{news} Colin Bennett in the Bristol Press

[David Bedell]

http://www.bristolpress.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13259999

10/31/2004

Dailey faces three opponents in fight to retain state Senate seat
By JEFF MILL , The Herald Press

A dozen towns arrayed up and down both sides of the Lower Connecticut River 
Valley make up the 33rd state senatorial district: Chester, Clinton, 
Colchester, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Lyme, Old 
Saybrook, Portland, and Westbrook.

For the past 12 years, the towns have been represented in the General 
Assembly by Eileen M. Daily, Democrat of Westbrook. In addition to her six 
terms in Hartford, Daily has also served on the Board of Selectmen and Board 
of Education in Westbrook; she was first selectwoman for six years in the 
1980s.

This year, three opponents are trying to unseat Daily: Republican challenger 
Emmanuel "Manny" Misenti, Green Party candidate Colin Bennett, and Working 
Families candidate Jason A. Potts. They are a varied group:

-- Bennett is a teacher and environmental activist, and the first Green 
Party candidate to run in the district.

-- Misenti is the owner of the Commercial Electrical Contractors in 
Middletown. Recovering from surgery, he has designated his campaign manager, 
John Ferrara, to speak for him. Misenti has served on the boards of 
selectmen and education in East Hampton.

-- Potts is a meat cutter and union steward who has been active in a 
campaign that calls for a fair wage for workers at a proposed Wal-Mart that 
would be built in East Hartford. The Working Families party in Connecticut 
is only two years old.

Bennett and Potts are both first-time candidates who are running campaigns 
of ideas intended, at least in part, to increase awareness of their 
alternative parties. If Potts can collect 1 percent of the vote in the 
district, it will give working families minor-party status in the district 
and allow it to cross-endorse in future elections.

All three of her opponents say, while she may be personally likeable, they 
believe Daily has either been in Hartford too long or, as Ferrara suggests, 
"has grown too comfortable" in her seat.

Appropriately for a Green Party candidate, Bennett says he favors "smart 
growth" that will protect the state’s "vitality and heritage," which he says 
are currently threatened by "the strip malls, fast-food joints, and 
subdivisions (that are) invading every town in the state."

Just 25, Bennett said, "I’m trying to set a precedent for other young people 
to get involved. They can look at me and say, ‘I could be doing that.’"

A Westbrook resident since 1995, Bennett teaches at St. Mary School in New 
London; he is a member of the Westbrook Fire Department and the Westbrook 
Forest Commission

He respects Daily personally, but says, "She has been there a long time." 
Instead of "career politicians", he favors "citizen’s legislators," who will 
serve "for a couple of years, rather than year after year or for decades."

Bennett advocates a dramatic expansion of rail service throughout the state, 
to help reduce congestion on highways (in particular on Interstate 95 east 
of New Haven) while reducing gasoline consumption which adds to air 
pollution.

Rail service from Saybrook to New Haven has proved successful; Bennett 
believes that rail service can -- and should -- be expanded statewide 
knotting together cities and towns in ways that will reduce congestion on 
the roads.

He wants, for example, to see train service extended from Saybrook to 
Middletown and on to Hartford. "A lot of these lines exist; they’re just not 
being used. We spend so much money on highways, when we should be spending 
more of it on (rail service)."

Bennett said rail service would appeal to seniors and to young people in 
particular, and would be "a wise investment -- especially with the rising 
cost of gasoline."

He favors more rigorous campaign finance reform and reorganizing the tax 
structure to reduce the dependence on the property tax to fund education on 
the local level. And, appropriately for a student at Southern, he would like 
to see more parity in funding for colleges and universities, in order to 
reduce tuition costs and make college both more accessible and more 
affordable.

Misenti, who’s campaign symbol is a handshake, is calling for "a fair shake" 
for the district.

He grew up in Middletown, graduated from Middletown schools, and then joined 
the Army. He served as a military policeman in New Jersey and in Germany, 
and attended the University of Maryland, although he did not graduate.

After his discharge, he moved into construction and established Commercial 
Electric. But after what Ferrara describes as "a terrible traffic accident" 
in 1995, "Manny decided that the one thing he was neglecting after raising a 
family was service to the community." Ferrara describes the reali-zation as 
"a kind of epiphany."

And so, Ferrara said, Misenti moved first into town politics and now into 
state politics.

Ferrara said two issues in particular are the focus of Misenti’s concern: 
ethics, and confronting "the crushing debt that the state is under."

"Twelve percent of every tax dollar paid to Hartford is going to interest 
payments on the accumulated debt. That dictates what we can and can’t do, 
and it inhibits the state’s ability to develop fairness in the distribution 
of education funding," Ferrara said.

"There is a lot that can be done to make things more equitable," he 
continued, charging that both the Education Cost Sharing fund and the Pequot 
Fund (the money derived from the state’s share of slot-machine revenues from 
Connecticut’s two Indian casinos) "are weighted toward schools that are 
failing."

"With the corruption scandals that have been breaking," Ferrara said 
Misenti’s focus is on strengthening ethical standards for state government.

And with legislators "under scrutiny" because of the burgeoning scandals, 
it’s important for people to see that their legislators are advocates for 
them, and not for special interests or for pow-erful or well-connected 
contractors."

A Deep River native who now lives in the Moodus section of East Hampton, 
Potts, 30, said he "met up with some of the Working Families people" during 
actions directed at Wal-Mart.

"I’m not out to hurt anyone," Potts insisted. He said he is trying to get 
the voices of the poor and the working poor heard in the halls of Hartford, 
from which they have too often been ex-cluded.

He proposes exempting anyone who makes less than $30,000 from having to pay 
the state income tax; to offset that, he proposes to increase the taxes on 
those who make over $1 million.

"People making $12,000-$15,000 are not cutting it. If they are raising two 
to three kids; that’s poverty to me." He also advocates a "significant" 
increase in the minimum wage, and he calls for importing cheaper 
prescription drugs from Canada to help rein in "out-of-control" health-care 
costs "that are hurting our wages."

Potts also calls for installing toll booths at the entrances and exits to 
the state’s two casinos, and charging gamblers to come and go from Foxwoods 
and the Mohegan Sun casinos.

"There’s definitely money to be made there," he said, money that could help 
increase funding for education and extend Route 11 from the shoreline to 
Hartford. In addition, "it would help create additional jobs," Potts argued.

He also has another issue that is near and very dear to his heart: Potts is 
the assistant animal control officer in East Hampton, and he called for 
making animal abuse a felony. "Dogs, cats -- you name it. Anyone who 
knowingly harms an animal should be put in prison."

Potts said he is enjoying his candidacy. "I’m having as lot of fun doing 
it."

©The Bristol Press 2004

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