(From left to right) Former Conn. Governor M. Jodi Rell, current Conn. House Representatives John Hampton, Brandon McGee, Lezlye Zupkus, and Conn. State Senator Art Linares visited the University of Hartford on September 30, 2013. Colleen McLoughlin | The Informer
Before the panel began, the atmosphere was very casual. Connecticut State Senator Art Linares and Representatives were introducing themselves to the audience members.
Dean Joseph Voelker, Professor Jilda Aliotta and Professor Leslie Smith attended the event, among other administrators and faculty members. About thirty students gathered in Wilde Auditorium for the lecture as well.
Most honorable was to have former Governor M. Jodi Rell in attendance, as well as her son Michael Rell.
Governor Rell spoke first. She told the audience that when people ask her, “Would you do it all over again?” she says, “Yes, I just wish I knew what I knew now… Things are not as easy as you think they are going to be.”
She said that when she first walked into the Capitol building, it suddenly dawned on her – “I just got sworn in as a state representative … now what do I do?”
Moderator Marilyn Rossetti, former member of the Hartford City Council, asked the four legislators how they came to run for legislature. Did they always know they wanted to pursue a career in politics?
John Hampton answered yes immediately. He was listening to Watergate debates as a young kid.
Brandon McGee said he had always wanted to be the first African-American president but “clearly Obama beat me to the punch.” He was always interested in improving the quality of education because he grew up in a poverty-stricken area and wanted to represent his community at the legislative table.
Lezlye Zupkus’s family would talk about local issues at the dinner table as she was growing up, but she never thought she would be a legislator. However, her friends had been telling her to run since 2006. The timing wasn’t right until last year, she said.
Art Linares ran for class president in middle school because the water fountains didn’t taste good. He enjoyed that experience but did not consider a serious career in politics until he had an internship with Marco Rubio. That inspired him to get involved in order to pass down a better life to the next generation, just as his grandfather fled Cuba during Bay of Pigs and came to America to pass down a better life for his kids.
Rossetti then asked the legislators what surprises or disappointments they encountered in their first year in office.
Hampton said he thought he was entering the legislature prepared, but some days he felt like a kid who had too much cake and he just had to sit down and take a minute to breathe. “My head is still spinning … in a good way.”
McGee acknowledged that “you’re getting paid part time, so you usually need to work a second job. And when you have a new wife, you need new money,” he said as he smiled at his wife in the front row. Mcgee’s biggest surprise came during his campaign. He got a phone call 12 hours after the first election saying he was 12 votes behind. He took it to court because the numbers weren’t adding up (turns out there were dead people voting). The court was unable to solve the dispute, so they needed to hold a whole new election.
Linares also was most surprised during the election process. After losing his primary by two votes, the winner called him to withdraw himself from the race and nominate Linares to take his place. Then Linares found out his opponent from the opposite party was his eighth grade history teacher. He was also the one who advised Linares in his student government position and had been his neighbor.
Zupkus was surprised by the time commitment, but she learned how to be at two places at one time. She is in the process of trying to figure out how to be in three places at once.
McGee said he wouldn’t change anything in his campaign. But he stresses that traditional ways of communication are key in elections because although it would be easier to just update a Facebook account and tweet to go out to the polls, very few voters are at an age where they would respond to that. Most voters are older.
Rossetti asked them what their biggest successes of their first term were.
Hampton prides himself in returning case calls promptly and personally. When citizens express their surprise at this, he responds with, “Of course I called you back, I work for you.”
Linares agreed that a returned phone call can go a long way. He is most proud of the number of environmental bills he has been able to pass.
McGee’s biggest accomplishment was the money he brought back to his district. He held five town hall meetings to learn more about what the people wanted, and since it was a recently redrawn district, they had a lot to do. “You can’t spend all your time with the community, and you can’t spend all your time at the capitol. Balancing the two was hard.”
Zupkus agreed that including the community is vital. “It’s not the real word up there [at the capitol].” She says that if she can feel good about what she voted for, be a role model for her children and represent the majority of her constituents all at the same time, she knows she has contributed to good legislation.
Rossetti asked the legislators to provide advice for anyone in the audience considering running for office in the future.
Hampton’s advice is to take advantage of internships. “Never think government is something that other people do. Get involved. I would love to see more UHart faces at the capitol. Show up at campaigns or events.”
Linares concurred, encouraging the students to take internships in Hartford or in Washington D.C. and find out how the legislature really works.
“And when campaigning, don’t buy bumper stickers – go door-knocking. So many people told me they voted for me because I came to their door. Not what I stood for, but because they liked me,” said Hampton.
Linares agreed in the significance of door-knocking as well. He said, “In order to cut through all the TV and newspaper ads, you have to contact every resident individually and tell them who you are and ask what they want to see done.”
Linares also advised students to “find a mentor and take them out to lunch or coffee once a month.”
He shared with the audience that Dick Cheney said once, “If you want to run for office, or if you want to be an elected official, you have to get out of DC and put your name on a ballot.”
In other words, get involved on a local level.
This was McGee’s advice as well. “Don’t think, ‘I didn’t work for the governor so it’s not important.’ Every stage is important. And don’t listen to people. People told me I was too young to run, but here I am.”
Zupkus said that relationships are important. She takes her job seriously because she is changing people’s lives – “every vote, every decision affects all of us, every day of our lives.”
She also advises listening to people. “Sometimes you take a call and don’t even answer a question – all you do is listen and people love you.”
Governor Rell asked the legislators how they separate how they personally feel about a specific piece of legislation versus what their constituents want. She noted that this was a task she found quite difficult during her term as governor of Connecticut.
Zupkus used the gun bill to give her answer. 98 percent of her constituents felt the same way as she did, so that made her feel comfortable with going with her gut. “I woke up one morning and felt at peace with my decision because I knew I could look a Newtown mother in the eye and tell her why I voted the way I did.”
One student asked that since they put so much emphasis on door-knocking, why was there a need for such high expenditures on campaigning.
Zupkus responded that because her opponent had held the position for 18 years, she needed to spend quite a bit of money on name recognition. Hampton shared that when he ran for the position in 1998, he had raised 6,000 dollars and his opponent had spent 40,000 on his campaign.
Rell responded to the question as well, stating that she had raised 4 million dollars for her campaign to be governor in 2004. How hard it was to do so is what made her support the campaign finance reform bill, which ensures no one candidate has advantage over another because of campaign finance.
Another student asked how the legislators negotiate with members of the opposite party. Hampton said he introduces himself to a new member of the opposite party every day in order to understand their side of an issue.
Linares, being 24-years-old, understands that our generation have grown up hearing about a very polarized federal government so it seems like Republicans and Democrats can never get along, but that is not the case in the Conn. State Legislature.
McGee’s answer to the question? Yes, Republicans and Democrats will realize they have things in common if they just talk to one another. But sometimes, coffee helps.
The legislators received University of Hartford mugs for participating in the event. All four of them and Governor Rell stayed well after the discussion was over in order to network with the students who attended.