Two Young Republicans

First a disclaimer: Nothing in this piece should be taken as a formal endorsement of the candidates mentioned below. In more than thirty years of column writing, the author has never made a formal endorsement, and it would be a pity to ruin a perfect record.

That said, it’s almost impossible to avoid noticing that the Republican Party in Connecticut has been crowded lately with young blood, not to mention the women upon whom Republicans are supposed to have declared war. This is partly the result of the Republican Party’s years in the wilderness.

Once a politician wins an election, he becomes the incumbent, and incumbents have insuperable advantages over challengers.

Except in times of extreme stress, most people vote on auto-pilot. It is well known that Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by a ratio of two to one. Unaffiliateds outnumber both Republicans and Democrats. It is therefore no surprise that Democrats enjoy a majority in the General Assembly. All the state’s Constitutional offices are held by Democrats. Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional delegation is uniformly Democratic, and with the election of Dannel Malloy as governor, Democrats now command the heights.  So then, most incumbents in Connecticut’s new one-party state during the next few elections will be Democrats, a great advantage for the party of stasis.

 It is the Republican Party that, at least in Connecticut, is the party of change.

Change comes hard. No great struggle is needed to float with the current.  As G. K. Chesterton once said, “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” The political current in Connecticut has a decided Democratic undertow. Still, it is much more invigorating to go against the current, a struggle that often appeals to the dauntless young.

It is possible that Republican challengers are young because the incumbent herd – both Republicans and Democrats – has grown old in office. Time thins old herds. A stressful time also thins the incumbent herd, and we are living, as the Chinese philosopher says, in interesting times, “interesting” being the opposite of placid and peaceful, a period in our state in which voting on auto-pilot may be fatal for Mother Connecticut. The expression “May you live in interesting times” is thought to be a Chinese curse.

I’ve listed below only two young Republicans, both of whom I met recently at an event, the first annual “Women on Fire” awards dinner, which featured as keynote speaker Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, who delivered an alarmingly apposite address. During the event, awards were presented to Pat Longo, the energetic Republican National Committeewoman, and Crystal Wright, a glorious black conservative explosion. The “Woman on Fire” event was organized by Regina Roundtree, a young Republican who also wants watching. Ms. Roundtree is the head of Connecticut Black Republicans and Conservatives (CTBrac).

Penny Bacchiochi has represented the 52^nd House District, Somers and Stafford, in the General Assembly since 2002.  Energetic, very bright, well prepared politically, Ms. Bacchiochi this year is running for Lieutenant Governor on the Republican ticket. She is firmly grounded in education and social work and has held the Republican Caucus Chair position since 2009. Ms. Bacchiochi does effortlessly what so many other politicians do ineptly: She translates her own varied experience into pragmatic political programs. Experience is, after all, the wisest teacher. Ms. Bacchiochi believes in a politics of limits and has more than a nodding acquaintance with constitutional prescriptions. She will fight in the trenches with a bayonet in her teeth for an enduring principle. So did Cardinal John Henry Newman, but Newman also said, “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Tim Herbst, now running for State Treasurer, is made of the same mettle. These are not young people who, having wandered into the woods to find themselves, have gotten hopelessly lost in briars and tangles. Mr. Herbst knows his own mind, has more than a functional understanding of politics, is fully capable of charting a course that will steer Connecticut away from its present treacherous path and, much to his credit, has never contributed a single penny in campaign contributions to the author of Dodd Frank, a mischievous entanglement that will pull Connecticut and the rest of the nation into the weeds and frustrate the free flow of information and creativity that lies at the center of wealth creation.

Immediately upon taking office as First Selectman of Trumbull, Mr. Herbst took ownership of his town’s problems. Coming into office, Mr. Herbst knew full well he could expect little help from either the federal government, deeply in debt and far removed from Trumbull’s needs, or state government, which had simply passed onto the towns costs associated with unfunded mandates and a highly politicized administration. In the meantime, inflation, contractual obligations, bonded indebtedness and maintenance and operational costs all were banging on Trumbull’s doors.

Right from the get-go, Mr. Herbst said, “I learned an important lesson: We can depend on no one but ourselves, and we must empower ourselves to take action.”

Mr. Herbst took action. He fulfilled a campaign pledge by identifying $1 million in operational savings during his first 100 days in office, turned a budget deficit into a surplus, decreased property taxes 3.5 percent, raised pension funding to adequate levels and negotiated labor agreements that reduced the number of pension eligible town employees. As a result of his exertions, Fitch, Moody and S&P, the nation’s principal rating services, all lauded Trumbull’s improved financial position.

Most recently, Fitch lowered to “AA -- Outlook Negative ”Connecticut GO Bonds, those bonds to which the full faith and credit of the state are pledged for payment of principal and interest.

