GRISWOLD - The Griswold public school system's enrichment program hosted an unprecedented debate from local political heavyweights, Tuesday, as part of its third annual mock election procedures. Elementary and high school students heard from sixteen candidates running for both federal and state office. The nominees each spoke briefly about why they were running before having the opportunity to answer questions from fifth graders.
Many candidates expressed the importance talking to the young crowd.
"My wife is a public school teacher," said Republican Congressman Rob Simmons before the debate. "She teaches [kindergarden] through [fifth grade] at the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in New London. When I first got involved in politics, back when I was teaching at UConn, I went to her school because they invited me to talk about politics. I was amazed at the knowledge and the interest of these young kids and I've been doing it ever since."
In his opening statement, Simmons explained to the students that he got into politics because he wanted to help people.
Simmons said he supported "helping people with an economy that's strong and jobs that are good, helping people with a good education system so that they can maximize their potential, helping people with prescription drugs so that they can regulate their chronic illnesses and lead a long healthful life, helping people to have a safe community in which to live and a safe country in which to live, and working for a safe world for all people. These are the things that motivate me to run for public office."
Simmons' Democratic challenger, Joe Courtney, spoke about the importance of the second congressional district race and why it was vital to get Democrats into office.
Ralph Ferrucci, the Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate, was under much more pressure to justify his campaign. Since anti-war candidate Ned Lamont defeated Senator Joe Lieberman in the Aug. 8 Democratic primary, many progressives question why Ferrucci remains on the ballot.
In his opening statement, Ferrucci said, "I got called to do a poll. They asked me who I was voting for U.S. Senate - Schlesinger, Lamont or Lieberman - to which I told them, 'I'm kind of voting for myself.'"
After a brief chuckle from the crowd, Ferrucci explained why the candidacy of Green Party candidates is important.
"We are talking about changing 'No Child Left Behind' because we don't believe kids should have to study for tests and forget about education," Ferrucci said. "We believe that we need to pull out of Iraq, that the war is wrong and that we need to withdraw all troops. We believe that the environment should be a top issue, that these oil prices should be a top issue. Yet the working people of this state and of this country are getting hurt. That's why I'm running."
Mike DeRosa, the Green nominee for Secretary of State, raised other concerns.
"You are the future, you are the citizens of the world," DeRosa told the students. "Don't let anybody else tell you that that's not true. I'm running for Secretary of State because my slogan is 'Make every vote count.' Unfortunately, in our system, every vote does not count."
DeRosa criticized electronic voting machines, especially those manufactured by Diebold. He proceeded to hold up a stack of papers that he claimed were a list of problems with Connecticut's own voting machines.
"As Karl Rove and as Joe Stalin said, it doesn't matter how the people vote," DeRosa said. "What matters is who counts the votes. And if we have machines that are incorrectly counting our votes, we have a problem with the keystone to democracy."
DeRosa then proceeded to hold up in his other hand a copy of George Orwell's "Animal Farm", telling the students to rent it from their library.
Democratic Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz and her Republican challenger Richard Abbate also briefly sparred over the issue of who deserves to be in office.
Cliff Thornton, the Green Party candidate for the governor, received massive applause from the crowd during his opening statements, even before he mentioned his crusades for drug policy reform and free college tuition.
Thornton, along with Joseph Zdonczyk of the Concerned Citizens Party, was recently denied a podium at the state's televised gubernatorial debates. Thornton blamed both major parties equally for his exclusion, since Democratic challenger John DeStefano requested the absence of third-party nominees from at least two debates and Republican Governor Jodi M. Rell refused to meet more than twice.
Thornton is both the first Green Party nominee and the first African American ever to run for Connecticut governor. He was also the only African American and only gubernatorial candidate to attend Tuesday's gathering.
Running as Thornton's lieutenant governor is Jean de Smet, who also attended the Griswold debate.
"The Green Party is different from Democrats and Republicans," de Smet told the young crowd. "Your parents might not even know that there is a Green Party. We run because we believe in people power."
"We don't believe in going to government and asking for permission or will you give us this or give us that," de Smet said. "No, we'll take what we want and we'll do what it takes to get things done."
