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Hoping To Jolt Joe
Waterbury's Giordano hopes to knock off Lieberman by
portraying him as a Beltway insider
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Business New Haven
6/12/2000
By: BNH
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Last fall Philip A. Giordano, 37, won re-election to his third term as mayor of Waterbury. This fall he will attempt to scale a somewhat higher summit in his challenge to two-term U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of New Haven. BNH spoke with Giordano shortly before his June 14 official announcement.
Sen. Lieberman won re-election in 1994 by 350,000 votes. How do you propose to knock him off?
I think Sen. Lieberman - as well as Sen. Dodd - have gotten a little bit too global and have stopped representing the interests of the people of Connecticut. We've done a lot of opposition research over the last six months, and those issues are going to be articulated and debated over the course of the campaign. This campaign is going to require a lot more money than Dr. [Gerald] Labriola [Lieberman's 1994 challenger] was able to raise; I think he raised and spent $160,000, which in a state race [is insufficient] to define yourself and your opponent. So we're actively fundraising around the state; I have an immense amount of energy, and I personally believe that grass-roots campaigning is one of the most effective ways of campaigning. Once we start articulating the issues [and illustrating Lieberman's shortcomings] in representing the people of Connecticut in Washington, it's going to be a formidable race.
How much money to you need
to raise?
In addition to an intense amount of grass-roots campaigning - which is the equivalent of raising money, in my opinion - I think we need to raise at least $3 million to $4 million.
Aside from portraying Lieberman as an out-of-touch Beltway insider, what will be the principal planks of your platform?
Off the bat, I think we can effectively criticize both Senators for their lack of defense initiatives here in the state of Connecticut. Certainly, education: Being an urban mayor of the fourth-largest city in the state, I've done everything I could for education here in Waterbury. We made some extreme educational reforms, but it's difficult when you don't receive the assistance from the federal government, and it appears to me that the federal government is lacking in their educational initiatives for major cities. So I think education is going to be a big issue. Partial-birth abortion is certainly a huge issue here in Connecticut, as well as veterans' issues.
What's your position on partial-birth abortions?
Absolutely against it.
Since you brought up education, how about school vouchers?
School vouchers are something that I'm interested in. I was in the General Assembly in 1995 when [a bill pertaining to school vouchers] was introduced. I firmly believe in competition for public schools; the more you compete, the greater your chance of breeding excellence within the schools. If you do not allow schools to compete, schools become complacent and educational values decrease. So I do believe in a form of vouchers to allow that competitive spirit to breed among the students and the schools.
Do you think most voters realize that when we have huge budget surpluses - whether at the state or federal level - that necessarily means people are over-taxed?
Absolutely. The state of Connecticut is a great example of over-taxation, if you will. Per-capita, we are the largest contributor of any state in the union of federal tax dollars to Washington. If you look at the flip side - receipt of dollars back from the federal government - we rank 50th. For every dollar we pay in taxes to the federal government, we receive 69 cents back. That's a big issue. I don't think people mind paying their taxes as long as they get something back. And when you have surpluses, that certainly does mean you are being over-taxed. However, if you use that surplus money effectively, you can pay down the debt and don't encumber our children and grandchildren with our [fiscal] problems.
Since we're a business magazine, what would you describe as the top two or three economic-development issues facing the state?
I look at Waterbury as a microcosm of the state. In Waterbury we were effective in asking the General Assembly to allow us to create what we called an 'information technology zone.' We are a typical blue-collar industrial city looking for a new identity, transforming itself into something else. Looking at the new technology era, we convinced the General Assembly to allow us to carve out these zones, primarily in our central business district. What that allows us to do is let the mayor and the board of aldermen and the councilmen to entice technology businesses into coming into our city by offering tax abatements - on personal property, real property, things of that nature - ourselves. We're the first city in the state to do that.
Describe some of your life experiences or characteristics of your background that made you a Republican?
My parents were born and raised in Italy, and when they came here and became U.S. citizens, they had a natural inclination to register as Democrats. I was never a registered Democrat, although my parents were. But they were Catholic, and very fiscally and morally conservative. When I was 18, I started working on Republican campaigns here in the city, registered Republican and stayed Republican.
Has the Republican National Committee targeted this race for a big-time financial commitment?
I've met with Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and we talked about this race. There is an interest and we are on the radar screen. They are not targeting this race as a 'hot' race just yet; we need to do our work in terms of raising dollars and hitting a certain target number in order to trigger some dollars out of D.C. So it's up to me first.
How about the governor - will he go to the mat for you? There's a 'reverse-coattails' theory that he won't want to get Lieberman terribly energized because it could help Gore in Connecticut.
I initially approached the governor about four months ago after my wife and I decided we were going to do this thing. Frankly, [at that time] he was discouraging. The media caught wind of it, and he was pretty open [about] discouraging me from running. Since then the governor and I have had a lot of conversations; on [June 14] when I announce, he will endorse me, and he said he will also assist me with fundraising. So that's a huge help.
Do you think Lieberman surrendered some of his moral stature by refusing to vote to convict the President during the impeachment trial?
Absolutely. I have been in the last four months going around the state talking to veterans' groups, community organizations, Republican town committees. The very first thing they bring up, inevitably, is the fact that Sen. Lieberman came out and chastised President Clinton and asked him to resign - and then when it came time to vote, [Lieberman supported] not even so much as a reprimand. People are upset about that. People viewed that as [an attempt to] get all the publicity [by criticizing Clinton early in the process] and then hiding behind the vote [hoping] no one would know how he voted. People are upset about that. BNH
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