More than thoughtful political behavior, entropy seems to decide the direction of states. Republicans were in the majority in Connecticut’s state senate for only two of the last twenty years; and, during the same time period, Democrats were in the majority in the state House for all twenty years. One cannot expect beneficial change to arise from a party so entrenched, and it is by no means certain that voters in Connecticut will be turned any time soon from their enabling entropy by anything less crippling than a disabling crisis.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Women

Someone – Regina Roundtree, a Woman On Fire -- has conceived the idea of honoring Pat Longo, long one of the principal worker bees in Connecticut’s Republican Party. Of course, she’s much more than that.

Mrs. Longo immediately comes to mind whenever I recall William Faulkner’s tribute to women: “If you have something very important to do, give it to a busy woman.”

On March 1, Mrs. Longo will be honored at a special dinner arranged by Ms. Roundtree at Anthony's Ocean View in New Haven. All the particulars may be found at The Connecticut Black Republicans & Conservative site (CTbrac) here.

Mrs. Longo, who is to receive the 2014 “Lillian Ford Feickert Award,” will find herself in good company.

The keynote speaker of the evening will be Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr.

A former college professor who served in the Georgia State House of Representatives, Dr. Alveda King is a recipient of the Life Prize Award (2011), the Cardinal John O’Connor Pro-Life Hall of Fame Award (2011) from the Legatus organization and the Civil Rights Award from Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) (2011). Dr. King regards the pro-life movement as a continuation of the civil rights struggle. A brave survivor of the Civil Rights Movement -- Her family home in Birmingham Alabama, was bombed, as was her father’s church office in Louisville, Kentucky, and she was jailed during the open housing movement – Mrs. King is singularly unafraid of the usual rhetorical bricks thrown at women presumptuous enough to rise to the defense of unborn children.

Crystal Wight, editor andpublisher of the blog Conservative Black Chick, will receive the “Woman on Fire” award at the event, though she will not be able to attend.

Attendance is mandatory for those in Connecticut who, over the course of the last couple of decades, have “seen the future” as devised by the usual culprits and know instinctively that “it will not work.” Names will be taken of slackers not in attendance. And after the state we all love has slipped into the abyss, nudged over the edge by the reigning power brokers, the list of sunshine patriots will be produced and published in what remains of the state’s free press.

If Connecticut is to be saved, salvation will come from busy women on fire, like Ms. Roundtree, who has given me the opportunity of praising Pat Longo.

Mrs. Longo, as all the right people attending CTBrac’s “Women on Fire” event will know, was elected Connecticut National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee in January of 2007. Prior to that, she had served as Vice Chairwoman of the Connecticut Republican Party for fourteen years. A very busy woman, she has been a fundraiser, grassroots organizer and a delegate coordinator to the Republican National Convention for Connecticut. She has for much of her political career been building up the Connecticut Republican Party, while others in the party, thumb-twittlers, have been watching her from the sidelines building up the Republican Party.

Twenty plus years is a long time to be tending vines in the Republican Party vineyard, and Republicans may be somewhat tardy in doing themselves the honor of honoring Mrs. Longo at the “Woman on Fire” event.

Like many active Republicans in the state, Mrs. Longo is a survivor with just enough conservative cordite in her veins to make her both dangerous and interesting. At the same time, Mrs. Longo is a bridge builder, and an extraordinarily wise woman.

Unless one is Caesar – or Lowell Weicker – one does not want to blow up the bridges that connect the various territories Republicans in the past have staked out for themselves. To have survived Mr. Weicker is no mean accomplishment for the Republican Party.

There is now a great quarrel – which rages mostly in Connecticut’s left of center media, and in the fevered brain of left of center commentators who have taken it upon themselves to advise Republicans how best to become more like them – concerning conservatism in Connecticut verses what one must call, for lack of a better word, “moderatism.” Under the general scheme being pressed upon Republicans by the state’s new progressive left, moderate Republicans are to be tolerated, while conservative Republicans are to be put to the torch. This arrangement, people attending the “Women of Fire” event will notice, has advantaged progressive Democrats, who are – dare I say it? – extremists.

The best answer Republicans can offer to this “trap-door” option – promote “moderate” Republicans who thereafter lose elections to progressive Democrats – is Pat Longo herself, the Pontus Maximus of Women on Fire.

When Mrs. Longo receives the award named after Lillian Ford Feickert -- Vice Chair of the New Jersey Republican Party, president of the New Jersey Woman's Suffrage Association, U.S. Senate candidate, and fearless, tireless, Republican Party organizer – it will be an award well given and appropriately received.

By the way, Republican men who do not fear strong women – nearly all conservatives and not a few non-extremist moderate Republicans – are cordially invited to the event. They will not be burned; the evening will be set alight with good conversation, great food, enlightening speakers; and in the Winter of Republican Party discontent, the illuminating blaze from “Women on Fire” will warm the cockles of their hearts. And should any Democrats who feel alienated by the progressive turn  their party has taken feel inclined to attend, let your heart be your guide -- bring along your fiery wives.