Cerulli On The Scene

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mike's Ruley. How you been, my man?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Been great. It's great to be back on the show. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
You know, only had John that one time, and we
had all these big discussions and hatched all these plans,
and then you disappeared. And a couple of weeks ago,
I saw a photo of you posted with two guys
named Chaz and AJ, and I got a little myth.
I got a little myth. There's no photo of me
and you anywhere up. You're holding it down in the

(00:27):
Hartford studios more often than not.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
No. Yeah, and I'm still I'm still living home in Trumbull,
So Jazz and AJ is right on the way.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh it was convenient.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Like ten minutes from the house, very convenient.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
I could hit.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Those studios in Milford pretty easily.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, no, no, no, great guys, they've been at it
a good long time. We've all been at it around
here a good long time. You're the newbie. Uh, you know,
I'm a fan. I think you hit the ground running.
Has it gotten to you A little something that I
came up with for you, I call it soreughly on
the scene. Has that not reached you? I think you

(01:03):
should have a scene.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
As Yeah, cause I listened to one. I listened to
one of I forget what it was, but somebody sent
me that you were you were talking about one of
my stories, and I remember you's saying that a kind
of deliteration.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
There with me, Sally on the scene. You got to say,
fast out Sourally on the scene. I am a fan
I bring. I use a lot of your material often.
I use a lot of your audio often. I maintained
what I said to you at the outset when we
first met. I like that you ask questions that it
seems like for years a lot of people have been

(01:38):
steering kind of clear of asking. Case in point would
be the other day you didn't get any answer, Mike. Uh,
But you went for it with the governor at the
Newtown Labor Day parade and you're like, how are we?
And he just stayed through you a fist bump and
in your your narration or whatever. What are we supposed
to call it? Your your what you put over the piece,

(01:58):
what you laid down over the be You said, I
asked a question, but you know it got dismissed. I
got a fist bump instead.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and actually yesterday it wasn't me that asked this question.
But Ken Dixon, who's the really really experienced political reporter,
asked the governor yesterday was announcing the minimum wage increased
fifty nine cent increased in the state minimum wage, and
he was doing it about, you know, six weeks before
the statutory deadline when he's supposed to announce it. So Ken,

(02:29):
sort of with a little bit of a little bit
of attitude in his voice, was like, Governor, why are
we announcing this in September? Right now? And again, Susan
vice the Lieutenant governor, stepped in and just looked at
him and just said anticipation, and then he kind of laughed.
And I said, and I said, in my story, I said,
you know, maybe this had this answer had a double meeting.

(02:50):
So yeah, you know you kind of with those questions,
right it's you. You got to people. Most people can
just see the read between the lines right then that
obviously there's an answer to this question. He doesn't want
to give it right now for whatever reason. But every
time we ask it, we get a different version of basically.

(03:12):
I mean one time I asked him and he literally
just said to me, I'm trying to put it off
a little bit longer.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
I got that. Yeah, I remember that. And if I'm
not mistaken, I think I watched in one of your
reports you feel as if it's coming. You're you're pretty sure.
I don't want to speak for you, so I should
frame this more as a question. Uh, Am I right
to assume you feel like, oh, yeah, he's running. I

(03:38):
was at an event last week. Uh that Ryan Fozzio
happened to be at. Steve Arosco happened to be at
Aaron Stewart happened to be at. Alan West was speaking. Yeah, yeah,
I guess it was with the names. I just rattled off. Sure,
West is a heck a speaker, was a great speech,

(04:03):
and they all seem fairly convinced that he's running. I
don't know why. I still feel like he could Paula.
Now you know, I'm gonna get out while the getting's good.
Two terms, I feel like I did good. We've got
people coming up. He's got challengers in his own party,

(04:26):
challengers across the aisle. I do feel like it's still
up in the air. Are you not so much?

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah? I guess I would say I'd be surprised if
he came out and said that he wasn't running, It
would be surprising to me. It would not be surprising
to me. I was joking with someone about this yesterday.
You know, it would not be surprising to me if
in one of these you know kind of we call
him the gaggles with many press conferences where we ask
him random questions, if he just came out today or

(04:55):
tomorrow and just said, yeah, I'm doing it. You'll see
the paperwork cloud soon, kind of what he did last
time around in twenty twenty two. I guess when he
made announcement, he was still twenty twenty one. But I
would not be surprised by that. In fact, like I said,
I joke with people, but any day he could just
randomly say yeah, I'm running again. But I would be
surprised if if he came out I'm calling it quits.

