Lancia declares communication would be his forte as state chair

By Scott Benjamin

MILFORD – Chris Lancia says after encountering “the lack of communication between the boots on the ground” and the state party organization while managing a congressional campaign, he believes that as Connecticut Republican chairman he could establish a more effective apparatus.

Republican town committees “were not putting their resources together. “Everybody was all over the place, on different pages,” said Lancia of Milford, who managed real estate developer Margaret Streicker’s unsuccessful campaign last fall against 30-year Democratic incumbent Rosa DeLauro of New Haven in Connecticut’s Third Congressional District, which includes the metro New Haven area, part of the Naugatuck Valley and the central part of the state near Middletown.

If elected as state party chairman, he said that he would seek input from across Connecticut and appoint a chairman for each of the state’s five congressional districts.

DeLauro had won every race from 2006 through 2018 with 65 to 77 percent of the vote. Streicker, who according to CT Hearst would have become the seventh wealthiest member of Congress if she had been elected – probably gave DeLauro her most challenging race since 1992, holding her to 58.7 percent of the vote. The Republicans have captured the district just one since 1958.

DeLauro was recently elected as chairman of the powerful U.S. House Appropriations Committee.

Lancia, 49, and attorney Ben Proto of Stratford, who led the Connecticut campaign organization for former President Donald Trump in 2016, are the only announced candidates to be chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. Citing fund-raising obstacles, J.R. Romano stepped down from the position in early January, about five months before his third, two-year term was to end. Romano had announced last October that he would not run for a fourth term.

Tentatively, the 74-member Republican State Central Committee will elect the new standard-bearer on February 23. There is a tentative virtual forum scheduled for February 21 so the contenders can answer questions from the committee members.

However, columnist Kevin Rennie wrote on his Daily Ructions blog that the committee may try to “unite” and appoint an interim chairman until June who will not seek a full two-year term.

The seats on the committee will be up for election in April. Thus there will be some new members by June when the panel will elect a chairman for a full two-year term.

Lancia said in an interview with Patch.com that that the 169 GOP town committee chairmen also should be able to vote.

Over the recent weeks, he has been contacting Republican State Central Committee members and town committee chairmen by phone and e-mail and doing news interviews.

Lancia, who is a member of the Milford Republican Town Committee, said working as Streicker’s campaign manager gave him considerable “contact with a lot of town committee chairmen and professionals.”

He said he would be a full-time chairman and would accept half or less of the salary that Romano has earned in the recent years.

Lancia said he would use part of the leftover funds to hire part-time staff and consultants who are fluent in software development, digital advertising, social media, micro-targeting and canvassing.

Former W. Bush White House Political Director Karl Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal that in 2020 Democrats in Texas dramatically increased their turnout, but the Republicans did even better, expanding Trump’s plurality in the Lone Star State.

He stated that two separate GOP drives netted more than 318,000 new GOP registered voters through the use of big data, technology, volunteers and paid canvassing.

“Without social media today, you are not going to get known,” exclaimed Lancia, who added that three of his classes at Post College in Waterbury toward a degree in Homeland Security Management have included social media content.

CT Mirror has reported that the Fight Back CT organization that was developed by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford) made one million phone calls and 250,000 canvassing visits during the 2018 campaign. Sacred Heart University Government Department Chairman Gary Rose, who has written extensively about Connecticut politics, has said that effort had impact on Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) victory and the Democrats adding seats in the General Assembly.

Lancia related that some members of the State Central Committee and some Republican town committees who could help provide the voter outreach operation.

Additionally, he said if elected he would seek to move the state party headquarters, now located in Southington, “closer to Hartford” so that it would be near the state Capitol.

Lancia also said he agrees with Romano that changes should be made in the scope of the state convention.

Romano told Patch.com in 2019 that the state convention costs $80,000 and that money would be better spent on voter outreach.

“You get the same results with Zoom,” said Lancia, who indicated that he would consider having a virtual convention in the future or a scaled-down version of the traditional event.

On another subject, he said he supports allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in Republican primaries, as long as there are safeguards that would prohibit them from voting in both a Democratic and Republican primary on the same day.

Neither of the major parties have open primaries, although Secretary of the State Denise Merrill (D-Hartford) told Patch.com in 2019 that she believes it would be “an advantage” for a major party if it decided to do so and the other major party didn’t take the same step.

Lancia said he supports having a run-off election if no one gets to at least 50 percent of the vote. For example, in a five-candidate field in 2018, Madison financial executive Bob Stefanowski was nominated with 29 percent of the ballots.

Much has changed in three years. At this juncture in 2018, Lamont was in the early stages of his gubernatorial campaign. He did not rush into the race. It wasn’t until nine months after former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) announced he would not seek a third term that Lamont entered the field for the Democratic nomination. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz (D-Middletown), who had served for 12 years as the Secretary of the State, was straddling the line between running for governor or the state Senate until weeks before the nominating convention. At the 10th hour she chose to be Lamont’s running mate.

With Malloy suffering from low approval ratings and Connecticut being the only New England state that hadn’t recaptured all of the jobs from the 2008 recession, it appeared that voters would elect a Republican as governor. The party had steadily added seats in the General Assembly from the 2010 through the 2016 elections – and had reached the point where the state Senate was tied at 18 seats for each major party and the Democrats held a scant 79-72 edge in the state House.

Republican footprints were all over the bipartisan budget that had been approved in October 2017 and included spending and volatility caps that have resulted in more money being placed in the rainy day fund and toward retiring state employee debt obligations.

However, Lamont and Bysiewicz were elected and after the 2020 balloting, the Democrats now hold 24 of the 36 state Senate seats and 97 of the 151 seats in the state House.

