Fear vs. Growth On The Campaign Trail

Pat Destito knocked on just the door he was looking for: one opened by an unaffiliated voter who told him, ​“I don’t go shopping by myself anymore. When I go to ShopRite, I go with my husband.”

Destito heard that fear expressed again and again as he knocked on voters’ doors Saturday on Dorrance Street in the Eighth District of Hamden’s Legislative Council. He was looking to connect with independent voters who could help Republicans defeat Democrats at the polls in the Nov. 2 general election.

Destito is the Republican candidate facing off with Democrat Ted Stevens for the Eighth District seat, one of five contested district seats. The district votes at Bear Path Elementary School.

Both candidates are newcomers to local politics looking to represent the neighborhoods that make up the district, including Centerville, Beecher Heights and parts of Dunbar Hill and Hamden Hills. On the campaign trail Saturday, they presented voters with a clear contrast.

A pharmaceutical data services business owner and founder, Republican Destito portrayed himself as a fiscal conservative who wants to lower taxes through budget cuts to any department other than fire and police, starting with arts and library programming. He is running on a pro-policing platform, promising that more cops will mean less crime. He also told this reporter that he does not believe in Covid-19 safety mandates and that he remains unvaccinated.

Democrat Stevens is a transportation planner and Planning and Zoning Commission member focused on spurring economic development throughout town by investing in infrastructural and zoning improvements. He and Destito agree on the importance of prioritizing basic infrastructure needs like paving roads; both said this weekend that they believe available American Rescue Plan funds should go to the Engineering and Public Works Departments in order to catch Hamden up on needed sidewalks, sewers, etc.

However, Stevens portrayed economic stagnation as the underlying cause of crime, and said he wants to hire more social workers and trained health clinicians to deal with a broader array of issues that cops are currently called in to address. Crime is not part of his primary pitch; he characterized the recent spike as part of a temporary, national wave concurrent with the pandemic. He expressed support for extant vaccine and mask mandates for government employees as a key to lowering the spread of Covid-19.

There are 1,929 registered Democrats, 596 Republicans, and 1,696 unaffiliated voters living in Hamden’s Eighth District. Destito is currently focusing on getting those unaffiliated voters to lean Republican this November. The Democratic Town Committee is organizing to encourage high turnout of the district’s large Democratic population.

On Saturday, Destito canvassed the area around Dorrance Street alone, while the Hamden Democratic Town Committee launched ​“Day of Action in the Eighth,” sending around 25 volunteers across the eighth to campaign for Stevens.

Stevens himself walked near Knob Hill Drive with Chris Atchley, a DTC member and resident of the district.

Over the weekend, Destito spoke largely to unaffiliated women who said they were afraid of getting robbed or beaten traveling alone around town. The woman who said she requires her husband to accompany her on shopping trips described herself as a member of the ​“silent majority” — those who say that they fear rising crime and ​“defund the police” language, but who also decline to identify themselves in the media because they’re afraid of ​“liberal retaliation” for publicly stating that they believe ​“All Lives Matter” or that Biden stole the election from Trump (as she said this weekend).

Meanwhile, Ted Stevens primarily encountered Democrats who were already knowledgeable about the election due to months of campaigning by the DTC during the heated Democratic primary that the progressive wing swept last month.

Dem Pitch: Growth, Regionalization, Democratic Values

Larri Maza was one of the people Stevens and Atchley had met at Bear Path School while they were polling on the night of the Democratic primary.

“This is what I like,” Maza said with a smile when he saw the two standing on his stoop. ​“Follow-up.”

“And I like that rainbow coalition,” he added when Stevens handed him literature about the slate. The card showed a racially diverse DTC ticket.

“I wanna do what you guys did,” Maza told them before they could begin their pitch. ​“Keep pushing for people to run.”

Stevens himself became interested in running for the position back in 2019, he said, when he read about Lauren Garrett and other progressives challenging Curt Leng in an attempt to replace the old administration and imagine a new, more progressive Hamden. (An article in the Independent inspired him, he said, as did the organizational gusto of the new Democratic candidates).

“We’ve got spots opening up on the DTC,” Atchley said, suggesting Maza come out to some meetings.

Maza agreed, but also stressed the importance of finding young candidates who could rise up from local offices to make change at state and federal levels — like Stevens, he said.

“I’m seeing the crumbling of this democracy,” he said. ​“Why would people vote the way they vote? We have to organize and have a voice to counter that.”

As Stevens canvassed, the conversations were short and focused, affirming the work and values of the DTC in the context of fearing the policies and positions advanced by both the local and national GOP. Through casual conversation, Stevens generated new ideas, showcased his professional expertise, and made the dialogue local.

When Maza chatted about the serene environment around his Hamden Hills condo, Stevens inquired about the community’s access to the Farmington Canal Trail, which borders the back of the condominiums behind a layer of foliage.

Maza said he and some other members of the homeowner’s association had made a path of about 150 yards through to the trail that anyone in the area is free to use.

“Is that something you’d like to be more formalized?” Stevens asked.