(05:17):
That that would be surprising to me, just based on
everything we've seen. I mean, one thing I haven't reported
this yet, but I'll tell you many is you know,
the governor is not is traditionally not. Obviously he likes politics.
He's a politician. But you know, Senator Blumensal has this
reputation of showing up everywhere, right, You know, there's jokes
that there's two of them, are there clones of him

(05:38):
or something like that. The Governor's really not like that.
He goes to a lot of events. He's certainly very active,
but when it comes to, you know, going to these
political campaign events, you know, the thing I get from
sources around him is he kind of has to be
prodded into doing that, and he's been to multiple of
those in the last couple of weeks. He was at
Democratic Party event Websfield last night. He was a fundraiser

(06:00):
for the Democratic mayoral candidate in Bristol on Tuesday night.
So he is stepping up the schedule of explicitly political
you know, not ribbon cuttings, not you know, visiting a
school or something like that. We're talking campaign events for
the Democratic Party. There's really no reason why you would
do that if you were trying to you know, no
offense to the good people of Weathersfield and Bristol, but

(06:23):
there's no reason you would be going there on a
Tuesday or Wednesday night unless you were trying to, you know,
send a message and shore up your support.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, that's valid. You know, I saw that Josh Elliott
sit down with your colleague Dennis House over at News eight,
and I think that's what that's what would get any governor.
I know it certainly did well and mayor, because it's
a mayor that I was thinking of. It's when you're

(06:52):
challenged within your own party. I think Aaron Stewart coming
for him or a Fazzio, that's one one thing. But uh, Elliott,
I think ruffles his feathers. Have you managed to sit
down with him yet?

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Oh yeah, I've interviewed Vineyard Representative Elliott a number of times.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
And since he announced that he's challenging the governor. Yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Was there when he announced in Hamden, And uh yeah,
I don't think that I mean the governor if anything
with it when it comes to Josh Elliott. I've asked
him about that multiple times and he usually just kind
of says, I mean literally, one of the times I
asked about it, he said, well, the more the merrier,
he almost he didn't say this, but it almost kind

(07:38):
of sounded like he didn't care. Yeah, I'm sure he's.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Clip. Yeah, I saw I know the very good you
speak of.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, And you know some of that might be
a bit of a strategy to say look, we're gonna
fly above this. I'm just sitting governor. And we've seen
examples of that in you know, history, not just governor's races,
but the stuff where you sort of say, well, I'm
the guy, right, you know, you think of Obama in
twenty twelve. People always say that first debate performance when

(08:08):
he was against Romney wasn't as good. And part of
the reason is incumbent presidents always kind of go, well,
I'm the president, you know, what do I need to
do this debate prep for? And then sometimes they end
up getting kind of smoked in their first debate. So
I think some of that might be that, but also
I think some of it is, you know, again, the governor.
People might not agree with him, but he's every public

(08:31):
poll of him shows a pretty peace and approval rating.
And you know, and running for governor in this state
when you don't have hundreds of millions of dollars to
draw on of your own, is a pretty hard endeavor
to embark on. You have to raise a ton of money,
and Aaron's demonstrating how much you have to do over

(08:52):
a course of many months in order to raise the
requisite amount of money. We'll see from josh In when
he has to file his campaign finance reports, how well
he's doing in that area.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, I think he's got a significantly more uphill than Aaron.
Aaron came across as very confident last week when I
spoke with her, for what you know, for what that's
worth and in a lot of ways that that's what
you put out there, But she did. She came across
as very confident and like she's got her strategy nailed down. Elliott,

(09:27):
I feel as if and I wonder if this is
why the governor, you know, gave the answer that he
gave to you. And Hey, the more the Marion this
and that is he knows he handed his party some
weapons in the arsenal. He vetoed things that you know,
the left wanted. They want that pay for striking workers.

(09:51):
He got a little moderate for a minute there, and
he's given them material.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, he's he's not a dumb guy.
I mean, he knew what he was doing when he
vetoed those bills. He understood what the backlash was going
to be. And you know they're the striking workers thing.
He veted that last year too, so you know there
was no surprise that he vetoed it. I think there

(10:22):
were some lawmakers taking it. Yeah, yeah, and I think
I think there was some lawmakers taken with a lot
of lawmakers taken back back by the housing bill veto
because a lot of them felt like they'd been given
assurances that he was going to sign it, but on
a striking workers thing. Again, he vetoed identical basically identical,
you know, identically intentioned legislation last year and said from

(10:45):
the outset he would do it again this year and
probably would do it again next year too.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, yeah, and again wrong with Mike Seruli from newsap
from w j n H serooly on the scene. Have
you been keeping an eye on this hand and race, Mike,
I mean, this is a nail bier. There couldn't possibly
be more hats in the ring. Who has gotten the

(11:09):
signatures and gotten a little bit farther down the road
than others. Has been unexpected, or maybe for the insiders
that are like no, that's exactly how I expected it
to go. It's the most interesting Hamden mayoral race I've
seen in all my time in Hamden, and I've been
here since the late nineties.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, no, I was. I was at the polls on
Tuesday doing a story on the first day of early
voting in that primary, and it's like, I, I mean,
I've been doing this for that long, but I've through
seen anything like it, you know, five five way Democratic primary,
you know, potential independent candidate and Republican candidate who's like
my age. Yeah, it's very yeah, it's it's a very

(11:54):
fascinating race. And then of course hanging over all, I
agree with you. You know, my my mom's family is
a Handen family, so you know, I've I've always kind
of I've always could have known the thing, you know,
this sort of stereotype of that town I've always been
aware of since I was a kid, which was really
high taxes. It's really high property taxes. And then obviously
that situation, uh, you know, really comes to a head
in the last year or two. So all those factors

