Perennial candidate Ralph Ferrucci (pictured) is challenging Rosa DeLauro for her U.S. Congress seat — and ditching the Green Party.
Ferrucci ran for mayor on the Green Party ticket in 2007, his fourth unsuccessful run for public office.
He wasn’t planning on announcing his new campaign yet. But he was spotted Thursday at the New Haven City Clerk’s office, taking a first step to get on the 2008 ballot. He submitted four signatures, from his parents and two of his friends, on preliminary paperwork so he can start filling out petitions for his candidacy.
This time around, Ferrucci said he’s leaving the Greens behind and running as an Independent.
“With the Independent Party, I don’t have to be as careful — I can say what I want” and not get chided by the Greens, he explained.
Connecticut’s Independents are concentrated in Waterbury, where five aldermen are party members.
Ferrucci ran against DeLauro once before, in 2004. Why is he launching a battle against the popular, nine-term incumbent Democrat in the Third U.S. Congressional District?
First out of the candidate’s mouth was a concern that the environmental-oriented Greens may indeed have chided him for emphasizing — gasoline prices.
DeLauro and other congressmen “have not done enough for working people” struggling with tough financial times and skyrocketing gas prices, he said.
Ferrucci said the gas price squeeze hits home for him: In his day job, he drives a truck for Pepperidge Farm, delivering cookies to small grocery stores. He logs 100 miles a week on his box van and doesn’t get reimbursed until tax season.
“As a truck driver, it hurts me every month,” Ferrucci said.
Mid-conversation, Ferrucci stepped in the hall to take a call on his cell phone — a call about the other Ralph who’s running on an Independent ticket. Ferrucci said he’s a statewide organizer for Ralph Nader‘s presidential run. The two plan to convene this weekend, he said, when Nader visits Waterbury. He rushed off to finish running errands in the Hall of Records.
Meanwhile, Ferrucci’s old mates, the Green Party, are holding a statewide convention to nominate candidates, including a presidential candidate. Nader has ditched the party too, this year; former Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is expected to become the presidential nominee. The Greens plan to run several candidates for Congress in Connecticut, but no one is slated to challenge Ferrucci, or DeLauro, in the Third.