Alford, a 64-year bookkeeper, jumped into city politics in
2009 when the GOP asked her to serve as its standard bearer in a three-way
contest that Ward ultimately won by a wide margin.
But last year, in a rerun of the 2009 race, Alford came
within a whisker of sending the longtime mayor packing as she led a Republican
route that handed the GOP control of the City Council and Board of Education.
Whether she can show similar strength against Nicastro, who
hasn’t lost a political race since his first bid in the 1980s, is uncertain.
Nicastro, 71, is in his third term representing the 79th
District, which includes Forestville, Federal Hill and southern Bristol. He
served as mayor from 1993 until he stepped down in 2003. He has also served a
handful of terms as a city councilor.
As one of the most conservative Democrats in Hartford –
where he voted against the budget, the repeal of the death penalty and last year’s
state tax hike – Nicastro has compiled a record that provides him with
considerable political insulation. Click here for full story.
Thank you, members of the 79th
for this nomination and thanks to Gary and Henri for your kind words.
Common sense, fiscal
responsibility; do not spend what you don’t have, do not borrow what you cannot
afford to pay back, live within your means, smaller, leaner government,
personal freedom and responsibility……….
These are the things we, as
Republicans, believe in and will do but to do that we have to be there, in
numbers large enough to get the job done. We aren’t right now but seat by seat,
race by race, we can be. We have made an excellent beginning with Jason and
Whit and, now, with a full slate for this cycle, we are poised to gain some
more of that ground in Hartford. Not our ground but the ground that has been
wrested from the hands of the taxpayers with the burden of taxation that has
ruined lives and businesses across this state; regulations and unfunded
mandates that squash business growth and wreck city budgets. Out of control
spending that will bankrupt CT with debt so huge that we will never be able to
pay it off.
Without meaning to, I’m sure,
Mayor Ward assisted with this acceptance speech at last night’s joint board
meeting when he said (and I’m paraphrasing a bit) “We have got to send people
to Hartford who will DO something about the unfunded mandates that are a burden
to taxpayers and return control to our cities. We have got to send different
people to Hartford.” Mr. Mayor, I agree but currently, except for Jason and
Whit, we do not get that help for Bristol.
Frank voted no on the biggest tax
increase in the history of this state. However, he neither got on board with
any of the amendments put forth by the Republicans nor did propose his own.
And – Republicans are the party of “No”?
As Bill Hamzy often said, and it
seems our Mayor would agree, “If you want your government to change, you have
to change your government”.
We are seeing the results of one
party rule and they are not good. The largest tax increase in the history of
CT; repeal of the Death Penalty (against the will of the majority of the
citizens they are supposed to be serving); mandatory paid sick time; same day
voter registration (another unfunded mandate for our cities); forced
unionization, threats included, of child care providers and personal care
assistants; education “reform” that is no reform at all (just ask a teacher)
but another unfunded “mandate” that municipalities will have to pay for without
‘help” from the state; the Jackson Labs fiasco that will add hundreds of new
jobs to the state payroll by virtue of its attachment to UCONN Health Center.
There’s a reason why Florida, as a whole, and Sarasota in particular rejected
them; the “Busway to Bankruptcy”, and, yes, I know Frank voted against it;
medical marijuana – the list is endless and disturbing.
We cannot continue to send the
same people back to our state legislature and expect a different result. The
citizens of Connecticut deserve more and better.
This year’s slate of candidates
is the change we need in Hartford and I am glad to be a part of it. With your help
and support we can continue to change the culture of “Spend and Tax” in
Hartford that Whit, Jason and others have so courageously and tirelessly fought
against for the past two years.
Let’s get them the help they need
in both the House and the Senate; put the brakes on the rampant spending and
overregulation; promote sound fiscal policies that will welcome businesses, put
our people back to work and put this state back on track to, once again, being
one of the most prosperous states in the union.
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