Independent Ticket Stakes Middle Ground

With the Democrats on abortion. In between the Republicans and Democrats on state ​“rainy day” finances and on affordable housing.

Those are among the positions a gubernatorial candidate is taking as a third party repositions itself from right-of-Republican to the political center

That party is the Independent Party. 2022 Edition.

The party has for decades advanced a conservative agenda. Its slate advanced a pro-life-dominated platform in the 1990s. The party moved to cross-endorsing the Republican candidate in the past two elections. It had come to serve as the right-wing version of the left-leaning Working Families Party, which cross-endorses mostly Democrats who back its issues agenda.

This year the Independent Party has fielded a broader array of its own candidates in a quest to carve a new identity in the center of statewide elections. In a fractious process that landed in court, the party spurned GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski for a team of its own.

The team at the top of the ticket — gubernatorial candidate Rob Hotaling and lieutenant governor candidate Chip Becket — discussed their agenda during an interview on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. (Click here to watch and read about an interview with the party’s secretary of the state candidate, Cynthia Jennings, who has a progressive Democratic background.)

Hotaling’s description of the party’s place on the political spectrum: ​“Moderation. Centrism. Taking the best ideas of both sides. We believe we represent the party of the middle-class, the working folks.” (Click here to read his platform.)

Hotaling, a Liberian-American businessman who currently works at Webster Bank, switched from Democrat to Republican before abandoning the latter party last year. Becket, a veterinarian and second-generation produce farmer, used to serve as Republican leader in Glastonbury before jumping the party ship as well in 2021.

Both cited the same reason: The party’s embrace of Donald Trump’s efforts to deny and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The experience motivated them to offer voters a choice more in line with the values they say their former party has abandoned.

Hotaling cited his family’s experience fleeing his native Liberia in 1980 in response to an anti-democratic coup.

“We came here after a military coup. I tell the story, about the fragility of democracy: It was one of the most stable countries, for over a hundred years. A group of angry young men, essentially, said, ​‘We’re going to get together and overthrow the government.’ It was peaceful before that.

“Folks took the leadership and brought them to the beach and executed them on the beach.

“So that’s the thing. It’s scary. Some people say, ​‘That would never happen in America.’ I’m not trying to draw a direct parallel to Jan. 6. But my main point is this: We shouldn’t think that these things are such foreign concepts. People get angry enough, they get violent enough, and partisanship is leading that.

“[The GOP] used to be a party of principle. I used to agree with the fiscal policies. I can’t say I agree a lot with the social issues. But when you literally have elected officials who support undemocratic positions and undermine democracy, and you believe in principle, how can you legitimately sit there? People double-downed and didn’t take Sept. 6 seriously. I asked myself: Is this what represents me?”

The answer: No.

Becket arrived at the same answer in 2021.

“When 147 Congressmen decided to support” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit seeking to invalidate the 2020 presidential results, ​“I realized a majority of Congressmen on the Republican side didn’t believe in elections.” He watched other Republicans nationwide fall in line with the election-denial bandwagon. ​“I said, ​‘I’m not going to associate with these people.’ … I left the party.”

In the ​“Dateline” interview, Hotaling described himself as firmly pro-choice, in favor of Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s efforts to support women seeking abortions here.

He parted with both Lamont and Stefanowski over the use of state surplus funds. Stefanowski has criticized the governor for not tapping the $6 billion budget surplus to offer another $2 billion in tax cuts. He specifically criticized Lamont’s refusal to tap the state’s $3 billion ​“rainy day fund” for future emergencies. Lamont argues that the state needs to keep that money in the rainy day fund and use surplus dollars to continue paying off unfunded pension liabilities because a recession is looming, and the state will need the money. Stefanowski argues that the ​“rainy day” has arrived.

Hotaling called for taking a smaller amount of the surplus — 15 percent — to offer direct aid to vulnerable groups like seniors who’ll need help paying heating bills this winter; and to invest more in early childhood education and public education in general to address the achievement gap. (He also called for more regional teacher training and curriculum, a new formula for educational cost-sharing, and mandating financial literacy for high school and college graduation.)

Hotaling called for fully funding the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program (PILOT) and eliminating business property taxes and motor vehicle taxes to boost small business development.

The latter two measures would cost $1.5 billion a year. Where would the state find that money?

Partly through the ​“virtuous cycle” of eventually creating more tax revenue down the line by enabling private businesses to grow today through tax cuts, Hotaling responded.

The candidates were asked how that differs from the Laffer curve and trickle-down economic theory: the theory that government need not make up revenue lost through tax cuts because it can count on businesses to create enough new revenue thanks to new investment. That theory hasn’t always worked out in practice — because rather than use tax cuts to invest in new equipment or jobs, large corporations have instead simply increased dividends. Liz Truss lasted just six weeks as Britain’s prime minister when markets revolted over her efforts to tap that theory for her fiscal policy. 

Becket responded: This Laffer curve would bend toward owners of small businesses like his rather than toward multinational public corporations. Connecticut small businesses would indeed use tax breaks to invest in new equipment and/or staff and therefore grow and create more value, he argued.

Click on the video to watch the full interview with Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Rob Hotaling and lieutenant governor candidate Chip Becket, in which they also discuss a middle-path position on state affordable-housing policy.

Click here to subscribe to ​“Dateline New Haven” and here to subscribe to other WNHH FM podcasts.