State Representative Maintains Ambitious Pace Running For GOP Gubernatorial Nomination

Scott Benjamin

Some weeknights he’s pledging his case to Republican town committees everywhere from East Cupcake to West Cantaloupe.

On the other weeknights and the weekends he’s enjoying light refreshments and polite chit chat at receptions to raise the money that could put him in the seven-figure neighborhood.

“It’s really just about all of my life these days except for my legislative duties,” state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan (R-31) of Glastonbury said of his campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, which might not be determined until an August 2018 primary.

Reportedly, no one has ever gone directly from the state House of Representatives to the governor’s office.

Former state House Speaker Fran Collins, the longtime Brookfield resident who now lives in Oxford, has said he learned when he ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1974 that “the people in my state House District knew who I was, but once you drove 10 miles from Hartford in any direction, nobody knew who I was.”

“The other people running are basically just known in their own areas,” contends Srinivasan, a physician specializing in allergy cases.

He is well-known in Glastonbury. Since 1999 he has sponsored a foundation that has provided scholarships to Glastonbury High School students and he annually donates his legislative salary to charities.

One source said last fall that as many as 10 people might seek the GOP nod.

Reportedly, the potential most viable contenders are Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who has run twice before and was the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor in 2010, and former state Senate Republican leader John McKinney of Fairfield, who was second in the 2014 primary.

Right now, in addition to raising cash, Srinivasan, now in his fourth term in the General Assembly, is trying to break through the static and have name recognition rivaling Geno Auriemma.

He began by immediately establishing a full-fledged campaign committee and now insists that when the first quarter fund-raising totals are released early next month people will be “pleasantly surprised.”

Srinivasan needs to eventually raise $250,000 in small contributions to qualify for a Citizens Election Program grant.

On issues, he said the Republican town committee members are “mostly interested in fiscal responsibility and the business climate” in a state where the recovery from the 2008 recession is lagging.

The bleak picture has gradually become more discouraging.

In August 2004, former Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) said the state’s economy was “fragile.” In 2010, Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) said while seeking his party’s nomination that Connecticut and Michigan were the only states with fewer jobs than they had in 1989.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that at the current pace it will take until 2019 to regain all of the jobs lost during the 2008 recession. Only 20 percent of the jobs lost in the insurance and financial sectors have been recovered, compared to 80 percent in New York state and 77 percent in Massachusetts.

The newspaper stated that Connecticut is last in job growth among the six New England states and 44th of all 50 states.

State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury has said that the millennials are flocking to the innovation hubs, such as Boston’s Route 128 corridor, instead of suburban Connecticut. A generation ago, the Nutmeg State attracted Union Carbide, Boehringer Ingelheim and UBS.

Even worse, ESPN in Bristol, the most profitable cable-related company in the world, is cutting staff as a la carte options compete with cable systems.

Not to mention that the latest reports indicate that the state’s pension obligations are only 35.5 percent funded even with an increase in contributions since Malloy took office six years ago.

Srinivasan said Malloy’s proposed $40.6 billion budget for the next two years is “extremely unfair," because it takes from the towns and gives to the cities on municipal aid and saddles all 169 municipalities with one-third of the teacher pension costs that the state has been paying for 87 years.

“It is a de-facto tax increase, because it will increase the property taxes in the towns and cities,” the legislator said.

Despite the recent hurdles, Srinivasan says that Connecticut can again become fiscally solvent.

“I remember the years when we didn’t have an income tax and we didn’t have slot revenues [from the Native American casinos],” said the legislator, who moved to Connecticut in 1980. “We had budget surpluses in those years. We also should be able to compete now with Boston and New York City. We should have our own innovation hub in Connecticut. We have Yale, and UConn, Quinnipiac and Jackson Labs.”

Srinivasan said he believes there is potential job growth in bio-tech, noting that he supported the state’s $292 million in economic incentives to lure Jackson Labs, a bio-science center in Maine, to move to the University of Connecticut campus in Farmington.

“In some instances you have to spend money to make money,” he explained.

However, UConn economist Fred Carstensen has said taxes will have to be increased considering the size of the state’s fiscal crisis.

“Increasing taxes is not the way to go,” said Srinivasan.

But most municipalities in Connecticut increase property taxes every year?

“If the state sends less money to you, what is the choice,” Srinivasan said.

On labor savings, he said he would seek concessions instead of laying off workers. Malloy has recommended $700 million in labor savings for the next fiscal year from the collective bargaining units. He has said that without that, he will seek to lay off at least 4,200 state workers.

Srinivasan has sponsored legislation to increase co-payments for state workers on prescription drugs and physician visits, making them similar to what he provides the employees in his medical office.

“The pay is now pretty much comparable with the private sector,” the legislator said, apparently alluding to the argument that the state employee benefit packages were made generous many years ago when state workers earned considerably less than employees in private industry.

He also wants to reduce the state’s bonded debt. Some legislators have said over the last 20 years the state has funded local projects – such as high school football press boxes and youth playgrounds – that seldom before had been on the monthly Bond Commission agenda.

Regarding casino expansion, Srinivasan said he has concerns about the two Native American tribes placing a facility in East Windsor so they can better compete with the casino being built in Springfield, Mass.

“What is going to be the additional revenue if we have a third casino in East Windsor?” Srinivasan said. “I’m not sure that it is going to be greater.”

He also said based on the written opinion from Attorney Gen. George Jepsen (D-West Hartford), moving off tribal land might jeopardize the current slot revenue agreements with Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.

On a separate subject, he said he opposes Malloy’s increase in state funds for charter schools.

“Just because we give money to these schools, doesn’t mean that we get better results,” Srinivasan said. “Taking money away from the traditional public schools is not the answer.”