Petitions On Tap At Christopher Martin’s

John Hancocks flowed along with the Samuel Adams at happy hour on State Street, as a Republican office-seeker asked supporters to help him mount a parallel third-party campaign.

The candidate is John Cirello. The local attorney and civic volunteer has won the Republican nomination to challenge seven-term incumbent state Rep. Bob Megna this fall for the 97th General Assembly seat, which represents New Haven’s East Shore.

Cirello (at right in photo) held a dual-purpose campaign event Tuesday afternoon at Christopher Martin’s on Upper State Street. Purpose One: To collect enough small contributions (between $10 and $100) from local voters to qualify for matching government money for his Republican campaign under the Citizens’ Elections Fund, state’s ​“clean money” public financing system; Cirello said he pulled in about $1,300. Purpose Two: To collect enough signatures from voters on petitions to appear on a second line on the ballot, as a candidate from the Independent Party. Cirello needs 63 signatures to qualify.

Why run on two lines?

“I’m trying to approve to a broader base. There are so many people in town who won’t vote for a Republican,” the candidate said between schmoozes at Tuesday’s event. New Haven currently has no Republican alders or state legislators. It last elected a Republican mayor in 1951.

“That’s the thing to do” for politicians these days, observed Tricia Palluzzi (pictured signing a petition as she signed the petition). She noted that candidates regularly seek multi-party endorsements; the same day as the event, for instance, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy won the endorsement of the Working Families Party. Palluzzi considers herself an independent voter, as does much of New Haven: The city has over 18,000 unaffiliated voters, compared to around 2,400 Republicans (and around 48,000 Democrats). Asked why she supports Cirello, Palluzzi echoed a comment made by others at the event: They know him from the neighborhood, where the Cirello family is active at Nathan Hale School, St. Bernadette Church, and events like an annual Morris Cove kids’ soapbox derby and Halloween parade. ​“Our daughters are friends,” having met six years ago in Nathan Hale pre-school, Palluzzi said.

Her husband Tony (on acoustic guitar in video) brought his band Lunch Box to entertain the crowd at the event. Their numbers included the Allman Brothers’ ​“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More,” Jim Croce’s ​“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” and ​“The Weight” by the Band.

Kevin Buterbaugh (pictured), a political science professor from Morris Cove who sits on his ward’s Democratic committee, said he had additional reasons for switching parties to support Cirello: He faults incumbent Megna for co-sponsoring a bill that would have enabled Tweed-New Haven Airport to expand its runway and for not, in his opinion, doing more to stop an Army Corps of Engineers plan to dump PCB-laden fill from Bridgeport near the Morris Cove seawall. Buterbaugh claimed that neighbors had to rally themselves without Megna’s help to stop that plan. He also faulted Megna for not being visible enough in the district or communicating enough with constituents.

In his campaign Cirello has echoed those themes — especially about the airport bill.

Megna (pictured), reached Wednesday, called the criticism ​“extremely deceptive.” He said he and the rest of the entire New Haven delegation put their names on the bill at the request of the city so it could get a hearing. The legislators routinely do that, he said. Once it came up for a hearing, Megna claimed, the legislators made sure the bill got nowhere. It died in committee.

“We stopped the law from becoming law. I don’t know what more advocacy you can get than that,” Megna said.

New Haven political and civic leaders have pushed for years to expand the Tweed New Haven runway so more commercial flights can fly here. They argue that that will boost the economy and create more jobs. That position is anathema in Morris Cove, where the airport sits. Both Megna and Cirello said they oppose expansion. Asked about the business community’s position, Cirello, who sits on the Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Committee, said he sides with the neighborhood. ​“It’s right for the Cove not to expand the airport. It’s what my constituents want,” he said. ​“There are a lot of intelligent people on the other side of the issue. But the Cove is always asked to bear these environmental burdens. Enough is enough.” (Click here for a recent story detailing the latest developments in efforts to expand the runway.)

Megna also said he played a crucial role, along with New Haven’s other legislators and the governor, in stopping the Army Corps of Engineers plan. As for his record, he said he has fought tirelessly for the interests of the East Shore, including introducing and shepherding to passage a law—read it here—that will enable thousands of people to insure their homes. He introduced it after insurance companies were denying coverage to homeowners in shoreline areas, like Morris Cove, battered by superstorms in recent years.

“I literally wrote the law myself,” said Megna, who chairs the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee. ​“I’m around a tremendous amount. I believe that I write more law than many, many elected officials.”

Megna said that unlike Cirello, he might not seek to qualify for public dollars under the Citizens Elections Fund. He said he’ll probably raise the $5,000 to qualify, but figures he might not need the $27,850 taxpayer match. ​“I don’t know if I’ll spend more than $5,000,” he said. ​“Maybe I have my head up my butt, but I don’t think money is as important to me as it is to other people. So I may not do the public financing.”

Megna trumpeted his role as part of the state’s ​“most powerful urban area delegation” at the Capitol, legislators able to accomplish much in concert with fellow Democratic Gov. Malloy. Cirello, who describes himself as a moderate Republican (click here for a story detailing his positions), argued that New Haven, and the state, need a good-government fiscally-conservative independent voice to challenge Democratic orthodoxy.

That argument is familiar to Victor Fasano (pictured). Active in the city Republican Party since 1974, he served as town chair from 1980 – 1. He has served as Republican appointee to numerous city commissions, currently the zoning board.

“It’s time for fresh faces,” Fasano said in reference to Cirello. ​“It’s just so easy to go with the flow, which is Democratic in New Haven. It requires a special level of civic involvement [as a Republican]. I like to think he’s a fresh approach to things. A good turnover is needed so often.”