Candidate insists Connecticut's political landscape is changing

By Scott Benjamin

NEW FAIRFIELD – Can a candidate who was a Republican for 40 years and only switched to the Democratic Party in 2017 win a seat in which the Democrats haven’t even fielded a candidate in the last four elections?

Danette Onofrio insists that Connecticut’s political identity is changing. In what was billed as a change election in 2018 with departing Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) hobbled by low approval ratings, the Democrats won the governorship and added seats in both chambers of the General Assembly.

Former Working Families Party state co-chairman and United Auto Workers official Julie Kushner of Danbury was the first Democrat victor since 1992 in the 24th state Senate District, which encompasses part of the 108t state House District. She unseated 10-year Republican incumbent Michael McLachlan of Danbury in the 2018 campaign.

A Democrat has captured the first selectman’s office in the last two elections in both New Fairfield and Sherman. The 108th state House District includes all of Sherman, as well as parts of New Fairfield, Danbury and New Milford.

State Sen. Alexandra Bergstein of Greenwich was the first Democrat to win in the 36th District since 1930 and Sen. Will Haskell of New Canaan produced the first Democratic triumph in the 26th District since 1970. They both outpolled veteran Republican incumbents.

“I think people are paying attention more,” explained Onofrio of New Fairfield, who captured the Democratic convention nomination in May in the 108th district and is on the verge of collecting the $5,300 in small contributions needed for a Citizens Election Program grant of $30,755.

“They want their representatives to be in touch with them and they want to know how the government policies are going to make my business better.” she added, noting that during the pandemic she has been speaking regularly to voters on the phone and through Zoom meetings.

Onofrio, who worked for the Common Council in Middletown, N.Y. for 20 years, will face Republican Patrick Callahan of New Fairfield, the former Candlewood Lake Authority Chairman, in the November 3 election. Callahan is a chief probation officer for the state Judicial District.

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne recently wrote that three groups that were part of the coalition that were enthusiastic in 2008 and 2012 for former Democratic President Barack Obama – Gen X, Millennials and the Gen Z – are now “dominant groups in the electorate.”

Sacred Heart Government Department Chairman Gary Rose, who has written extensively on Connecticut politics, has said that suburban women, who used to vote about 50 percent for candidates from each party are now trending toward the Democratic contenders.

Onofrio, who was a Republican for four decades, said that today the GOP “is too far to the right. I think they’re going way too far to the right on social issues, and I think that we’ll pay a price for that.”

For example, she said that through work connected with her firm – D.R. Shepard Consulting and Services LLC - there were instances in four different New York state counties where Republicans resisted teen pregnancy programs even though that research showed that they were needed.

The last time the voters of the 108th District elected a Democrat, former tap room owner Bill O’Neill, a Democrat, was capturing his first full term in what became the second longest governorship in Connecticut’s history.

It was 1982, and Danbury attorney Lawrence Riefberg, who had earned his undergraduate degree from highly-regarded Tufts in just three years – was the last Democrat to win in the district. He was defeated in his re-election bid two years later.

A Republican has represented the district in 46 of the last 48 years. There hasn’t even been a Democratic candidate since 2010, when Ken Neal, who was then working in the state House Democratic office, made a bid when the seat was last open. The current state representative - Richard Smith (R-108), a New Fairfield attorney - announced earlier this year that he would not seek a sixth term.

The roster has included Norma Gyle of New Fairfield, who served for 14 years before becoming the deputy commissioner in the state Department of Health shortly after the 1998 election, and Clarice Osiecki of Danbury, who was in office for eight years and in 1982 began a long tenure as the president of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce.

Onofrio said that early results from a campaign survey of voters indicates that the three top issues in the district are economic and community development, schools, protecting Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut, which borders all four municipalities in the state House District.

Regarding the economy, with unemployment at its highest point since the Great Depression, Onofrio said the federal government, which approved the $2.2 trillion CARES Act on March 27, will have to provide more stimulus to help the recovery from the impact from the pandemic.

“We need to bring back small businesses as quickly as we can,” she exclaimed.

Even though CT Mirror recently reported that there are projections that there will be $2 billion deficit per year each of the two years in the budget cycle that will begin next July, Onofrio said legislators should search long and hard before increasing taxes.

“If there’s a tax increase, someone better convince me that what we’re going to get in taxes is more than the impact the tax increase will be,” she said in an interview.

Onofrio said based on early results from her campaign survey of voters in the district, many of them are concerned about “tax loopholes” and are concerned that some residents “are not paying their fair share of taxes.”

Kiplinger recently reported that Connecticut has the third highest concentration of millionaires in the country – behind New Jersey and Maryland.

Onofrio, who has taught Public Administration courses at Marist College in New York state, said, “It is inevitable that [the state] will have to consolidate departments and save money.”

“We need to look at what services are provided,” the candidate said. She said that could include having non-profit agencies take over some of the services.

Onofrio said her consulting firm works non-profits, as well as municipal governments and schools.

She said that Connecticut also “needs to build the economy to make up some of that slack.”

The state Commission on Fiscal Stability & Economic Competitiveness reported in November 2018 that Connecticut’s gross state product shrank by 9.1 percent between 2008 and 2018.

Onofrio said that she agrees with Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) that the state should develop more advanced manufacturing, an area that it has excelled in for decades.

“I would love to pull together business people, financing people, the banks and the economic development people to form partnerships,” said the candidate, who is an advisor with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).

She credits Lamont for helping to put Connecticut in a position where Moody's Investor Services has rated it the seventh best state in weathering the current recession.

Onofrio said she opposes any imposition of tolls. Lamont sought both packages for all vehicles and then for tractor-trailer trucks during his first 13 months in office. Facing steep opposition, he announced in February that he would seek about $200 million a year in bond appropriations to improve Connecticut’s infrastructure.

“I don’t think tolls will fly in this area at all,” she remarked. “I think we have to look at other ways of funding it.”

An ad-hoc committee appointed in 2015 by Malloy recommended a $100 billion program over 30 years to upgrade the congested state transportation system. A 2017 national civil engineers report indicated that Connecticut’s existing roads were in the worst condition of any state.

On another topic, Onofrio said the members of the General Assembly should socialize more to foster bipartisanship.

She said the Common Council members in Middletown, N.Y. “fought like cats and dogs on philosophical positions. But they would eventually come to an agreement. It didn’t impact their relationship.”