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For the Opposition
Born and bred in a city dominated by a well-honed Democratic machine,
Chris DePino begs to differ
New Haven State Rep. Chris A. DePino (R-97) chairs the state's Republican Party.
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Business New Haven
10/6/1997
By: BNH
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What made you become a
Republican in the first place?
I became a Republican in a very unusual way. I got my Republican stripes really from catching fire with Ronald Reagan in 1980 when he [was elected] President on issues that surrounded patriotism - national defense, especially around the time of the Iranian hostage crisis. I started to follow the conservative economic policies of Reagan, though I was never very attracted to Republican social policies. I grew up in a city, surrounded by diversity, coming out of a job with the railroad where I met a whole host of people who were very different but all of whom brought a whole lot to the table. I always felt that when people had an opportunity to succeed economically, that would be a catalyst to be more productive and make a better life for themselves and their families.
Why did you decide to enter
politics?
In 1985, I was working two jobs: I was a train conductor, and dabbling in real estate a little bit. We were just having our second child, when my uncle came to me and said, 'Would you like to run for Board of Aldermen in New Haven [18th Ward]?' I said, 'Sure.' I had no clue what politics was all about. My friends thought I was crazy running as a Republican. I was running against the son of a very popular barber. But I worked very hard, even though Morris Cove was like 10-1 Democratic [registration] and [then-Mayor] Ben DiLieto was really popular then. I lost the election. We were ahead until about four o'clock in the afternoon, and then the Teamsters came, driving people in to beat me. And I was a union guy! They beat me, but I got totally infected with politics, the energy and the opportunity. In 1989, I ran against the incumbent [current Democratic town chairman Dominick Balletto] and I buried him. Which was great. Then, in 1992, I got an opportunity to run for the state [representative's] seat in a special election. I had a big head start, and I won.
You've always been an advocate for Tweed-New Haven Airport despite opposition to expansion in your neighborhood. Now that it's losing airlines seemingly almost daily, what's your view?
That airport needed to be changed ten years ago. Ten years ago, that airport needed to be a separate authority, with separate bonding authority, separate decision-making authority and enough representation from that neighborhood to maintain a balance. For years and years they had inept management, a workforce that wasn't motivated and was highly structured under civil-service rules, and at the mercy of the Board of Alderman, 28 or 29 of whom had no clue. And it was never a priority of the mayors. What it really needed was a two-tiered management system, with a day-to-day administrative manager, but also a bigger-picture person to do full-time marketing and promotion and talk to airlines about establishing service. That's a full-time job.
Well, we have a regional airport authority now.
It takes money and key people. I don't see the key people.
Where's the money supposed to come from?
You can ask the state to help provide some of those funds. But the state's not going to come to the table unless there's an absolute commitment from the towns. A lot of the towns want to have their cake and eat it, too: They want a good airport, but they don't want to pay for it. New Haven has taken the posture, 'If we're paying for it, we're controlling it.' Which is essentially what you have. That board is a 'regional' board, but New Haven's controlling it. And DeStefano does
not want to give up control of that board unless he doesn't have to put in taxpayers' money. So it's sort of like a
death spiral.
Can other towns be expected to participate financially unless New Haven surrenders some control?
The towns have to speak with one voice to the state. If it's just New Haven saying, 'We want this money for the airport' - you know what? New Haven says that across the board all the time! New Haven just got $16 million extra in state subsidy; the state is [paying for] 55 or 60 percent of the city's budget right now. And it's always 'More, more, more.'
A lot of people will say New Haven's legislative delegation doesn't bring home enough bacon from the Capital compared to Bridgeport- and Hartford-area legislators.
I don't think you can find an area legislator who's not supportive of economic development in New Haven - particularly Tweed-New Haven Airport. Tweed represents the best asset we have right now in terms of economic growth. The governor would be interested in seeing the towns come to the table with a pool of money [for airport improvements], and either matching the money or having the state put in more money. The issue of Tweed is a sore subject in Hartford. Three years ago, the request was for $1 million in capital improvements for the airport for a new terminal. We went to bat for it. Six months later there was a new request for an additional $1 million. They got that to complete the new terminal. Now, there's a responsibility on the part New Haven to make good on that investment; but you have a $2 million building with no airlines in it. Maybe before we put the $2 million in it, somebody should have asked, 'Is there a
market?'
Are you embarrassed that
your party can't field a mayoral
candidate?
No. I've never believed in eating your seed corn. You can't start something from nothing. It would be wonderful to have a Republican mayor, but you can't get there if you don't have a Republican party and Republican activists and grass roots support. You have little or none of that in New Haven. If you can't win the mayoral race in 1997, you can't win it. But you can build your party by specifically targeting aldermanic seats and concentrating your resources on those.
