nothin Republicans Promise To “Take Back Hamden” | New Haven Independent

Republicans Promise To Take Back Hamden”

Sam Gurwitt Photo

State Senator George Logan and District 7 Candidate Tom Figlar (facing camera) talking to Lynn and Lee Campo.

Hamden’s Republicans vowed to take back Hamden” — not necessarily to GOP control, but to fiscal stability, as promoted by a full slate of municipal candidates.

That vow was made Monday night at the Knights of Columbus Lodge on Whitney Avenue at a fundraiser and campaign rally hosted by the Hamden Republican Party.

For the first time ever, Hamden Republicans are fielding a full slate of candidates (except for town clerk) in the Nov. 5 municipal election.

That includes a candidate for mayor, candidates for all nine of the town’s Legislative Council districts, four at-large council candidates, and two Board of Education (BOE) candidates.

Most of those candidates gathered Monday to rev the party’s electoral engines and talk about the biggest issues facing the town: namely, the town’s mountain of debt and how to overcome it. It’s time, the title of the event announced, to take back Hamden.”

It’s not about Republican, Democrat,” said Republican Town Committee Chair Frank LaDore. It’s about being fiscally sound.”

Hamden is a heavily Democratic town. As of Tuesday, it had 17,113 registered Democrats, 3,911 Republicans, 11,463 unaffiliated voters, and 437 members of other parties. Hamden’s last Republican mayor, Barbara DeNicola, left office in 1999.

RTC Chair Frank LaDore.

Minority parties are guaranteed representation on the Legislative Council by Hamden’s Charter. Two of the six at-large council seats must go to members of a minority party. Republican representatives Betty Wetmore and Marjorie Bonadies currently hold those two guaranteed seats on the council. In the last fifteen years, the council has never had more than five Republicans. That was in the 2009 – 2011 term. In all other terms since 2005, there have only been two or three.

But with fears mounting about Hamden’s finances and the crushing tax burden that has resulted from large accumulated debt, LaDore and other members of his party said they think voters might have more of an appetite for fiscally conservative leadership this time around.

We literally in this town are on the edge of the abyss,” said former resident Dominic Rapini, who ran for Chris Murphy’s U.S. Senate seat but lost in the primary to Matthew Corey in 2018. Democrats in this town have managed to really dismantle this town.”

Dominic Rapini and Gary Walsh.

We’re going to get bigger, we’re going to get stronger, and we’re going to show the Democrats in town that, hey, our Republican values have worked across this country, they’ve worked in our neighboring towns, and they can work here in Hamden too,” said Mayoral Candidate Jay Kaye. And they’re starting to realize it and they’re nodding their heads and they’re agreeing. Some of them can’t believe it. They’re like, I can’t believe I’m going to vote for a Republican.’”

The Working Families Party launched its own campaign for two registered Democrats running for the town’s two minority party council seats on Friday, effectively seeking to oust Republicans from the council altogether. Unsurprisingly, some Republicans are not pleased with that move.

There are 4,000 registered Republicans in Hamden, said Bonadies. They’re going to disenfranchise 4,000 Republicans in this town.”

The Slate

Jay Kaye.

As residents and candidates chatted in small groups throughout the room, Rapini took the microphone and led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance. He then launched into a speech, before handing the microphone to LaDore. One by one, LaDore introduced each candidate, throwing in a joke where he could.

The Republican slate includes a few seasoned council members and a large crop of new candidates.

Betty Wetmore is the longest-serving Republican. She has been on the council continuously since 2001. She’s running to keep her at-large seat.

Austin Cesare served from 2011 – 2017, and is again looking to serve at-large. Cesare is a school teacher in Milford and adjunct faculty at Sacred Heart University, and served on the BOE before joining the council. He is also the brother of Public Works Director Craig Cesare.

Marjorie Bonadies, who represented District 9 from 2013 until 2017, and now serves at-large, is seeking her district’s seat again.

Vic Mitchell, who is running to be reelected to the BOE, has already served for four years.

The rest of the candidates would be new to the offices they seek, if not to Hamden politics. Jay Kaye, who works in building restoration, tops the slate with his sight on the mayor’s office. 

