Politics & Government
Can the Democrats post their first win since 1891?
Watertown's Desmarais makes a second bid to unseat Republican incumbent Eric Berthel in 32nd state Senate District
By Scott Benjamin
SOUTHBURY – In Jeff Desmarais’ campaign headquarters there are posters of John Kennedy, the first Catholic to be elected president, and Barack Obama, the first African-American to win the White House.
His admiration list also includes Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.
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Desmarais says of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Obama: From the Civil War to the Great Depression and World War II to the Great Recession, “When there was a crisis, they didn’t show panic.”
In the November 8 election, Desmarais of the Oakville section of Watertown will try to become the first Democrat to capture the state Senate seat in the 32nd District since Charles Lyman of Washington in 1891.
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That was 32 years before the original Yankee Stadium opened.
In 2017 the Republican domination was so notable that Rachel Maddow made reference to it on her MSNBC show the night before a special election.
Desmarais took 41.8 percent of the ballots in 2020 against Republican incumbent Eric Berthel of Watertown, who initially captured the seat in the 2017 special election. The district stretches from Seymour to Bethel. Now they face off in a rematch.
Berthel is a former state representative who served as vice chairman of the Watertown Board of Education. He briefly considered running for the Republican nomination in the Fifth Congressional District when it was an open seat in 2018. He has captured his two re-election bids with more than 58 percent of the vote each time.
However, Connecticut has been undergoing a political identity crisis in recent years.
For example, in 2018, Alex Kasser of Greenwich was the first Democrat elected in the 36th state Senate District since 1930 and Will Haskell of New Canaan was the first Democrat elected in the 26th state Senate District since 1970.
Yet, Berthel is the ranking member of three committees. He chaired the recent Republican convention in the Fifth Congressional District. He has a solid base of support in Watertown.
Are the DraftKings odds for a Democratic victory in 2022 in the 32nd District any better than for the Baltimore Orioles winning the World Series this fall?
Desmarais said there are encouraging signs.
He insisted the “biggest shift” has resulted from the June 24 6-3 vote on the Dobbs v. Jackson case by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has sent the decisions on abortion access from the federal government to the states.
“The conversation has changed,” he said in an interview with Patch.com.
“There is a real, genuine concern about the erosion of fundamental rights,” he explained. “You don’t know where it stops.”
Southbury Democratic Town Committee Chairman Michael Carrington commented, “It has energized Democrats.”
“The state Legislature is the firewall,” Desmarais remarked. “The Democrats will protect those rights no matter what.”
He said he has “zero confidence” that the Republicans would uphold abortion rights in Connecticut if they controlled the governorship and both chambers of the General Assembly.
Desmarais also said that since the pandemic there have been some shift in the demographics in Bethel, Brookfield, Roxbury, Bridgewater, Washington.
Carrington said there also have been alterations in his town.
“About two years ago we saw a lot of people moving in from New York City and other cities,” he said in a phone interview with Patch.com.
Carrington noted that Democrat Joe Biden carried Southbury in the 2020 presidential election, but, as usual, the Republicans scored victories a year later in the municipal races.
Over the last 50 years, the Republicans have assembled an impressive roster of state senators. Richard Bozzuto of Watertown, first elected in 1972, and Lou DeLuca of Woodbury, first elected in 1990, served as the leader of the GOP caucus. Bozzuto made two bids for the party's gubernatorial nomination and one for the U.S. Senate. Jamie McLaughlin of Woodbury and later Brookfield, first elected in 1984, was co-chairman of the Finance Committee and made a bid for the Republican congressional nomination in the Fifth District. Rob Kane of Watertown, first elected in 2008, later served as a state auditor.
Waterbury Democratic Town Committee Chairman Kenny Curran, a native of Bethlehem who was twice the Democratic nominee in the 32nd District, said with the state Citizens Election Program grants, which were established more than a decade ago, it makes it “more likely” that a challenger can score an upset.
“The use of technology in the campaigns today also can make a big difference,” Curran added in a phone interview with Patch.com. ‘However, there is no substitute for personal interaction, and I do think there are enough swing voters out there that it can make a difference in an election.”
In a recent New York Times discussion, Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, stated, “I still see the economy as a huge driver of this midterm.”
Desmarais, who is a financial planner, acknowledged that voters frequently mention how inflation soared in June to the highest level in 41 years.
However, he said that he is comfortable with the long-term gas tax suspension approved by Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) and the General Assembly earlier this year.
Since this spring Republican legislators have visited gas stations calling for $746 million in additional inflation-fighting tax cuts, including a reduction in the income tax for the middle class.
“The Legislature just passed the biggest tax cut in Connecticut history,” declared Desmarais of the $600 million package. He said prices are starting to fall as “supply and demand” become more consistent.
“It is an issue of what we can do and of doing too much,” he said regarding the General Assembly’s response to inflation.
On another fiscal topic, the Truth In Accounting report from last year indicates Connecticut is last among the 50 states in fiscal health. The pensions for the state employees are only 43 percent funded and the retirees’ health benefits are just five percent funded.
Desmarais said the state has started to “pay down” the debt through the provisions in the volatility cap from the 2017 bipartisan budget agreement and the use of surplus money.
The 2018 report from the Commission on Fiscal Stability & Economic Competitiveness indicated at that time the pensions were only 29 percent funded.
