Dubbed "the Fighting Mayor" by the Hartford Courant, John DeStefano has been a passionate advocate for using public policy innovations to improve people's lives.

Mayor DeStefano: Hello. Thank you for being here tonight. It is always easiest to start new and difficult ventures with trusted friends.

Eleven years ago, many of us in this room began an important journey together. We shared a belief that New Haven's government could improve people's lives. That the right kind of leadership and ideas could create a safe and vibrant New Haven. There were many cynics and skeptics back at the beginning. There were bumps along the road. But together, we made positive change happen. Real, lasting change that endures and that inspires others, throughout the state and throughout the country. New Haven is safer. People are choosing to live and start their businesses here. We have made history together through our innovative policies, our trailblazing appointments to leadership in this city, and our remarkable success in rebuilding our neighborhoods. Tonight, I want to talk to you about [a new chapter in this journey we have embarked on together.]

Being your Mayor is a great privilege and a great honor. I want to ask for your support as I continue to work with you to make New Haven a better place. You all know how hard I work, and how much I care about this place, and how much more we have to do together. In the fall of 2005, I will once again seek to be your Mayor. We have to continue the progress we have made so far. But I also feel strongly, that only the Mayor of this great city can effectively make the case for new priorities at our Capitol. I also believe firmly--after 11 years of serving the citizens of New Haven--that in order to truly make New Haven the city our children deserve to grow up in, we need to change our state government.

“We create good jobs and encourage environmentally sensitive development here, but the state subsidizes sprawl and quietly stands by as unions are rolled back.”

I have spent 21 of the last 23 years of my life serving the people of this city. In my heart, I have deep faith in the purpose of public service and I enjoy it. Some people say that it is not sensible for a man that has spent his life in government - trying to make lives better for the working poor, for immigrants, for single mothers - to go across this state and make the case for change. Well, whomever thinks that doesn't know me and the passion I have for this city and this state. They don't know my work ethic and determination. And whomever doubts me, doesn't know anything about the team that powers me: all of you in this audience. If we can change New Haven, we can change Connecticut. Together, we will change Connecticut.

To continue its progress, New Haven needs Connecticut to change direction. There is only so much we can do for our residents through our local government. Every year, we balance our budgets by making tough choices, but the state continues to protect the wealthiest. We make our communities safe through smart policing, but our criminal justices system remains unfair and contradictory. We create good jobs and encourage environmentally sensitive development here, but the state subsidizes sprawl and quietly stands by as unions are rolled back. In New Haven, we work hard to invest in people in order to foster innovation and create equal opportunity but the state of Connecticut spends less on public education than any other state. To make New Haven better, we must change the priorities of Connecticut's government.

This must be New Haven's mission - to change Connecticut's investment priorities - but it should not be a burden we carry alone. This is the right time for a policy and political vision that transcends urban and suburban, black and white. And I think that I am the best person to lay out that vision for the Connecticut public. But I need your support to make that possible.

Throughout Connecticut, middle-class and working people in every town are hurting because of the economic and social investment policies we have pursued over the last decade. Connecticut's public school system used to be the envy of every state in this union. Nowadays, school boards in a majority of towns grapple with a lack of funding and sacrifice classroom size and extra-curriculars to balance the books. A fancy stadium can't obscure the fact that college tuition at public colleges is becoming less affordable to the people of this state. Sadly, only the luckiest and most affluent people in Connecticut can count on high-quality early childhood care. Parents spend more and more time commuting to far away jobs that pay less and less. Personal debt is at all time high. Too many good families, in New Haven and throughout this state, go to bed worried that their children will not do as well as they did.

It's not just the people of New Haven that are being worn down by this economic uncertainty. It's families in Windham, and Bristol, and New Britain, and yes, even in places like Guilford and West Hartford. It's not just the wages of people in these places that have stagnated. It also their dreams for a good life that have stagnated. It's also their aspirations for their children. We need to change this. We deserve to change this. And with the right vision for this state, we can.

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Connecticut was once an innovator in public policy; after all, New Haven was America's first planned municipality. So, it seems fitting that New Haven would once again lead the fight to make Connecticut a leader in responsible social investment. We can reform our tax code and abandon the regressive property tax and rely on income so that we can adequately fund education and combat sprawl. We can make a quality public college education virtually free to the middle-class and students of modest means. We can create good jobs and protect the environment by adopting real smart growth principles for our development. We can be the national leader in the provision of early childhood education. We can leverage our public health care system dollars to cover even more people. We can have a transportation policy that protects jobs instead of pushing sprawl. In brief, we can make investment choices that strengthen Connecticut's middle-class or we can continue our current policy of shredding our social contract and Connecticut's economy to protect the concentration of wealth.

I know all of you agree with me that Connecticut needs change. I know that you agree with me that a better future is possible if we make the right choices. And in the coming months, with your support, I will build a campaign that convinces Connecticut that I am the right person to make that better future possible.

Let's start with my record. Nobody in the field has as much experience as I do. When my opponents attack, and you know they will, I will be able to counter with substance. Crime cut in half and livability restored. Schools rebuilt and 1,300 suburban kids in our public schools - one of the least controversial economic and racial integration efforts in New England history. Every kid has a free school breakfast and lunch, and thousands have access to free health care through our school-based clinics. Vacant buildings down by two-thirds, and thousands of housing units rehabilitated. I've balanced budgets year after year. I've helped settle two Yale strikes. And just two weeks ago, we achieved something that has never been done in America - the creation of a community development bank as a settlement to a merger. And if the states let us, we'll be the only municipality that will have passed real campaign finance reform. Other candidates can talk all they want--but in New Haven we have made real change happen.

You know my work ethic and you know my political tenacity. Nobody in the field has had to go through as many primaries as I have. In this community, I have continuously earned the support and votes of every neighborhood. My ideas and leadership have transcended income and ethnicity. I am confident that my vision for Connecticut will allow me to do the same across this state. I have the skills and patience to endure tough political fights. I have the relationships and fundraising base to get my message out. And I know how to fight back.

This candidate isn't waiting for an engraved invitation into the Governor's mansion. I don't subscribe to the notion that a few insiders should anoint a candidate for all of us. The Democrats in this state have been waiting for a knight in shining armor for far too long, and it is Connecticut families that have suffered the consequences of lazy politics. We should not be complicit in this failure again.

Real change requires hard work. What we need is someone who has the passion and hunger to build a coalition that can win. I know that if you will work with me and be partners in this effort, we will build that coalition. Our campaign will bring people from cities and towns together by focusing on strengthening our middle-class through intelligent social investment. Our campaign will be truly participatory: we will use the internet aggressively, we will use old-fashioned ward-by-ward organizing, and we will use innovative policy proposals to forcefully focus the election on the need for a new economic vision. I will bike across Connecticut and ride mass transit to connect with the working-people who have been hardest hit by the state's economic mistakes. I will listen to what leaders, activists and everyday people believe is important. We will re-engage with the hundreds of thousands of voters that have dropped out of the process and give them a reason to vote Democratic again. And we will win.

Tonight, I begin a first step in this monumental effort because I would have never gotten here in the first place without you. I seek your support to begin this new journey together--a journey that remains firmly committed to our fine city, and asks us to push beyond its borders for real solutions to our problems. Tonight, I seek your support to become our next Governor because I know together we can change Connecticut in ways we never imagined possible.

Thank you.