What we’ve been able to do is attract people who are not only candidates, but they’re real people. These aren’t politicians. These are accountants, teachers, principals, you know, I.T. guys,” said Kaye in his speech. These are the residents of Hamden who are stepping up to take back our town.”

Dolphuss Addison.

Army Veteran Dolphuss Addison and Dian Lewis, who runs her own assisted living business and is a Jamaican-born immigrant, round out the at-large slate.

In District 1, the Republicans are fielding Debra Rigney, who challenged Josh Elliott for Connecticut’s 88th House District in 2018.

James Anthony, who has run unsuccessfully before, aims to defeat Harry Gagliardi in District 2.

Henry Veloza, who works for an IT company, is running in the Third District. This doesn’t happen: we have a Latino millennial running for office as a Republican!” joked LaDore. Veloza is 35 and currently serves on the town’s technology commission.

Henry Veloza.

Retired nurse and former Fire Commission Chair Marsha Walsh is running in the Fourth District, and Ralph Nicefaro, who teaches fifth and sixth graders in Norwalk, is running in the fifth against Justin Farmer.

Celentano Biotech, Health, and Medical Magnet School History Teacher Karlen Meinsen, who also happens to be Kaye’s wife, is running in the sixth.

In the seventh, Republicans are fielding Financial Analyst Tom Figlar. Figlar led parents at the Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School in protest against the town’s decision to take the building back from ACES last year.

Salman Hamid, who ran for mayor in 2017 and is now an assistant principal in Norwich, and who previously taught social studies in Hamden and then made curricula for ACES, is running in the Eighth District.

And, of course, Bonadies is in the ninth. It’s yours to lose, baby,” LaDore remarked as he introduced her. Bonadies is a nurse, and the current minority leader.

In addition to Vic Mitchell, Gary Walsh, who teaches special education in New Haven and tried to unseat Mike D’Agostino for his Connecticut House seat in 2018, is running for the BOE. Walsh said he believes special education students should not be concentrated, as they are currently in the Alice Peck program, which is now housed at the Wintergreen School. He said he also believes the district should have more opportunities for students to learn trades.

Stop The Bleeding”

Vic and Gail Mitchell, both of whom serve on the BOE, and Betty Wetmore.

For many of the candidates at Monday evening’s gathering, Hamden’s fiscal troubles are foremost on a list of items to address.

I think that Hamden’s fiscal issues need to be looked at very closely,” said Marsha Walsh. Like line item by line item.”

Hamden currently has the sixth-highest mill rate in the state, at 48.86. According to a town budget audit that was released over the summer, Hamden has over $1 billion in net liabilities. Even the left-wing of the Democratic party in town has made fiscal conservatism a pillar of its candidates’ campaigns

I try to resist all the spending,” said Betty Wetmore. I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing. I’m going to try to stop the bleeding of the taxpayers’ dollars.”

One of the projects Wetmore opposed, because she said it was too expensive, was the 3R initiative that the council passed most of in June, which will involve restructuring the Hamden School District and rebuilding and renovating schools. She was sitting next to Vic Mitchell on Monday, who helped craft the project and said he supports it wholeheartedly.”

But you don’t want that,” he said to Wetmore.

I don’t want any of it,” Wetmore replied. It’s great, but we can’t afford it.”

Bonadies said that if elected again, she would like to focus on the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) in the town’s pension fund, which is one of the town’s major expenses after years of paltry or nonexistent payments into the fund. With about 75 percent of the budget going to the pension, debt, the BOE, fringes, and medical, you can’t make up for huge expenses in those areas just by cutting from the other 25 percent, said Bonadies.

Getting the town back on track, she said, will require renegotiating the pension contract. She said she would like to see a report on what would happen if the town froze COLA for five years. Hamden has historically paid more in COLA than it needed to. She said she will also focus on reducing expenses in the Police Department and the BOE, and on renegotiating union contracts.

Marjorie Bonadies.

Austin Cesare said he would like to prevent bid waivers, if elected. The bidding process, he said, can help the town get the lowest prices from contractors.

The council has to ask more questions about why certain things are the way they are,” he said. We’re the fiscal authority of the town, and we have to take that job very seriously.”

Once LaDore had introduced every candidate, he told the crowd to enjoy the rest of the evening, and to make sure and get pizza before the last slices of Café Amici pies disappeared.

We’re Republicans, and we ordered low,” he joked.

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