Desmarais dismissed the proposal by 2018 Republican gubernatorial hopeful
David Stemerman of Greenwich to try to seek to declare “bankruptcy” and invoke the 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to address the pension obstacles.
Larry Dorman, a spokesman for the American Federal State County Municipal Employees, told Patch.com in 2018 that a study conducted by a consultant to the state Office of Policy & Management, the governor’s budget arm, indicated that state employee concessions between 2017 and 2037 would save taxpayers $24 billion.
Does more need to be done?
“I don’t think at this point there needs to be further concessions,” said Desmarais. “I don’t think that we’re far enough down the road to be talking about that.”
The 2017 contract with the state employees placed the new hires in a hybrid plan instead of the more expensive defined benefit provisions.
Should the new hires eventually receive a defined contributions plan, which would be even less expensive than the hybrid option?
Desmarais, who has a wife and two children, said that should be “more or less the goal.”
He rejected the suggestions made by Democratic former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) and later Lamont to have the municipalities pay for a portion of the pensions for the public-school teachers’ pensions. The state has fully funded the pensions since 1939.
Desmarais said that would lead to declining quality in the schools.
Desmarais, who served briefly on the Watertown Town Council, said when it comes to costs, the biggest burdens are not the state income and sales taxes, but the municipal property taxes. Republican former President Donald Trump slashed taxes across the board in 2017. Lamont boasts about cutting taxes in his campaign television commercials. However, in most Connecticut municipalities you hold a parade if the tax mill rate even stays the same from year to the next.
Property tax reform has been discussed for at least a generation. Supporters maintain that the current property tax system is a particular burden to the state’s cities and small businesses.
“I don’t have a formula,” Desmarais acknowledged.
“But the problem is that we don’t look at options,” he remarked. “We need to find a bipartisan solution. Also, towns should pool their resources where possible.”
On another topic, Desmarais said he supports a public option on health care similar to the one proposed by Democratic former state Comptroller Kevin Lembo of Guilford.
CT News Junkie reported in 2020 that Lembo had said a public option would help lower costs because the state doesn’t have to worry about shareholders or being profitable. The state also has negotiating power with nearly 60,000 lives in the Connecticut Partnership plan and 200,000 state employees.
CT Mirror Capitol Bureau Chief Mark Pazniokas reported in 2021 that Lamont was threatening a veto of the legislation.
In a January phone interview with Patch.com, former two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry of Farmington said, “Like Obama and Biden – Malloy and Lamont promised a public option. And all of them walked away from the promise because of their relations with the insurance industry and because of the concerns of the private insurers, who are the principal cause of the costs of the health care system in America.”
Desmarais commented, “I speak with people at their kitchen tables that tell me that they put off medical procedures because of the costs. We have to do what is right for families.”
Gary Rose, chairman of the Government Department and author of a 2019 book called “Connecticut In Crisis,” told Patch.com in early 2020 that Lamont was associated at that time with controversial highway tolls proposals which just weeks later collapsed before they ever got to a voter in the General Assembly.
Desmarais remarked, “I generally do not support tolls, but I have no specific opposition to tolls on commercial trucks at the state borders. What I do not want is the burden of these project expenses to be borne on the backs of the people of the 32nd district.”
On a separate subject, he said that he supports the three bills approved by the General Assembly and Lamont earlier this year for $232 million to address “the children’s mental health crisis highlighted by the pandemic.
Christine Stuart and Hugh McQuaid of Ct News Junkie reported that, “The bills address an expansion of funding for school-based health centers and increase the number of early childhood slots. It also sets aside funding for minority teacher recruitment.”
Desmarais explained “There were children at home during critical times in their social development” and in some instances it has “adversely” impacted their “school performance.”
The 32nd District extends through six full towns and parts of six other towns. Parts of Bethel and Brookfield were added during the recent reapportionment. Brookfield has not been a part of the district since the 2000 election.
“It is a diverse district,” said Desmarais. “You go canvassing in Seymour and you have one house after another and in some of the rural towns you are driving for a while between houses.”
Some municipalities value big box stores and in other towns there would be a protest petition if a land-use commission considered such an application.
What did he learn at the University of Connecticut at Storrs (UConn), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, that has helped him in his career?
“I had a checkered college career,” explained Desmarais. “Initially, I didn’t take it seriously.”
He said he was tossed out of school for poor academic performance in 1997, worked in his family’s business for five years, returned to UConn, made the dean’s list and graduated.
“I completely changed,” he said about his return to college. “I didn’t goof off.”
“I leaned about the value of the education,” said Desmarais. “It made me a more well-rounded person.”
Resources:
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/05/05/analysis-its-a-wrap-winners-and-losers-of-the-2022-session/
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2020/11/12/20201112_public_option_3-0/
Phone interview, Patch.com, with Michael Carrington, September 7, 2022.
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/favored-lamont-doesnt-solely-control-his-political-destiny
https://ballotpedia.org/Connecticut_State_Senate_District_32
Interview, Patch.com, with Jeff Desmarais, September 5, 2022.
https://ctmirror.org/2021/05/21/for-third-year-in-a-row-public-option-bill-wont-move-forward-in-ct/
Phone Interview, Patch.com, with Kenny Curran, September 10, 2022.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/opinion/republicans-midterm-ele
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/professor-rose-says-public-associates-lamont-toll-proposal
