsibility.”

Balletto, who runs a Middletown Avenue accounting firm and now lives in Guilford, represented Morris Cove on the New Haven’s Board of Aldermen (as it was then called) from 1988 – 1989. He served as town chair from 1996 – 2002. He left that job after supporting a challenger to then-Mayor John DeStefano, Martin Looney, in a 2001 Democratic mayoral primary; Looney lost.

From that experience, Balletto said, ​“I certainly learned to be inclusive as much as possible. I learned to be more of a consensus builder.”

Meanwhile, New Haveners are also moving up the rungs at the state legislature. New Haven’s Looney, who becomes the new State Senate president this coming year, has named two city people to top staff Jobs: Vincent Mauro Jr. will serve as Looney’s chief of staff. (Mauro is also New Haven’s Democratic Party town chairman.) And Adam Joseph will serve as communications director for both Looney and the state majority leader. Both have worked for Looney already in his role as Senate majority leader, so they’re moving up along with him.