Rose has told Patch.com that Trump had a negative impact on the Connecticut Republicans over the last two election cycles.

In an editorial, The Day of New London stated, “the president turned out to be a disaster for Connecticut Republicans, driving up Democratic turnout in the 2018 and 2020 elections and turning off moderates who might otherwise vote Republican.”

In response to Trump’s apparent lack of appeal in Connecticut, Lancia said, “I heard of people who voted for Margaret but not for Trump. I don’t know how true that is.” I don’t “have the data.”

Rose has told Patch.com over the recent cycles that suburban women, who have traditionally split about 50 percent for each of the major party candidates are now trending Democrat in Connecticut, which has contributed to it no longer being “a swing state.”

Said Lancia, “I think you have to look at all of the data – including the unaffiliated voters.”

Within the last generation, Connecticut voters elected Republicans John Rowland of Middlebury and M. Jodi Rell of Brookfield as governor over a combined four elections.

Three New England states currently have Republican governors with Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, reportedly the most popular governor in the country, Phil Scott in Vermont and Chris Sununu in New Hampshire.

Connecticut has not elected a Republican governor or a GOP congressman since 2006. The last time it elected a Republican U.S. senator was 1982.

After spending $16.5 million to win the governorship, can Lamont be toppled if he seeks a second term?

“{Some] Republicans tell me he’s not beatable now,” said Lancia.

He acknowledged that the perception of the governor is different now than it was last February 19 when he announced that would no longer pursue his controversial tolls plan, which some Democrats feared would become the watershed issue of the 2020 election.

“All he has had to worry about is the pandemic,” Lancia said of Lamont’s principal activities since last March.

He said as the economy reopens, the governor will have to address the tax structure and unfunded pension liabilities.

In 2010, Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Foley of Greenwich captured 128 of the 169 municipalities – a 72 percent ratio. Yet he lost the election to Democrat Dannel Malloy, then of Stamford, by 6,400 votes.

Former Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who was Foley’s running mate for lieutenant governor in 2010, told WXCI-FM radio in Danbury in 2011 that the Republican Party in Connecticut lacked an “urban strategy.” Apparently, that is still the case.

Currently only three of Connecticut’s 10 largest municipalities have Republican municipal chief executives – Danbury (seventh) with Joe Cavo, who recently succeeded Boughton; New Britain (eighth) with Erin Stewart; and Greenwich (tenth) with Fred Camillo.

Lancia also praised Republican David Cassetti, the mayor of Ansonia – the state’s 61st largest population - noting that he is regularly interacting with voters.

“If you elect the mayors and the town council members, then you are starting to change the dynamics of the cities,” Lancia explained. “You start winning the small battles before you win the big battles.”

Republican candidates running for governor and the U.S. Senate have been clobbered in recent elections in three of the state’s largest cities – Bridgeport (first), New Haven (second) and Hartford (fourth).

Lancia said he agreed with Southern Connecticut State University Political Science Professor Jonathan Wharton who wrote recently in CTNewsJunkie that the party, which had a baseball roster of candidates seeking the 2018 gubernatorial nomination, should try to convince some candidates to seek other offices, such as the other state constitutional offices, Congress or the General Assembly.

Lancia remarked, “I don’t want so many people on that stage in the next gubernatorial election.”

Romano was criticized by some Republican leaders for what was perceived to be a lack of action last year on responding to information that led to the arrest of Tom Gilmer of Madison, who was the apparent front-runner for the party’s nomination in the Second Congressional District.

Former state House GOP Leader Themis Klarides of Derby was among those that called on Romano to step down.

CT Mirror reported that Gilmer was arrested by Wethersfield Police for first-degree unlawful restraint and second-degree strangulation. Justin Anderson, the other contender for the nomination, said he had a video of the incident that he brought to Romano, who declined to view it.

CT Mirror quoted Anderson as saying, “He said she should go public, go to the police. I don’t want it to sound like he blew it off.”

Romano said that he confronted Gilmer, who denied the allegations, according to CTMirror.

CT Mirror stated that, Romano said his options were limited given the circumstances: He had an allegation from one candidate about another, and neither Anderson nor the woman would go public with the story. Anderson wanted him to oust Gilmer without playing a public role.

CT Mirror quoted Romano:, “It’s like saying, ‘Hey, I have a murder weapon. Do you want to see it?’ If you have evidence of a crime, I don’t need to see it. Bring it to the police and let them figure it out.”

Would Lancia had taken the same course of action?

Lancia said, “I would want to have more information” before indicating if he would have taken different steps than Romano did.

On another issue, Wall Street Journal columnist William Galston wrote last November that, “In 2024, some candidates may advocate returning to the party’s pre-Trump stances on fiscal policy, trade and immigration. They are likely to face an uphill battle. So long as working-class economic and cultural concerns play a central role in shaping the party’s agenda, suburban professionals and corporate leaders will be forced to choose between taking a back seat in their party and realigning with the Democrats, whose views on some issues are closer to theirs.”

“Trump had his following,” said Lancia in response to Galston’s statements. “He can’t disrupt elections.”

Lancia said he is taking no sides in the 2022 gubernatorial race, but indicated that Stefanowski, who lost by about 44,000 votes in 2018, “has the best name recognition.”

He said Streicker should at least consider running for the U.S. Senate against two-term incumbent Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich), who has announced that he will seek a third term in 2022.

Lancia said, “Margaret is not going away.”

On another topic, he said he agrees with Romano, who told Patch.com in 2019 that it may be more difficult to get members of the General Assembly to run for Congress since it is much more expensive than a campaign for a state constitutional office where they can raise small donations to qualify for a grant from the Citizens Election Program, which was established about a little more than a decade ago.

Lancia explained, “You have no [financial] help in a federal campaign.”