State rep campaign kicks into gear; Reeves, Lavielle pound the pavement

Written by Joan Lownds
Sunday, 29 August 2010 10:31

Democratic State Rep. Peggy Reeves and her Republican challenger, Gail Lavielle, have spent the summer ringing doorbells and making phone calls, striking up conversations about the economy, jobs and other issues facing voters. The election is 67 days away, but the campaign to represent the 143rd District has kicked into high gear, and could prove to be a close race.

Ms. Reeves, a freshman legislator, defeated Republican Second Selectman Susan Bruschi in November 2008, by a total vote of 6,349 to 5,582. She carried Wilton by just one vote, but her district also includes part of traditionally Democratic Norwalk.

How will the race shape up this year?

Scott McLean, a professor of political science at Quinnipiac University and political analyst at the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, said the current mood of state voters is one of dissatisfaction, which favors challengers. “There is a general discontent with incumbents, which obviously favors Republicans more than Democrats,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for Republican challengers.”

In Connecticut, the Democrats have a firm hold on the General Assembly, with 114 state representatives vs. 37 Republicans; and 24 state senators to 12 for the Republicans.

According to Mc. McLean, some of those seats may be in jeopardy because of one overriding issue: the economy. “Jobs and the economy top the list of people’s concerns,” he said.

Ms. Lavielle, who was elected to the Board of Finance last fall, said she has witnessed this mood among voters firsthand. “People are terribly worried, upset and scared,” she said. “In three days, I met five families who are leaving the state because they can’t afford it anymore.”

The main reason for this is taxes, according to Ms. Lavielle, whose background includes more than 25 years in finance, marketing, and communication, holding executive leadership positions with Fortune 500 corporations. “Our people and businesses are straining under the second-highest tax burden in the country,” she said. “Connecticut is right at the bottom of any ranking of states in terms of business-friendliness. To create jobs, we must work on making the state an easier and more attractive place to do business.”

Ms. Lavielle said the jobs bill, which was passed by the legislature at the end of last session, established some ways to address the issue, but she described it as “a start. It’s not exhaustive.” The bill called for the creation of a consortium to provide loans and lines of credit to small businesses, a job creation tax credit for small businesses, pre-seed financing for businesses seeking to develop new concepts and tax incentives for investments in green businesses, and exemptions for items used in the renewable and clean energy technology industries.

“I believe we must do more to help businesses,” Ms. Lavielle said. Her suggestions include “eliminating the 10% surcharge on corporate taxes that was included in our current biennial state budget; eliminating the business entity tax; reviewing the permitting processes for business activities and expedite them wherever possible; and supporting educational programs focused on green technologies.”

According to Ms. Lavielle, “The best way for the General Assembly to make a difference in job creation is to act with urgency to make the state more business-friendly. I believe its role is not directly to create jobs, but to help people and businesses create jobs, and to make providing this help an absolute priority.

Ms. Lavielle, who is a professor at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where she teaches classes in advertising and media literacy, also criticized the way the “supermajority” in the legislature passed this year’s budget, “two months after the fiscal year began, making it terribly difficult for towns.

According to Ms. Lavielle, the budget was also balanced with “borrowing, rainy day funds and one-time federal stimulus funds. We can’t keep spending money we don’t have.” She suggested taking a closer look at “services — at how efficient they are, and how they could be better. Some services might be better provided by the private sector, such as road and park maintenance; and we should also take a look at a consolidation of government services and agencies.”

As a member of the Connecticut state Transportation Commission, Ms. Lavielle also urged that “we keep the pressure on to improve mass transit, and provide bus service to make it easier to get to mass transit. These issues need to stay high on our radar screen because they will improve the entire economy of the state.”

But the predominant theme among voters is the economy, she said. “The American dream was always based on the idea that the harder you work, the better your lives will be. Now people’s lives are coming to a dead stop.”

As a result, they are “losing faith in government, and feel they are not being told the truth by the government. Something has got to be done.”

According to Wilton Republican Town Committee Chair Al Alper, “Gail’s running a terrific campaign, meeting and speaking with as many Wiltonians as possible. She is focused on ensuring that all of the constituents of the 143rd have representation, and is tireless in that pursuit.”

