Emily Hays Photo
Hermosillo, Reilly exchange outlooks.
Erin Reilly tried to convert Maria Estela Hermosillo to a conservative vote. In return, Estela Hermosillo tried to convert Reilly to the Baha’i religion.
Reilly is running on both the Republican and Independent ballot lines against Democratic incumbent Al Paolillo Jr. for the District 97 Connecticut House of Representatives seat in the Nov. 3 general election. Paolillo has been in the position for four years, after a 15-year stint on the city Board of Alders.
Reilly took her campaign to the doors of her own Quinnipiac Meadows neighborhood on Wednesday, a rainy day for door knocking.
The wind whipped Reilly’s gray and strawberry blonde hair around her face and clouds scuttled across the sky between sudden downpours.
Reilly tries to campaign on the weekends and after her work as a financial advisor. On Wednesday, she was campaigning at the intersection of Glen Haven Road and Quinnipiac Avenue. It’s the northernmost corner of the 97th District, which hugs the Quinnipiac River down to the harbor.
At each house, Reilly would knock and step back.
Reilly chose to door-knock without wearing a mask. She said that she does wear a blue or black mask in other settings during the pandemic. She had a mask with her to put on if someone asked her to, but at least first they would have seen the nonverbal cues on the lower half of her face, she said.
“I think it makes you look sinister. Meeting someone for the first time, asking them to get out and vote for you and they can’t see what you look like is difficult,” Reilly said.
If someone answered the door, Reilly would hand them a flyer and introduce herself. Then she would ask them whether they had any top issues they cared about.
Estela Hermosillo stayed behind the glass door of her home when Reilly first arrived and spoke softly about her priority for racial unity. Reilly responded that she has her own ideas for how to make racial unity happen, but that she would rather hear Estela Hermosillo’s thoughts.
Estela Hermosillo then became more animated and brought out a flyer on the Baha’i religion. She explained its core principles: all humans are part of one soul, and the founders of major world religions are messengers sent by God to progressively reveal truth.
She said that there are only 15 Baha’is in New Haven, so they have not been able to fund a physical space to worship. Instead, they practice their faith from home.
“You’re doing it the old school way,” Reilly said, smiling.
Reilly jumped in between Estela Hermosillo’s explanations to say that one of her goals as a representative would be to bring the community together, starting with faith-based groups. She said that she would love for the Baha’i New Haveners to be part of that group.
Estela Hermosillo hesitated and said that the Baha’is could not be part of anything explicitly political; they have to stay independent from Republican and Democratic politics. Reilly immediately agreed about the importance of separating church and state. Plus, she noted, she is endorsed by the Independent Party.
How To Be A New Haven Republican
Reilly describes herself as a Christian, small-government conservative.
She grew up on Long Island and moved to New Haven 14 years ago. Her employer at the time offered her the chance to start a branch of the company in either Connecticut or New Jersey. She chose Connecticut and zeroed in on New Haven as a center of the state’s highway system.
Roughly five years after her move, her company folded. She credits the Obama administration’s decision to end paper savings bonds and go electronic. She founded her own financial planning business, of which she is currently the sole employee.
Reilly stayed in New Haven. She said that Irish American clubs in the city created “instant family” for her. Unlike New York, New Haven city feels spacious, with mountains within reach. If she wants to go visit her biological family in New York, it only takes an hour and 10 minutes by car.
She first got involved in the local Republican Party in 2016. She ran against State Sen. Martin Looney in 2018, gaining 22 percent of the vote.
The Republicans asked her to run again this year. They are more prepared now, she said.
“I hesitated because I know what it entails. I love talking to people but it is physical,” Reilly said.
She is running on a similar platform to that of Republican Eric Mastroianni, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Roland Lemar for the 96th General Assembly District seat. She is opposed to highway tolls and new taxes. She is opposed to decreasing funding for the police. She wants to focus on affordable homeownership rather than low-income rental housing. She supports government dollars following students wherever they choose to attend school, including private and charter schools.
“If everybody leaves a school, the market will dictate that something needs to change,” Reilly said. “They just keep hiring administrators and principals. Rather than throwing money at the problem, they need to fix it. In the meantime, we can’t have kids in failing schools.”
(Read an analysis here of where New Haven Public Schools is succeeding and not in keeping students in the district, keeping them in class and helping them get to and stay in college. And read about New Haven school success stories in turning around graduation rates and phasing out suspensions.)
Policing Proposal: Martial Arts
At the home of Harold Person (pictured), Reilly agreed with him that reforming policing is a top priority and that more training and more outreach are good ways to go about it. One of her ideas is to train officers in what she nonviolent strategies like Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She said officers should spend at least an hour each week on martial arts.
“That requires funding the police, not defunding them,” Reilly said.
When asked later why police need funding increases to improve and schools do not, she said that she sees safety and security as essential government functions. Aside from those functions, she would like to see governments slim down and see families and religious groups fill the role of safety nets.
“Let New Haveners take care of New Haveners,” Reilly said. “What the government gives, it can take away.”
Reilly emphasized that she falls center left on some issues. She said that the “stodgy Republican” tactic is to support corporate tax breaks. She supports tying green energy and job goals to those incentives.
“Make them work for it,” she said.
Paolillo said he was not available to talk about his positions on these issues prior to this article’s publication. He has spoken about his support for reducing the impact of potential highway tolls on those traveling within the state. The tolls would fund fixes and upgrades for the state’s transportation system.
A Street Of Unlikely Converts
Reilly ended most of her conversations with a cheery “God bless, hun!” or a “Thank you, darlin.”
Reilly supported Donald Trump in his first presidential election and still does this year. She particularly approves of the slate of judges he has appointed for their strict Constitutionalist (“not activist”) philosophies, she said.
Reilly’s street is part of a voting precinct that went 81 percent in favor of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Still, nearly all of the people Reilly spoke to on Glen Haven Road agreed to take her yard signs. Some agreed while also saying that they would look into the two candidates’ records.
After Reilly’s invitation to Estela Hermosillo, the two went back and forth for a few minutes. Reilly offered more information about her campaign and Estela Hermosillo offered more information about her religion. Reilly began to edge off Estela Hermosillo’s porch.
“I’m really happy to meet you,” Reilly told Estela Hermosillo.
“It’s nice to meet someone with an open mind,” Estela Hermosillo responded.
Reilly asked whether she could count on Estela Hermosillo’s vote. Estela Hermosillo said she thought so. She would even tell her son-in-law about Reilly’s campaign. And Reilly could drop off a yard sign.