Goclowski Announces Run For 102nd Assembly Seat

Democrat Lonnie Reed ran unopposed for state representative in 2008. In fact a number of Republicans were interested in cross-endorsement. In the end, the Republicans put up no candidate.

That was then. This year the Republicans have found a candidate to oppose Reed. He is David Goclowski, 55, a businessman in Branford who has never run for public office. He was until a few months ago an unaffiliated voter. He switched to the Republican Party last fall, began to present his views at public meetings and on Sunday announced that his political time has come.

With him on the steps of the Blackstone Memorial Library for the announcement were his wife Terri and Ray Ingraham, also brand new to the Republican Party. Ingraham was recently elected the new Republican Town Committee chair. He follows Joseph Coguillo, who served for four years. Ingraham will serve as Goclowski’s campaign treasurer. 

As Goclowski looked out at an audience of about 50 people, including his family and friends, and the organizer of the state’s Tea Party movement, he said it is time to get back to ​“common sense” values.

Joining the Branford Republicans were a number of top figures in the statewide Republican Party, including State Chairman Chris Healy and, later in the day, U.S. Senate candidate Rob Simmons and Tom Foley, the Republican candidate for governor.

Foley’s thoughts were on numbers.

“We want to pick up 15 to 20 seats in the House and three or four seats in the Senate. If I am governor that is what we are going to need to turn this state around. We have a lotta work to do. We appreciate that you are running,” he said to Goclowski. ​“You’re a good man, and we are going to make sure you win this race.” 

Locally other well-known Republicans turned out. They included State Sen. Len Fasano and Frank Forgione, who is running for the joint Branford- North Branford Probate judgeship; Cynthia Cartier, a Republican member of the Guilford Board of Selectmen, who is mounting a campaign against Democratic incumbent State Rep. Pat Widlitz for the 98th District seat; and Lisa Davenport of Durham, a newcomer to politics, who will take on Democrat Ed Meyer for the 12the District senate seat. 

Tanya Bachand, the state coordinator of the Connecticut Tea Party Patriots, was also on hand at a gathering afterward. She brought the conversation full circle, praising Goclowski’s description of himself as a fiscal conservative. She also applauded his ​“common sense” approach as she welcomed him aboard the Tea Party train.
 
Goclowski discussed his views. ​“Tough decisions are not being handled in Hartford right now by our Democratic leaders. The only thing they seem to know for many years is spend, spend and continue to tax us to death. Taxing us the way they have has actually put us in a major, major deficit problem. So much that it threatens our solvency of our state. There is little time left to fix it.

“Common sense has to prevail. We need to examine all the expenditures very, very closely. We need to get back to basics, to the time honored principle of cash in, cash out. It’s very simple. The only thing they seem to know for many years is spend, spend and continue to tax us to death. Taxing us the way they have has actually put us in a major, major deficit problem. So much that it threatens our solvency of our state. And there little time left to fix it.” 

The only specific recommendation he gave to curb spending was to examine areas of waste. He said one way to begin is to ​“start outsourcing basic human services,” an idea that Democrats in Hartford have mentioned, too. ​“Nonprofit organizations can do the same job that the state can do but actually do it better for a fraction of the cost,” he said. He provided no figures.
 
He thanked those who had come out to welcome him on a late Sunday afternoon, including Dan Cosgrove, once the ​“Boss of Branford”, the bulwark of the local Democratic Party. Cosgrove, now 93, created the Taxpayer Party in Branford, built on an anti-tax, anti-incumbent philosophy that resembles Tea Party beliefs.

“Dan Cosgrove came out today. Dan, thank you very much,” Goclowski said smiling. Cosgrove smiled back. We asked him later in the day if he had become a Republican. ​“I am an independent,” Cosgrove replied.

His grandson, Jamie Cosgrove, is Goclowski’s campaign manager. Jamie Cosgrove is also new to politics. He was elected in November as a Republican member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).

Goclowski first became visible when he started to speak out at public Board of Selectmen and RTM sessions late last year. At the last RTM meeting, he sat at a rear table with Ingraham and Republican Third Selectman John Opie. Opie and his former campaign manager Bill Donaruma attended Goclowski’s announcement.

Goclowski is described by those who know him well as quick and smart; at public meetings his manner is brusque, assertive and demanding. He is a graduate of Branford High School and a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce and volunteers for a number of community organizations. 

He did not discuss his own business ventures when he spoke to the crowd. He has had several over the course of years. He is currently the president of Maximus Lease Finance Group, which he describes on his website as a business designed to help effectuate loans for businesses. It does not state his current or former clients. He is also involved in a company called Supertech USA, a fuel retrofitting operation. 

After his talk, we asked him how he got into politics. Initially he did not answer. But an hour later, at the crowd gathered for a buffet dinner at SBC restaurant, he returned to the question. 

“Someone asked me a question today,” he said as he served as master of ceremonies. ​“How did I get involved in politics?” He said he would be remiss if he did not introduce the person who had made all this possible.

Then he asked Robin Sandler to come up to the microphone. Sandler, former town counsel when Opie was first selectman, did so.

“Robin and I were talking back then in early October. He asked me my thoughts about the political climate around the state and around the town,” Goclowski recalled. 

“Ladies and gentlemen if it wasn’t for Robin Sandler I wouldn’t have had the idea of actually becoming the next state representative of the 102nd District.”

Sandler said: ​“Dave: thanks for the kind words. To anyone who knows Dave you know you don’t talk to Dave; you listen to Dave.” Then he walked back to his seat.

Goclowski next introduced State Sen. Fasano of East Haven.

Fasano said ​“If he takes this show on the road there is no question he is going to pick up a lot of votes.” But he said long hours of campaigning lie ahead. ​“The key to winning this election is getting people to the polls. I can’t stress that enough. Don’t take a vote for granted. You gotta first get him elected. He is a great guy. He has a great sense of humor. He would be the best emcee we would have up in the House. By far. “

Goclowski said another politician ​“who was part of my mentoring process” was Vincent Candelora, who has represented the 86th Assembly District in North Branford for the past four years. He invited Candelora to the front of the room. ​“The only way we will change the mind set in Hartford is by changing the people. And Branford certainly needs change,” Candelora said. 

Senate candidate Simmons, who got stuck in traffic, came late to the gathering. He held up a ​“Connecticut Tax Report” by the Yankee Institute. A graph showed a straight horizontal line: Connecticut’s population over the last 30 years. Also on the graph was another line showing state spending gradually going upward for the same period. We’re spending too much in Hartford. Elect these Republicans to cut state spending,” he said.”

###