Telecom Executive Insists Suburban Connecticut Can Compete With Innovation Hubs

By Scott Benjamin

Telecom business executive Steve Obsitnik says he doesn’t “buy into” the notion that Connecticut’s suburban landscape, which a generation ago attracted the likes of Boehringer Ingelheim to Ridgefield and Trumpf to Farmington, now pales when compared to the big-city Boston, Silicon Valley and North Carolina Research Triangle innovation hubs.

“Granted there are big cities near them, but much of the Route 128 corridor near Boston is suburban and the same with Silicon Valley,” he explained.

The Boston Globe wrote last December that Connecticut’s lack of a huge city had become a detriment in attracting large companies, which once preferred suburban campuses.

Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg of New Haven, who has worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, wrote in his 2015 book, “American Ascendant,” that two-thirds of the college-educated Millenials live in the nation’s 51 largest cities, none of which are in Connecticut.

Obsitnik a Stamford native now living in Westport, is exploring a run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination on a pledge to make Connecticut a top 10 state in job creation even quicker than the 10-year goal of Imagine Connecticut, a group that he co-founded to solicit ideas on rejuvenating the Nutmeg State's economy.

Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford), who will not seek a third term year, said during the 2010 campaign that Connecticut and Michigan were the only states with fewer jobs than in 1989.

The state has not recaptured all of the positions lost in the 2008 recession, and economist Donald Klepper-Smith of DataCore Partners in New Haven has said there may be another recession before that happens.

Obsitnik, who graduated from the Naval Academy and has a master’s degree in Business from the University of Pennsylvania, has been the CEO of several technology companies, ranging from video on demand to wireless production manufacturing.

He has raised more than $201,000 as of June toward the $250,000 required to qualify for Connecticut’s Citizen Election Program. Only attorney Peter Lumaj, of Fairfield who was the 2014 Republican candidate for Secretary of the State, has raised more money during the current gubernatorial election cycle.

Obsitnik said he plans to make a definitive decision on the race by September.

Five years ago he lost to Democratic incumbent Jim Himes of Greenwich in the Fourth Congressional District. CT Mirror reported that he was praised in some quarters for being a moderate Republican who could attract Democratic voters.

Obsitnik said state officials need to resolve a fiscal crisis that has resulted in credit downgrades, a loss of population, unfunded obligations and a projected $5.1 billion budget deficit for the current two-year budget cycle.

The candidate said he supports the state Senate Republican plan to further increase the pension contributions for employees in the state collective bargaining units. He said he also supports the Senate GOP proposal to abolish the provisions that would prohibit layoffs over the next four years and extend pension and health care programs from 2022 to 2027.

“Those things take away the flexibility to make the state government more efficient,” Obsitnik said in a phone interview.

He said he hasn’t taken a position on trying to eliminate or suspend binding arbitration for the collective bargaining units. The Pew Charitable Trusts, based in Philadelphia, has reported that Connecticut is one of four states have has those provisions.

Obsitnik said it is “unacceptable” for Malloy and the General Assembly to not have a budget approved nearly a month after the start of the fiscal year. He said it could lead to another credit downgrade.

The candidate said Connecticut’s gross domestic product has remained at about $250 billion over the last 15 years.

To boost activity, he said he would encourage further development of the hacker spaces that have been established in Hartford, Danbury and elsewhere in recent years where prospective small businessmen can develop their products.

Obsitnik said that approach has been successful in Silicon Valley, where he formerly worked.

At the time of the 2008 financial crisis Stamford, which is home to UBS, was ranked fourth in the world in financial services. However, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Connecticut has recaptured jobs in the financial and real estate sectors far more slowly than New York state and Massachusetts.

Brookfield Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn, a retired vice president at J.P. Morgan Chase, recently expressed skepticism that Stamford’s financial sector will fully rebound because banks are less willing to take big risks and their activity has been stymied by the 2010 federal Chris Dodd-Barney Frank legislation – named after a former U.S. senator from Connecticut and a former U.S. House member from Massachusetts - that has required banks to hire many more compliance personnel.

Obsitnik says he believes that the Stamford financial sector can rebound fully, but with “automation” it might look different.

He said he agrees with Klepper-Smith that there is considerable opportunity for creating more manufacturing jobs in high-end durable goods.

Obsitnik said Connecticut could increase imports and exports by improving its ports, which are inferior to those in New Jersey.

He added that he believes there will be additional jobs in health care, but the state will need to retain many of its elderly residents so that there will be opportunities for health care aides.

Obsitnik said he disagrees with Malloy’s First Five/Next Five program, which has provided financial incentives to large companies – such as ESPN in Bristol and NBC Sports in Stamford – to expand their Connecticut work forces.

“I would not have put the money out that way,” he said. “I think it has benefitted too few companies.”

Regarding higher education, Obsitnik said to boost graduation rates Connecticut’s public colleges should offer more online classes and should review what Purdue University in Indiana has done to develop a curriculum in which students can obtain a bachelor’s degree in three years.

Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, who also is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has said the growing college student loan debt will result in the next Great Recession.

Herbst has said just as the federal government gave mortgages during the subprime mortgage crisis that couldn’t pay them back, it has done the same in providing guaranteed loans to college students at a time when tuition and related costs are soaring.

Obsitnik said he’s not sure that it will result in a severe recession, but added that he’s concerned that the average college student in Connecticut graduates with an average debt of $25,000.

“It could be a crisis if there are not enough good-paying jobs,” he explained.

On kindergarten through 12^th grade education, Obsitnik said he would consider using state funds for public seats in charter schools in low-performing districts.

Malloy has expanded public funding for charter schools since taking office in 2011. Critics have said that had diverted funds for the conventional public schools.

Regarding his own education, Obsitnik said he learned some valuable engineering skills during his tenure at the Naval Academy and his service in the Navy, but more importantly he “learned leadership. And it wasn’t top-down leadership. You learn how to mobilize people.”

The potential field of likely candidates for the GOP gubernatorial nomination includes Obsitnik, Lumaj, Herbst, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, former U.S. Comptroller David Walker of Bridgeport, state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan of Glastonbury, former West Hartford Town Council member Joe Visconti and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.

The state convention will be held next May. The nomination will probably be determined in an August primary.