Mayor DeStefano chats at the SOTS Candidate Forum

Last night, the Democratic Town Chairs of the third congressional district sponsored a Candidates’ Forum for those running for Secretary of State. The forum took place in the Hall of Records in New Haven. There was a great turnout, including Democratic State Chair Nancy DiNardo and Past Chair George Jepsen. These forums are crucial to building a stronger Democratic Party and a better state. Unfortunately, the Connecticut General Assembly was voting on important measures about Medicare and the two candidates serving in the assembly could not attend. However, they did send proxies. It would be great if all candidates for state office were so committed to promoting well thought out discussions.

Mayor DeStefano provided welcoming comments. He spoke about how great politics isn’t about being for a candidate: it is about ideas. Candidates’ forums are great places for the presentation and refinement of ideas. He went on to talk about how candidates are important, but what is more important is our families and our future.

Susan Voigt, Democratic Town Chair of New Haven spoke about bills before the assembly that would make absentee voting more difficult for senior citizens and others that have difficulties getting to the polls. She spoke about how we need to be working hard to make it easier for seniors to vote, not more difficult. Another speaker expressed concern about campaign finance reform limiting town committees much more than it would limit PACs.

This set the stage for the candidates to speak. There are currently six candidates, three women and three men. I am friends with several of them and I think all of them did quite well. Afterwards, I spoke with a couple campaign managers, all of whom presented their arguments as to why they thought their candidates came out ahead. I would love to read comments here about who you think did best.

Each candidate spoke about their background and experiences and why it would make them the best candidate. They spoke about key issues, Campaign Finance Reform, dealing with new voting machines, encouraging people to vote and supporting small business. Each of these issues had strong support from the candidates.

There wasn’t a lot of time to get to the real meat of the ideas of how best to address these issues, but a few key ideas did come out that I would like to highlight. In terms of Campaign Finance Reform, John Nussbaum talked about the need for free media in campaigns. Much of the money raised by candidates will be spent on media buys and we need to change the way the public airwaves are used to support democracy.

In terms of new voting machines, there was broad support for Senate Bill 55 and support for voter verified paper trails. There was a little discussion about optical scan versus Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines as well as what could and should be done with the old lever voting machines.

Everyone wants to see more people voting. Evelyn Mantilla’s proxy spoke about the importance of providing better training to registrars. Norma Rodriguez spoke about the importance of getting people involved early in politics and pointed out that her three-year-old grandniece was attending. My three year old wasn’t in attendance last night, but she has already spent a lot of time on the campaign trail. Several of the candidates spoke about their own experiences on the campaign trail at an early age.

There wasn’t a lot of talk about the Secretary of States role in promoting business in Connecticut, although a few candidates spoke about their experiences as small business owners in Connecticut, the importance of small business, and the needs to make sure that businesses and politicians behave ethically.

All six candidates bring a lot to the table and I look forward to more candidates’ forums. I would encourage everyone to find out more about the candidates and getting involved in their campaigns. You can contact the by email or by visiting their websites. They are:

Audrey Blondin
Andrew Fleischmann
Robert Landino
Evelyn Mantilla
John Nussbaum
Norma Rodriguez