What will it take to restore two-party politics to New Haven?
There needs to be charter revision, and minority representation in the charter-revision process. The second thing is that the Board of Aldermen should be condensed from 30 little [wards] into nine or 12 districts [represented by] a city council. Then you'll see much higher caliber [candidates] come to the table. It's the same with an elected board of education. New Haven's the only town in the state with an appointed school board.
Why aren't city Republicans targeting, for example, African-Americans, many of whom feel they're second-class citizens in the Democratic Party?
We did that. We tried to persuade a half-dozen or so African-Americans to run as [aldermanic] candidates. We had a lot of discussion, but in the final analysis the Democrats offered them something we couldn't - a patronage contract, a job. But that's not an opportunity. In New Haven, what often happens is that someone gets a small, entry-level job at the Board of Education because of their political affiliation, and that's where they stay. And then they own you forever.
Speaking of education, why is it that when Hillhouse High School was placed on probation, it wasn't even the subject of much discussion in New Haven, while when Hartford Public lost its accreditation, the state took it over?
Because there are no checks and balances here, and the school system is controlled by the Democratic organizations. The mayor controls the school system in New Haven. The superintendent [Reginald Mayo] basically reports to him. And until you get an elected school board, you're going to have schools failing all over the place in this town. If you're a school board member, and you raise a question about any impropriety in that system or ask for accountability on any issue, you're
history.
Sheff v. O'Neill was a great opportunity for Connecticut Republicans to aggressively press for school vouchers and school choice, which is a major agenda item for the national Republican party. Why hasn't the state party shown more leadership on this?
It's a good question. You didn't see much leadership from the Democratic Party, either, and I'll tell you why: Because they were worried about their base constituency in the suburbs. My feeling is that the opportunity stemming from the Sheff v. O'Neill decision was to create regional school districts where kids from New Haven could go to North Haven, voluntarily. And it would absolutely work.
So isn't this total cowardice on the part of both political parties?
There was reluctance on the part of many Democratic legislators on this because of the unions...
Well, the governor didn't push it...
He didn't have the votes to pull it through. You look at the teachers union and who they support in the legislature, and 95 to 98 percent of their constituency in the legislature is Democratic.
And they opposed school choice?
They got dragged into school choice reluctantly because of the threat of vouchers hanging over their heads. They're opposed to dismantling the bureaucracy that protects them. But until you make fundamental changes in how you run your schools, and who you have in your classrooms, it's hard to make the other substantial changes that create better schools.
How good a job is John
DeStefano doing?
John DeStefano is an excellent manager. He understands how to run government in an efficient way. His political skills are improving, but he's being dragged down because of the patronage system and the old-line Democratic policies that he has to adhere to, and that's what's taking New Haven down. You've got a mayor who, on the one hand, professes to run government in an efficient way, and is capable of doing that. But he's got all these independent political hacks that he's got to take care of.
Give me some names.
The most blatant name that comes to mind is Bosie Kimber. Here's a guy that was convicted of fraud who's getting money from the city. He's not getting the money because he's a great community leader; he's getting it because he brings political opportunity to the table. [DeStefano is] a mayor who has essentially turned all his process-serving over to his Democratic town chairman [Balletto]. So the town chairman is a sheriff, and he's making $10,000 a month serving process papers out in the field. Then the mayor stands up to say, 'I think we should privatize the tax liens,' and he does, and then he goes and sells them to a group that's represented by the Democratic state chairman [Ed Marcus] - who then gets the foreclosure work. That's just raw power politics, and it sends a real bad message to the community.
What do you see as New Haven's economic-development priorities?
I think the mayor's long-term agenda is the [Long Wharf] mall. I have some issues with the mall. I'm not sure the current consortium of people working on it [the Fusco Corp. and the Newton, Mass.-based New England Development] is the right group.
Why?
There were six or seven proposals to develop that site. One of them was to do a European theme mall. That idea I liked, because it wasn't going to be like every other mall in America. But I understand how politics works, and the developer got picked because they're very good to the mayor politically.
What do you think we ought to concentrate on?
I think the only short-term agenda the city should have right now is to develop these four or five blocks [downtown, bordered by Chapel, College and Church streets and Frontage Road]. You've got to put this [Omni] hotel on line as fast as possible. This is New Haven's first venture back into the big leagues, and if it fails you're not going to get anything. You're not going to get a mall; you're going to end up with low-end stores. Downtown has got to come back and has got to be looked at in a different way. I don't see that. When we're fighting over bus stops, we're missing the big picture. That should never have been allowed to escalate into what it did. Business people are going to look at New Haven and say, 'Don't go there; they're having a debate over bus stops; it's the major issue in their mayoral campaign.' Ridiculous.
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