Chris Powell: A great candidate in theory but disaster in practice; immigration’s cost

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart

MANCHESTER, Conn.

In theory Erin Stewart was a great idea for the Republican nomination for governor of Connecticut: not just a woman but a Republican who was elected six times consecutively as mayor of a heavily Democratic city, New Britain. She must have had something going for her.

But in practice as a candidate for governor Stewart has been giddy, superficial, reckless, vulgar, and astonishingly inept politically even as challenging a Democratic incumbent and Connecticut's entrenched Democratic machine requires great political skill just to have a chance.

In recent weeks Stewart has been a disaster.

First she gave an interview in which she claimed to have been offered bribes by many New Britain residents seeking favors from her office, bribes that she didn't accept but never reported. Stewart seems to have thought she was touting her integrity but she actually impugned herself.

Then there were allegations that the Stewart administration's tax collector had mishandled funds and backdated taxpayer checks to let delinquents escape late fees.

Then the Connecticut Mirror disclosed that as Stewart was preparing to leave office she applied to city government for a form of annual pension that didn't exist, a pension she imagined to be worth nearly $40,000 a year. Challenged about this, her explanation was simply: "Why wouldn't I?"  

And The Hartford Courant and WTHN-TV8, in New Haven, disclosed that Stewart had used her city government credit card for thousands of dollars of purchases for personal items delivered to her home but misclassified as office expenses, as well as for an expensive membership at the Hartford Club and a $500 birthday dinner. She denied nothing, instead claiming that the purchases were in the city's interest and people were just out to get her.   

Even Gov. Ned Lamont couldn't resist noting the irony that, after Republicans highlighted the expense account abuse for which the chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and University system, Terrence Cheng, was removed and given a year of paid leave, Republicans seemed about to nominate their own expense-account cheater for governor.

While the governor himself has not been implicated, corruption, malfeasance, and indifference to failure have been frequent in his administration. Mastery of the many specific examples of this might be the strongest attribute for a challenger to the governor's re-election. Can Connecticut's Republicans really think that Stewart could exploit such examples now without being made ridiculous by her own self-dealing and unaccountability? 

Indeed, Stewart's exploitation of her expense account probably would resonate more with the public than state government's longstanding failures with education, child protection, housing, and urban living standards. Those failures are simply taken for granted, the natural order of things. But people do understand when elected officials abuse their office to enrich themselves.

At their state nominating convention this weekend maybe some Republican delegates will figure that the party's chances in the state election in November are so poor, with the Democrats so entrenched in the state and President Trump's national Republican administration so capricious and corrupt, it won't matter if, in nominating Stewart, Connecticut Republicans are seen to condone capriciousness and corruption at the top of their state ticket as well.

Republicans who think that way will be wrong. Win or lose, every election is an opportunity to restore faith in democracy, or diminish it.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION'S COST: Enrollment in Bridgeport's schools has fallen by 700 students over the last year, from 20,000 to 19,300, and much of the decline is attributed to illegal immigrants leaving the city or at least removing their children from school in fear of the Trump administration's enforcement of immigration law. 

Whether this is good or bad, Bridgeport spends an average of more than $18,000 per student per year, so the decline in its student population could save nearly $13 million per year, if the money wasn't used just to increase spending elsewhere.

In any case this development invites review of how much the illegal immigration facilitated by state government is costing Connecticut, and how it is never directly appropriated for.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net).

Don Pesci: Don't mess with New Britain

VERNON,  Conn.

You’ll walk the floor, the way I do

You’re cheating heart will tell on you --

-- Ray Charles

If it had been Christmas, Josh Solomon, the owner of the New Britain Rock Cats – soon to be renamed the Hartford Rock Cats – might have found a lump of coal in his stocking. But it’s August, and the fiercely patriotic mayor of New Britain, Erin Stewart, contented herself with a “Dear John” letter requesting a payment of back taxes owed and announcing the end of a once great romance.

 The back taxes in the amount of $164,569.26 actually are owed to Berlin, Conn., but the tax bill was paid by New Britain to avoid an interest accrual of $4,937.08.” The Rock Cats stadium straddles the New Britain-Berlin town line.

Ms. Stewart’s letter is a study in smoldering rage. She begins in a business-like manner by advising: “The lease agreement between New Britain and the Rock Cats is clear that they are responsible for these taxes. ... But, if the Solomons continue their refusal to pay their taxes, Berlin can hold New Britain responsible for this payment since we are the property owners. I am not about to let them rack up late fees on the backs of our taxpayers.”

Then comes the hammer: “I am deeply disturbed by the pattern of utter disrespect that this ownership group has shown to their home city over the past few months. In June, they went public with their dalliance with Hartford, which hasn’t turned out to be quite the “done deal” that some made it out to be. Since then, they have continued their radio silence with New Britain. Now they are stiffing the taxpayers of Berlin and New Britain on their tax bill.”

The breakup between New Britain and the Rock Cats, a Double-A minor league baseball club, has not been amicable. Worse, it was first a hidden then a very public divorce. And New Britain, it is clear, does not like being jilted by money grubbing baseball gigolos.

Consider the history of the Rock Cats' many “dalliances.” The franchise began in Pittsfield, Mass.,  (1965-1969)  and then moved to Pawtucket, R.I.,  where it dallied for three years. The franchise then moved to Bristol, Conn., and played at Muzzy Field for 10 seasons (1973-1982).

In 1983, owner Joe Buzas moved the team, the New Britain Red Sox, to New Britain. When Beehive Field in New Britain began to show signs of age, the owner of the franchise toyed with the idea of moving the team to Springfield, Mass., but his heart remained with New Britain; whereupon the Red Sox re-affiliated with the Trenton Thunder, in New Jersey, and owner Buzas signed a new development agreement with the Minnesota Twins. New Britain Stadium opened in 1996, and the team name changed in 1997 to the current New Britain Rock Cats.

There are, it will be noticed, lots of musical chairs on the good ship “Rock Cats” – lots of petting and pawing and romancing and cheating and broken hearts and wailing by rudely rejected politicians. Ms. Stewart is by no means the first politician to whom the owners of the Rock Cats have pledged their troth. Nor, judging from the flighty franchise record, will she be the last.

When the Rock Cats, following months of closed-door negotiations, officially announced that the team was straying from New Britain to Hartford, the good people of Hartford vented their disapproval at a town meeting.

Why was Hartford so  eager  to divert to this new venture tax money that might have been used to repair roads, improve schools, stock libraries with books, purchase the service of more police to monitor gang activity in the city and provide the amenities that any livable city should afford their citizens? A lonely rebel at the town meeting – not a politician, of course – wondered aloud whether the Hartford-Rock Cats deal ever could turn a profit.  It was a raucous meeting.

One casualty of the political crunch, lately endorsed in a Democratic primary run for the State Senate by The Hartford Courant, was Hartford City Council President Shawn Wooden, who appeared early on to approve the Rock Cats move to Hartford. Much later, after the town meeting dust-up, Mr. Wooden qualified his endorsement of the move: He still supports the relocation effort, but he’d like someone other than Hartford to assume the bulk of the resettlement costs.

At the present time, it looks like Ms. Stewart is one of the few politicians blighted by the Rock Cats’ cheating heart who still has her head above water. Most of the rest of them – with the exception of  Gov.  Dan Malloy, who wisely decided to step away from all the smooching and petting – are blowing bubbles.

 Don Pesci (donpesci@att.net)  is a writer who lives in Vernon.