{news} Ralph Ferrucci takes on Joe Lieberman

[David Bedell]

http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/News/content.html?oid=oid:138865

The Serial Candidate
Ralph Ferrucci's running for office. Again. Time to put up your dukes, Joe.

by Ryan Kearney - January 5, 2006


Ralph Ferrucci's got balls. Grant him that. A New Haven artist and delivery 
truck driver, he's never met a political race he didn't like--or want to 
join. First, in 2003, he took on Mayor John DeStefano on the Guilty Party 
ticket, and lost. A year later, as a Green, he went after Congresswoman Rosa 
DeLauro. Again, he lost.

Now he's back, and aiming higher than ever.

Senator Lieberman, meet your very first '06 challenger.

"Joe Lieberman has been so bad for this country and this state," says 
Ferrucci, 33, wearing a black suit and matching button-down, with a white 
tie, at the Book Trader Cafe on a recent afternoon. "There needs to be 
someone to run against him."

Ferrucci's not the only one who thinks so. Websites like Dumpjoe.com and 
Timetogojoe. com have sprung up this year, and cars in the area--not just 
Ferrucci's Hyundai Elantra--have begun sporting bumper stickers such as 
anti-war, anti-joe and anybody but joe!

For all that fervor, though, no one other than Ferrucci has stepped 
forwardyet. Former governor Lowell Weicker may run as an independent if no 
credible anti-war candidate surfaces. Howard Dean's brother Jim, a Fairfield 
resident who runs Democracy for America and has been critical of Lieberman, 
says that he supports the idea of a primary challenger but that his group is 
not actively recruiting anyone.

For now, it's just Ferrucci. And while his opponent has changed, his agenda 
hasn't. He wants to pull our troops out of Iraq, provide free education at 
state universities, establish a nationwide health-care system, repeal the 
Patriot Act, stop giving tax cuts to the rich, and raise the minimum wage, 
to name a few of his progressive initiatives. On long-standing issues, he 
stands exactly where you'd expect a liberal third-party candidate to stand: 
He's pro-choice, pro-gay marriage and anti-death penalty.

There is one notable change. This time around, Ferrucci may not be a 
third-party candidate. Instead, he may go right after Lieberman, challenging 
him in the Democratic primary.

And, populist that he is, he's going to let his supporters decide.

F errucci's first foray into politics came in 1996, when he distributed 
fliers in support of Ralph Nader's first presidential bid, but Ferrucci 
didn't catch the bug until Nader's second bid four years later. The Nader 
campaign's lead New Haven organizer, Ferrucci collected around 12,000 
signatures--more than enough to plant the Green Party candidate on the 
ballot in Connecticut.

That year also marked the birth of the local Greens, who gained two seats on 
the Board of Aldermen in 2001. In 2003, Ferrucci ran his first race, 
opposing DeStefano on the Guilty Party ticket. He describes the campaign as 
"sitting at a bar stool at Rudy's and getting 15 percent of the vote."

Encouraged by those numbers, but unwilling to do more than minimal 
campaigning, he challenged Rosa DeLauro the following year in what he calls 
his first "serious race." It didn't turn out as well; he garnered less than 
3 percent.

Unfazed, Ferrucci announced in February 2005 that wanted a rematch with 
DeStefano, but he dropped out in the summer to devote more time to his day 
job--delivering Pepperidge Farm goods--and to earning a degree in 
illustration from Paier College of Art in Hamden. Even still, he didn't 
leave politics altogether, becoming campaign manager for the Green Party's 
mayoral candidate, Eric Brown.

If he couldn't even get 3 percent against DeLauro, how is Ferrucci going to 
fare against the state's best-known politician?

"The opposition against DeLauro is very, very small," says Ferrucci. "I had 
some problems with Rosa, but she's been really good on a lot of the issues."

In other words, he shared too many similarities with DeLauro to stand out. 
Not so with Lieberman. Ferrucci says that, perhaps with the exception of 
Lieberman's record on the environment, most of the senator's stances are 
contrary to his. Add to that the growing opposition to Lieberman within the 
Democratic ranks, and Ferrucci thinks he's got a shot.

Ferrucci says that when he told people he was running against DeLauro, 
people would ask, "Why?" Now, when he tells people he's taking on Lieberman, 
they say, "Good."

"I've had a few Democrats I know ask me to run as a Democrat," he says. 
"There are a lot of progressive Democrats that are looking for a candidate 
against him."

That's why he's open to the idea of challenging Lieberman in the primary, 
which, given Lieberman's fame and fund-raising power, could prove much more 
difficult than a fight in the general election. Ferrucci plans to poll 
visitors to his website, Ferrucciforsenate.org (which right now has no 
content on it), asking them which ticket he should run on. Visitors will 
also be able to make online contributions. "A lot of little donations," he 
says. "We don't take any big money."

It'll take an unprecedented number of little donations to close the current 
gap. According to Opensecrets.org, Lieberman has raised nearly $5 million 
thus far, compared to Ferrucci's $125.

Like all candidates, Ferrucci says he's running to win. But would he be 
happy if he got, say, 25 percent of the vote?

"Of course," Ferrucci says. "Any kind of opposition to Lieberman would be a 
win."

And if he loses this election, too?

"I will run again," he says, without hesitation.