“The state of Connecticut is such that new leadership in the legislature is needed if we are to right the decades of excessive taxation, debt and neglect that is the legacy of the Democratic super-majority,” he said. “Gail will bring the needed leadership to the position that has been absent these last two years and, equally as important, Gail will whittle down the Democratic super-majority and, hopefully, dethrone the current ruler — Chris Donavan who has reigned over the his veto-proof, super-majority government — ignoring the will of the people of Connecticut and our governor, Jodi Rell.”

Peggy Reeves

Democratic incumbent Peggy Reeves, however, takes a different view, as she walks from home to home in her district. “What I discover is that what unites us is so much greater than what divides us. We all just want a better way of life for ourselves and our families. We want to make our communities a better place to live,” said Ms. Reeves, who has been chairman of the Wilton Unit of the Salvation Army since 1997, assisting local families and seniors. Ms. Reeves was also registrar of voters from 1994 to 2008 and has also served as president of the Driscoll School PTA, trustee of the Wilton Library Association and president of the Wilton League of Women Voters.

In Ms. Reeves’ election, approximately 1,000 Wilton Republicans crossed party lines to vote for her, and she has carried this spirit of bipartisanship to Hartford, she said.

She broke party lines to vote against the 2011 state budget supported by a majority of state lawmakers. “Although the legislation balanced the state budget through fiscal year 2011 with no tax increases, and no cuts in municipal aid, it still relied too heavily on borrowing,” she said. “With the issuance of $956 million in bonds, we are using an energy efficiency program paid for by all electric ratepayers and we will be authorizing the continuance of another surcharge on consumers’ electric bills that would have expired.”

According to Ms. Reeves, the budget also “takes millions from funds designed specifically for open space, farmland preservation and renewable energy. We cannot continue to tell Connecticut’s residents that we are going to spend money for one thing and then just use it whenever the state coffers run low.”

Ms. Reeves said she also hears the voters’ concerns about jobs and the economy, and has a jobs plan that includes providing tax credits to small businesses when they add employees, for example, since small business recovery is one of the main keys to the recovery. She said she will also fight to create more “green jobs” in the state, using wind, solar and hydro-power, and stressed the importance of improving mass transit in the area as well. Also, Ms. Reeves said she will work to override Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s veto of the energy bill, which she co-sponsored, and which would have created a state energy department.

To more effectively balance the state budget, Ms. Reeve called for asking each state agency to “start at zero and justify everything.” However, she said the budget should be balanced “with a scalpel and not an axe,” since some state departments are underfunded, such as the Department of Environmental Protection.

As a legislator, Ms. Reeves also supported a bill aimed at reducing local reliance on property taxes through “streamlining state government and providing regional initiatives. A portion of the state sales tax collected will be returned to towns who agree to participate as an incentive.”

According to Ms. Reeves, towns that participate in a system of more efficient, streamlined government and education operations would be able “to access federal economic development funds for the first time. These new revenue streams would offer permanent property tax relief to participating towns,” she said. “We want to make sure that towns like Wilton have another option, besides property taxes, for revenue.”

Ms. Reeves, a lawyer who sits on the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee, Judiciary Committee and Transportation Committee, said she also successfully fought to change the law to allow physicians to “prescribe long-term antibiotics to treat Lyme disease.” Her other accomplishments include advocating reform of the probate court system; leading the debate on protecting the voting rights of U.S. military members, especially those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan; and helping to reopen the Connecticut Alzheimer’s Respite Care Program in Norwalk.

“If I am lucky enough to continue the work I started, I will keep fighting for my constituents and their families,” Ms. Reeves said.

According to Democratic Town Committee Chair John Kalamarides, “It is vitally important that all Democrats come out and vote in this fall’s election. While the opposition has created a lot of media stir, we Democrats know that to get the economy and the state back on track and to see people employed again is not going to be a quick fix. We need people in elected office like Peggy Reeves and Jim Himes who have served us intelligently and honestly to continue the work they have started.”

Mr. Kalamarides described the Democratic ticket as “strong from top to bottom. When they are elected, they will attack the problems we all see and find solutions in a sensible and fair way,” he said. “No Democrat will leave untouched the problems that are before us.”

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