De Smet gave the examples of a street festival she put together in Windham and other events established by Greens.
According to the Connecticut Secretary of State's office, de Smet was the first runner-up in the 2005 Windham first selectman race. The Green candidate secured 1,202 votes, beating Republican Harry Carboni (1,169 votes), but failing to defeat incumbent Democrat Michael Paulhus (1,868 votes).
Cathy Cook, the Republican candidate for comptroller, told the students "I'm running for Comptroller of the State at the special request of Jodi Rell, our governor. She wants a financial partner."
Democratic Comptroller Nancy Wyman responded by saying that she wishes to stay in office so she can help provide healthcare for people who are uninsured.
In addition to Republican nominee for State Treasurer Linda Roberts, several candidates running in local elections also spoke. They were democrats Andrew Maynard and Steve Mikutel, as well as republicans Lenny Winkler and Robert Lachapelle.
The panel of fifth graders asked the candidates running for federal office about airline safety and the economy.
On the topic of airline safety, Simmons said that he has hated flying in airplanes since he served in Vietnam and that he has spent much of his time devoted to making air travel more safe.
Courtney noted that many of the recommendations from the Sept. 11 Commission have not been applied and promised that a Democratic majority in Congress would put all of those recommendations into effect.
Ralph Ferrucci suggested that the US follow suit with the El Al Israeli Airlines, who let passengers into the plane via one door and pilots in through another, making hijacking virtually impossible.
On the economy, Courtney said, "We have been running deficits at the federal level since the first day George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress took over in 2001."
"A new Congress with Democrats in control will re-establish the budget rules that were implemented under Bill Clinton that got this country into fiscal balance for the first time in all of our adult lifetimes," Courtney said.
"The only known way to end poverty is through education," Ferrucci said. "Education will be the only way to bring up the economy because higher-paying jobs put more money into the economy because you'll have more money to use, more disposable income."
Richard Abbate, the Republican running for Secretary of State, took Simmons' place and answered the question by saying the economy is actually doing well.
"We've seen the Dow and other indexes coming back and now setting records once again," Abbate said. "Our economy is on the move."
"We have to get away from fossil fuels," said Cliff Thornton. "We have to understand that seven or eight dollars a gallon for gas is in the foreseeable future. What we have to understand also is that we've got to invest massively into mass transit to help curtail these fuel costs."
Sparking some additional excitement into the debate, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Alan Schlesinger, then showed up, arriving after a delay. With a wide smile Schlesinger began to find resonance with the crowd.
"I'm running for the United States Senate because of you, because I don't think its fair what a lot of the adults are doing to your generation and you don't even know it yet," Schlesinger said.
The candidates were then posed one final question about how well Connecticut is spending its budget.
Thornton replied, "From 1985 to 1993, Connecticut spent a billion dollars building prisons and I say, for what? That's at the expense of education, that's at the expense of universal healthcare."
Fellow Green Party Candidate Mike DeRosa took the opportunity to shift the discussion onto much broader topics.
"What we have today is a global economy that, if we don't get a handle on it, will become a global slave market for all of us," DeRosa said. "We all live on the same planet, we all live in the same environment, we all have the same ozone layer to protect. We all live in the same space as everybody else, but we need to know that we're all together in this struggle to build an earth in which all people are treated equally."
After the debate, DeRosa privately explained why he had shown the students his copy of "Animal Farm."
"'Animal Farm' is more than simply the story of the Soviet Union during the twentieth century," DeRosa said. "It's about power and how power can be abused. What we have right now in the United States is a one-party system. We have two wings of the same party and they'll disagree about certain issues, but take the war for example. Nobody is saying what needs to be said, which is, we need to get the hell out of there."
Schlesinger stated
it was deeply important to speak to the students.
"I wanted them to know that I'm here for them," Schlesinger said. "I wanted them to know that the future is so important. Politicians all too often forget about those who can't vote. They're the ones that we should be protecting. That's why I'm running. I'm running for those without a voice."
The election was put together by the students of Russ Salvadore, Griswold Elementary's enrichment teacher. The results of the mock election will be announced in two weeks, one week before the actual national election.
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