Republicans Choose a State Rep. Candidate Tuesday

Brenda Kupchick and Chris DeSanctis, who are vying for the Republican nomination to run against state Rep. Thomas Drew, D-Fairfield, in November, share at least one thing in common - a disdain for the way Connecticut's state government operates.

"Our government has increased tremendously compared to the size of our private sector and population. It just doesn't make sense. It's not to take care of more people," Kupchick said in a phone interview Saturday night. "We have a reputation for being very business unfriendly based on regulation and taxes. Why would young families stay here?"

"I guess the [state] legislature is numb to it, but people are losing their homes. That's not right. We have to do something to make this better and help people, and the only way to do that, in my opinion, is give them an opportunity to get a job so people can earn a living and pay their bills," Kupchick added. "People don't want a handout; they want to work. They want to earn a living, take care of their families and feel good about themselves, and Connecticut's not allowing them to do that, and it's got to stop."

DeSanctis, who replied to questions via e-mail, said, "Connecticut's state government has simply grown too big and expensive. The cost of living in Connecticut is among the highest in the nation. Fairfield County sits within the highest-taxed Congressional district in the country. And, in 2008, Connecticut's debt-per-capita was at $6,830, higher than California's, New York's, Illinois and New Jersey. And we wonder why our state is experiencing its worse economic crisis since the Great Depression."

"One would imagine that principled leaders would respond to such facts by dramatically reducing state spending, but not our leaders in the General Assembly. They actually increased spending by $71 million starting in the fiscal year that begins July 1," DeSanctis said. "Maybe that is why over 325,000 people have left our state since 1992."

Kupchick, a former Board of Education member and current Representative Town Meeting member, and DeSanctis, who hasn't held elective office, are seeking the Republican nomination for state representative in the 132nd state House District, which is entirely within Fairfield. Fairfield Republicans can vote from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at their regular polling location. The winner of Tuesday's caucus will face Drew, who has been a state representative in the 132nd state House District since 2004.

The Connecticut House of Representatives has 151 members - 114 are Democrats and 37 are Republicans.

Kupchick said her three priorities if elected would be to reduce the size of state government, cut back on the state's debt and make the state more friendly to business.

Kupchick said she favored the Republican legislators' approach to offer a $2,500 tax credit to businesses that hired people, in order to stimulate the economy, and low-interest working capital loans for small businesses. She said there was too much red tape for small business owners, and regulatory reform was needed. "Connecticut is just becoming completely, it's not a place people want to be anymore. They don't want to pay the taxes anymore or the cost of living," she said.

DeSanctis said state government had to be more efficient through consolidation and that it had to put more faith in the private sector to handle some of the state government's current functions. "We must curb the enormous growth of our state's bureaucracy and we must stop borrowing more money than we can pay back," he said.

Kupchick feels she is better positioned to win against Drew in November because she has won elections in Democratic districts as an RTM member and is well known in Fairfield through her work on behalf of parents of school-aged children.

Kupchick was first elected to the RTM in 1999 in District 5, which is the most Democratic district in town. She was re-elected in District 5 in 2001, and during those four years on the RTM, she was the only Republican among District 5's four Democrats. Kupchick then ran for the Board of Education in 2003 and won election to a six-year term. In 2009, she won election to the RTM in District 6 (she had moved to a new neighborhood) and is again the only Republican among four RTM members in District 6.

Before Kupchick ran for the RTM, she led an effort by parents of McKinley School students to prevent their children from being redistricted to Tomlinson Middle School after they graduated from McKinley, a Thompson Street elementary school.

Kupchick also was an advocate for McKinley parents after the school had a mold problem that forced the Board of Education to close the school, and she was one of the vocal proponents of opening a second high school in town when enrollment projections in the late 1990s forecast a high school population of 2,600 to 2,800 students in 2012-13 (the forecast is now 3,035 students in that year, with a peak of 3,357 in 2015-16.)

Kupchick's earliest campaigns for office weren't successful. She ran for the RTM in 1997 in District 5 but voters in that district elected five Democrats, and she ran in 1998 for state representative against state Rep. Jacqueline Cocco, whose district at the time included part of Fairfield, but lost. "I gave her a good run," Kupchick said.

DeSanctis ran for state representative in the 132nd District in 2006, but lost to Drew, and he lost his bid for a seat on the RTM in District 6 last November, a year when Republicans gained control of 38 of the legislative body's 50 seats.

DeSanctis said he has experience in government as a policy and communications aide to former Jersey City, N.J. Mayor Bret Schundler and through his work on the Metro-North New Haven Rail Council and the Connecticut Statewide Property Tax Cap Commission. He said Gov. M. Jodi Rell appointed him to the Metro-North New Haven Rail Council, and state House Minority Leader Larry Cafero appointed him to the Statewide Property Tax Cap Commission.

"On the Property Tax Cap Commission, I had the opportunity to examine just how our tax code works and synthesize ways to make it more efficient," DeSanctis said, adding that he played a key leadership role when working for Schundler in property tax, transportation and education reform.

DeSanctis said he will be "uncompromising when it comes to fiscally conservative values" and that he was endorsed by the Fairfield Tea Party and Right Principles, which is a metro area Tea Party. The Tea Party advocates for reducing the size of government and fiscal responsibility. DeSanctis said he also was endorsed by the Connecticut Citizens for Ballot Initiative, which wants to give Connecticut residents more input into policy making through ballot initiatives.

Kupchick said Tea Party leaders never contacted her, but she picked up endorsements from key Republicans in Fairfield, including state Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield; former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, R-4; former state Reps. Jack Stone, Carl Dickman, Cathy Tymniak and Elinor Wilber, all of whose districts included Fairfield; former state Sen. Fred Lovegrove, R-Fairfield; former Fairfield First Selectmen Paul Audley, a Republican who served from 1993 to 1997, and John Metsopoulos, a Republican who served from 1999 to 2001; and former Republican Selectmen Jill Kelly and Steve Elworthy.

DeSanctis said he also was endorsed by Sue Dow, a Republican member of Fairfield's Board of Education; Joe DeMartino and Joe Palmer, who are RTM members; Laurie McArdle, a district leader on the Republican Town Committee; and Marie Stalling, an RTC member.

DeSanctis is an adjunct instructor at Sacred Heart University's Department of Government and Politics. Kupchick works with her husband, Peter Kupchick, at Peter Kupchick Heating & Cooling Inc. in Fairfield.