{news} Ralph Ferrucci in the Bristol Press

[David Bedell]

http://www.bristolpress.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13260000

10/31/2004

DeLauro faces two foes for her U.S. rep. seat

By JEFF MILL , The Herald Press

Two rivals, including one who ran in 2002, are trying to unseat the veteran 
incumbent congresswoman in the Third Congressional District.

For the past 14 years, the seat has been held by Democrat Rosa DeLauro. This 
year, she again faces opposition from Richter "Rick" Elser, a New Haven 
resident and businessman who chal-lenged her in 2002, and from Green Party 
candidate Ralph Ferrucci, an artist who is also a bread and cookie 
deliveryman.

A self-described moderate Republican, Elser calls his ’02 contest with 
DeLauro "a learning experience," that provided him with name recognition and 
something else: an awareness that "I like campaigning."

Born on Philadelphia’s Main Line, Elser, 45, came to New Haven to attend 
Yale University. He earned a history degree and graduated in 1981, and then 
stayed on in the Elm City. At one point, he ran Richter’s, a popular in-town 
bar; he later ran the Tibwin restaurant on College Street.

He has described himself as "the only guy in the race who has actually held 
a real job, met a payroll, dealt with taxes, and knows how government 
legislation impacts small business owners."

He has come back to that fact again and again during the campaign, urging a 
policy that, if not pro-business in the strictest sense, at the very least 
encourages more awareness of the pressures on small businesses, which he has 
describes as the lifeblood of the economy.

On the other side of the political spectrum from Elser stands Ferrucci, 32, 
who like the Republi-can, is also a New Haven resident.

Ferrucci is also fairly bursting with ideas, on everything from the war in 
Iraq to the centerpiece of his campaign, universal health care for all 
Americans.

It is an issue that is very personal to him.

"Right now, there are nearly 45 million people who live without health care. 
In fact, I am one of those people," he explained. "The rising cost of health 
are has made it hard for lower and middle income (people) to be able to 
afford it."

Ferrucci proposes a single-payer universal health care that calls for 
expanding Medicare. He says not only will it meet the goal of providing 
health care to all citizens, but it will save money.

"The system john Kerry is proposing will cost too much money," he said.

But Ferrucci said his proposal will save as much as $286 billion a year from 
a health care bu-reaucracy that is fast approaching $400 billion annually.

"This system has worked well in other countries, none of which spend as much 
as we do per capita for health care," he said, adding that the U.S. "is the 
only industrialized nation that does not have a universal health are 
system." Cuba has a better system than the U.S., Ferrucci said.

On Iraq, Ferrucci is equally emphatic: he is calling for a pullout of U.S. 
troops within six months.

"It is time to pull out our soldiers, foreign contractors, and the foreign 
investors who are in Iraq," he said, adding that it can be done is such a 
way that "we will not leave Iraq to become an anarchist state."

"First, we need to give the oil back to the people of Iraq." Ferrucci would 
do that by setting up what is in essence a stock option program, in which 
every Iraqi over the age of 18 would get "one share in Iraqi oil -- and no 
one can own more than one share."

"This will give the people of Iraq a reason to live and something to be 
proud of," he insisted. Next, he calls for setting up a peace force which 
will take the place of U.S. troops and ensure na-tional elections can be 
held. Finally, he said the U.S. must contribute humanitarian aid "to build 
back the infrastructure we helped to destroy. We cannot leave the country in 
the shape it is in."

Finally, in an effort to create jobs, Ferrucci calls for tuition-free higher 
education for students who go to state universities.

Sending people back to school for re-training can create jobs in biotech, 
education, and nursing, all areas he said that are now facing a shortage of 
trained workers.

To contact Jeff Mill, call (860)347-3331 ext. 221 or email 
jmill at middletownpress.com.

©The Bristol Press 2004

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