At first, Maza was indifferent. Life is fine in his corner of Hamden. Then the trio then compared notes on how many of those hidden, privately blazed paths of access to the trail exist around town — and the importance of having public means of reaching the greenway that could stand the test of time.

Maybe the owners of the properties don’t mind having people pass through the yards right now, Stevens said. But maybe someday they will, and everyone will lose access. He suggested having the town pursue easements to ensure everyone has known ways to conveniently get on the greenway.

“That’s a good point,” Maza said.

“You better follow up on that!” he added, should Stevens make it into office.

At other doors, Stevens made a simple pitch, identifying himself as a ​“city planner by trade” and asserting his focus on infrastructure and economic development, which in turn, he suggested, would get Hamden on track to lower its mill rate.

He offered two different solutions to improve Hamden’s financial state. The first one involved reaching out to potential parties that might be interested in renting or purchasing underutilized sites throughout Hamden. He said the Eighth District includes ​“high profile vacant spots,” including the area behind the Tommy K’s plaza, the old YMCA property on Sherman Avenue, and open venues on Sanford Street.

He said one way to cut costs might be to regionalize more services. He imagined the construction of one library system for all of southern Connecticut. That would mean the same number of libraries, but lowered overhead costs. He pointed out that there are 169 municipalities in Connecticut, while Maryland, a state twice the size of Connecticut, has 24 county governments and school districts as well as regionalized fire and police services.

Maryland is where Stevens got his masters, though he grew up in North Haven. ​“I lived somewhere else that did something different and saw that it worked,” he said.

Stevens suggested partnering with North Haven and New Haven, for starters, on a possible project like the library — though he said he was currently unsure if either city would be interested.

In addition, he suggested having a $5 parking fee for non-residents of Hamden to enter parks like Brooksvale, which has uniquely high maintenance costs given that that park holds animals.

GOP Pitch: More Cops, Less Government, Arts Cuts

Unlike Stevens, Destito’s heard a lot about taxes and crime when he campaigned Saturday on Dorrance Street.

“You’ve got some Quinnipiac students, but you got a good neighborhood,” Destito joked at the doors.

Older women who came to the doors said they like their street, but are concerned about crime occurring in parts of Hamden outside their little neighborhood.

Retired teacher Moira Schiffer said she is afraid to go to the grocery store alone. ​“There are some that see me as elderly,” she said.

“And I’m concerned about people begging on the streets. It makes me feel uncomfortable and it makes me feel unsafe.”

Destito nodded along.

“My wife doesn’t take her purse into Stop & Shop anymore,” he said. ​“She’s too afraid!”

He characterized increased crime not as an isolated spike but as the long-term result of underfunded public safety departments.

“At any given time, there are only seven police cars out on the roads,” he repeated at every home. He said Hamden needs to hire at least 15 more police officers, and suggested purchasing more lighting, cameras, and greater surveillance of shopping plazas around town.

“In 1989, Hamden was a totally different town,” he said to residents who settled in Hamden decades ago to start families.

“It’s sad. We gotta get it back.”

Most women he met said that they had reached the tipping point. They said they need to move their families closer to the shoreline, or somewhere seen as safer and less expensive, like Branford.

“The women all want to move, it’s a safety thing,” Schiffer said. ​“It’s what all us neighbors talk about when we get together.”

Destito said he knows how they feel. ​“My wife, she’s 66 years old, she’s spent her whole life here,” he responded. ​“And now she wants to move for the same reasons you do. She said, if you don’t want to move, then do something.”

That’s why Destito was running, he said. While hiring more cops, he also wants to make big cost cuts in other departments. ​“Sorry, but somebody’s going to feel some pain,” he asserted.

He’s still working out how to do that. He suggested cutting every department’s budget, with the exception of public safety, by 10 percent.

The real place we need to start is with arts programming, he said.

“Don’t go down that road,” Schiffer said. ​“You’re talking to a retired music teacher here.”

“Hey, I’m a big liberal arts guy,” Destito said. Before taking a job at IBM, he studied English literature at Northeastern and was accepted into a PhD program to continue doing so at Penn State. He said he has regretted not pursuing his real passion for the past fifty years.

Schiffer sighed. ​“If it’s a choice of walking down to see a lovely concert at Meadowbrook or getting robbed at the grocery store, I have to choose safety,” she said.

No one mentioned the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Destito said that he sees mask wearing as a form of virtue signaling in blue states, where the mandate goes unenforced.

“I don’t want the government to force me to do something,” he said.

He said having a weekly testing policy instead of a vaccine mandate for government employees would make more sense to him. ​“If you want the vaccine, great,” he said. But he doesn’t believe anyone should try to tell another person what to do with their body. ​“It’s a very personal choice,” he said. He added: ​“I’d never tell you to be for abortion or against it.”

He didn’t elaborate on his own choice not to get the vaccine, but said he doesn’t ​“believe everything the CDC or NIH says.”

“Personally,” he continued, ​“I don’t believe anything but an N95 works or makes a difference.”

“But do I wear masks to comply? Yes. Do I hate complying? Yes,” he said with a laugh.