36th State Senate Candidates Debate In Greenwich

GREENWICH, CT — Candidates for the 36th State Senate District squared off in their first debate on Tuesday night from Greenwich Town Hall.

Independent candidate John Blankley, Republican Ryan Fazio, and Democrat Alexis Gevanter are all vying for the seat, which covers all of Greenwich and portions of Stamford and New Canaan. A special election was called for Aug. 17 after Alex Kasser resigned from her post in June.

The debate was moderated by My Voting Power. MVP is a non-partisan organization committed to helping enhance millennial involvement in politics and register millennials to vote in Greenwich. Group founder Tony Turner noted that voter turnout among Greenwich millennials is down 55 percent from 36 years ago, and 3,000 millennials in town have never voted in an election.

"I want to use my skill set to focus on public safety, which includes public health and emerging from this pandemic stronger than ever, and it also includes focusing on gun violence prevention and supporting our police officers and our firefighters," said Gevanter, a business attorney, gun violence prevention advocate, and mother. "I want to focus on prosperity, and lowering taxes and bringing jobs into our community and also investing in our education. Protecting the environment, protecting and expanding voting rights, women's rights, ensuring equality... These are things I would remain vigilant about."

Fazio, a Greenwich native and a member of Greenwich's Representative Town Meeting, has spent most of his career as a renewable energy and agriculture professional working in Stamford.

He said he wants to "create positive change in state government, and a brighter future for everyone in the community."

"I know we can do better, because I know the character of this community. Let's bring people together from across the aisle to cut taxes, reduce the cost of health care and electricity. Let's support our local police and reduce crime. Let's protect personal freedoms and local control over our schools and planning and zoning. Let's bring everyone together from across the community," Fazio added.

Blankley is a business executive who has been involved with the Greenwich RTM and Board of Estimate and Taxation. While he'll focus on better education, proper policing and climate control, he said the state needs to concentrate on economic growth.

"If you talk about unfunded pension liabilities, if you talk about the huge debt overhang, it is something that cannot be solved overnight. This is the kind of thing that's going to take years to work our way out from underneath. The best way to do that is to elect an independent senator who will go up to Hartford; an independent senator with a business background not only at the corporate level, but a business background in terms of creating jobs as an entrepreneur in our state," he said.

The candidates faced a variety of questions ranging from the legalization of marijuana, to tolling on Connecticut's roadways. Perhaps the biggest difference between the three candidates came during a question regarding economic growth.

The candidates were asked if there are enough career oriented, good paying jobs for recent college graduates given the cost of living in Connecticut, and how they would promote employment opportunities for young people.

"The state of Connecticut has utterly failed to create economic opportunity for all people, especially young people and people looking to climb the first few rungs of life's ladder," said Fazio, adding that Connecticut recently tied for the highest unemployment rate in the country. He said the state also has the fourth lowest rate of economic growth in the country over the last decade.

"This is the most important chronic issue in Connecticut. We need an utter, clear and total change of direction in our economic policy in this state," Fazio said. He pointed to lowering taxes, improving regulations to reduce health care and electricity costs, and the reform of the state's unfunded debt and pension liabilities as solutions so the next generation of residents can live in Connecticut

"Without a change and without making a statement in this election, there will be no hope for the next generation in Connecticut. I believe if we do make that change, however, that the best days can still be ahead of us," Fazio said.

Gevanter said she agreed somewhat with Fazio's assessment, but she thought it was "outdated." Gevanter noted that CNBC recently moved Connecticut from 35th to 24th on the list of best states to do business in. She said Connecitcut is "on the right path" economically.

“We're dealing with 40 years of mismanagement here in Connecticut, there's no question. That is why we've had underfunded pensions, that's why we had to have more taxes. However, to ignore the fact that Connecticut is in the middle of a huge turnaround is frankly ridiculous,” Gevanter said. “I think the people of the 36th district can see coming out of this pandemic that we are having a flood of families moving here and having bidding wars on our homes, and businesses are escaping New York to come to Connecticut.”

Blankley said the key to creating jobs is education.

"There's something more specific we should be doing with regard to technical education. There are 17 technical colleges in our state, and they're not producing enough engineers and young qualified technical people for the jobs that are available," he said. "Job creation is important and it starts with education."

Blankley pushed back on the notion that taxes can be lowered.

"Let us face the fact that there's no possibility of reducing taxes in our state. The best we can do is hold the line on taxes. There's no possibility of reducing taxes. It's just not possible, the numbers aren't there," he said.

When asked to rank how the public schools in the 36th District are doing, all agreed that they're performing well, but more work needs to be done.

Gevanter said Greenwich, New Canaan and Stamford need to invest in infrastructure and improve our air quality in school buildings.

"We need to be supporting our teachers and our students as we continue to navigate this pandemic," she said.

Fazio said the district needs to support high quality school choice for students.

"We need to support high quality alternative forms of education, including the Stamford Charter School for Excellence in western Stamford which has been undermined repeatedly by the state board of education," he said.

Blankley said his family moved to Greenwich because of the public and private schools. He pointed to his work on the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation, and a track record of supporting school projects and budgets.

"I was always supportive of school budgets, and always supported more spending on the schools than was often allowed by the BET... I walk the talk when it comes to education," Blankley said.

On the issue of legislation from Hartford that many say could take local control away from municipalities on zoning issues, all three spoke in favor of retaining local control.

"I have lived in this district for longer than my opponents have even been alive. I'm well aware of what this community wants. It does not want to have laws imposed on it or rules imposed on it from Hartford," Blankley said, adding that achieving more affordable housing could be done by implementing a housing trust fund. The Greenwich RTM will consider such a fund in September.

Fazio said that if Blankley or Gevanter were to win the race, Democratic leadership in Hartford "would be emboldened to push even further against local rights" over planning and zoning and schools.

Gevanter disagreed.

"I have been clear since the beginning of this campaign and really my whole life, that I think affordable housing is an important thing," she said. "I can't be more clear that I fully support and would advocate for local control and would oppose anything to the contrary."

The candidates will participate in a forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Greenwich, Stamford and New Canaan at 7 p.m. on Aug. 6. To register for the forum, which will be held via Zoom, click here.

To watch Tuesday's debate in full, click here.