Melissa Bailey Photo
Nuñez with U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy at Sunday’s inauguration for New Haven pols.
When former House staffer Paul Nuñez, Jr. returns to the Capitol, he’ll be standing on the other side of the ropes — as a lobbyist for New Haven city government.
Nuñez, a 33-year-old Fair Havener, has become a familiar face in New Haven politics over the past decade. He is the latest to go through the revolving door of government officials and lobbyists in Hartford: He’s leaving the House speaker’s office to start a new job Tuesday with DePino Associates, which has $50,000 contract to lobby for New Haven City Hall’s interests at Capitol.
A native Puerto Rican who grew up in Hartford, Nuñez started his Capitol career in 2003 as a lobbyist for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
Then he joined Mayor John DeStefano’s office in 2005 as a legislative liaison to the Capitol. After lobbying lawmakers for three years, he was promoted to deputy chief of staff, where he turned his attention to working with city aldermen.
He left the city in December 2008 during a power shift at the state Capitol. He landed a gig as the policy analyst for Democratic state Rep. Chris Donovan of Meriden, who was replacing Jim Amann as speaker of the House.
Nuñez stayed active in city politics and civic life, commuting to the Capitol from his Chatham Street home. He worked hard for Gov. Dannel Malloy’s election. He still sits on the city fire commission.
Now he’ll return to New Haven with a local office at DePino Associates’ headquarters on Townsend Avenue. The firm is run by Chris DePino, who’s also known for his harmonica skills. The firm holds the city’s $50,000 contract to lobby the Capitol for city priorities.
The job entails lobbying on behalf of the city to the governor’s office, State Bond Commission, other boards and commissions, state agencies and the legislature. The contract also includes lobbying on behalf of the city housing authority, Tweed-New Haven Airport, and New Haven’s nonprofit community.
DePino and employee Melissa Biggs handle most of the lobbying under the contract. Nuñez said he’ll now step in as needed, too. That means prepping city officials who go to the Capitol to testify, lobbying legislators to introduce bills and tracking legislation through committees.
There’s no law restricting Capitol staffers from becoming lobbyists. The state Code of Ethics requires legislators to wait one year after leaving office to become lobbyists, but that “cooling off period” does not apply to legislative staff, according to Carol Carson, executive director of the Office of State Ethics.
Legislative staffers who become lobbyists do face these restrictions, Carson said: They can’t share confidential information they gleaned as state staffers, and if they worked on a state contract over $50,000, they have to wait one year before working for that contractor.
Nuñez said in addition to lobbying for New Haven at the Capitol, he’ll be doing so for a couple of other clients as well.
The bulk of Nuñez’s work begins in February with the start of the next legislative session. The switch puts Nuñez on the other side of the physical ropes that separate Capitol staffers from lobbyists. Nuñez isn’t the only one to make the switch of late: House Democratic Caucus staffer Brie Johnston recently left her job to work as a lobbyist for Betty Gallo & Associates.
Nuñez made the move amid a shuffle in the state political landscape: His boss, Donovan, is setting his sights on the 5th District U.S. Congress seat being vacated by Chris Murphy, who’s running for U.S. Senate. Donovan is one of four Democrats and four Republicans running for the seat.
Nuñez said he believes Donovan will win, which would put him out of a job.
“I didn’t want to sweat it out if he becomes Congressman,” he said. “The time was right” to find a new position.
“I’ve always enjoyed working at the legislature,” Nuñez said. He called it “a natural progression” to continue to do so from the other side of those ropes.