May 23, 2012

Alford takes aim at Nicastro's 79th District

Two-time Republican mayoral candidate Mary Alford, who nearly upset Mayor Art Ward last fall, is taking aim this year at the legislative seat held by Democrat Frank Nicastro.
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.

Here is a copy of Alford's speech to the city's GOP on Monday night:

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.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

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