(12:16):
are just really making for an interesting race there. I
don't have a read on the Democratic primary there. I
you know, I got outside the polls. I was doing
a story on early voting and I'm kind of talking
to voters and I said this to my camera guy.
I was like, I probably don't know, like who I
expect to win here or who we should be. I mean,
you ideally you give kind of all the candidates to

(12:37):
equal time and and and attention, but you know, in
the back of your head you do kind of want
to have a sense of the reporter, like who's the
front runner here. There's a conventional wisdom that the person
that has the party's endorsement, that Rowe on the primary ballot,
comes into it with a lot of strength, and I
think that's true. But but yeah, it's it's just it's

(12:57):
you're going to be really fascinating to watch. And anytime
you have the potential of the three way general election,
particularly where there's a lot of anger at the incumbent party,
you know, there's just gonna be there could be a
lot of.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, people who would still there, people who were working
for the mayor who then decided that were going to
run against the mayor. Then the mayor drops out of
the race. Uh So there's a lot of that. There's
some discent. There are other people who were willing to
toe the line that she was towing, and you know

(13:33):
Elliott and her. There's a lot of rumblings former Mayor
Garrett that they've kind of hatched a plan of their own.
I wanted to ask you to, Mike, I don't know
where Jamika Jefferies is at nowadays, since you were just
there a few days ago. Is she still in the races?
She's still in this thing?

Speaker 2 (13:52):
You know, I didn't see I don't think I saw
her at the poll. Yes, that was true about that too,
falling home. But it's all hard. It's hard. People always
overestimate or underestimate how difficult. Uh, the business of politics is.
Sure when when they and it's not I'm not trying
to dissuade, but I think the more of the court,

(14:12):
the governor, the more of the marrier when it comes
to these things. And uh, we definitely need good intention
people on all sides of the spectrum to jump in
and throw their hat in the ring. But it's it's
a really hard thing to do when when you especially
in a race like matter, well, you need a bit
of money to do. It's not like a town council
race where you can kind of bootstrap it. These are
these are six figure races in some cases, so it's

(14:34):
it's going to be tough for whoever's whoever's.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Before I let you go, Mike. Uh, since you're this,
you're sinking your teeth into every single race across the state.
Is there one I should be paying attention to? Uh
that I'm that I haven't thus for like, hey, Vin,
you want an interesting one?

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (14:54):
One maybe even more interesting than Hamden. Take a look
over here? What's one other race where you're like, then
pay some attention over there? Do you have? Does one
come to me?

Speaker 2 (15:05):
I think this situation going on in Fairfield right now,
I think is fascinating. It's fascinating because of the circumstance.
The former first electmen there very suddenly and tragically passed away.
Some oddities in the town law and in the state
law that lays out how to replace a vacant first
electment office led to sort of a deadlock. In the process,

(15:29):
there were some elected officials that needed to weigh in
on it. They deadlocked. Then another group of elected officials
is prescribed to weigh in on it. They put the
Democrats in as the acts as the first electman. But
there's also a statue of state law that says if
anyone in town can go out and together, it's like
two thousand petition signatures and two weeks or so if

(15:50):
you do that, you can trigger a special election, and
a special election will actually be the final word of
who the first electman is. And you know, the first
electman's race is interesting. But what's really fascinating about this
is that the state senator for that area, Tony Wong,
a Republican, has decided to jump in the race for
first selectmen. He's very well known in Fairfield. I was
there a few days ago watching him collect signatures and

(16:14):
he seems to be doing well in that area. Don't
know the exact number of signatures he's collected yet, but
if he triggers that special election, and if he wins
this special election, it becomes first selectman. That will create
a vacancy in his state Senate seat, because you can't
fair town of Fairfield charters. If you can't hold both
jobs at the same time, you can't double dip as
some towns do. Two salaries, two pensions and all that stuff.

(16:36):
But that will create a vacancy in one of the
most competitive state Senate districts. This is one of those
suburban areas that has floated toward the Democratic Party in
the last ten or twenty years, and the Democrats have
said why can't we take the state tenatecy alway from this?
Republican Tony has been sort of the survivor of Fairfield

(16:56):
County Ryan Fozzio as well, along with some others, And
this would open up likely in like maybe marks of
next year, so kind of when no one's paying attention
to these races, a really competitive state Senate race. So that,
but it all begins with the first electmans race in Fairfield,
which if they triggered the special election, it would be
in January. So again one of these weirdly timed special

(17:19):
elections and the townment that's very very intense politically.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, and Fairfield's had some interesting struggles over the last
couple of years too. That as a Connecticut lifer, I
can say the kinds of struggles Fairfield. You know, pandemic
didn't necessarily help a lot of crime up taking crime there,
so it's been a transitional period for Fairfield too, So

(17:46):
I appreciate that tip. It's Mike Serulei serally on the scene.
I think big things, await, I see you doing world
news tonight. In five years. I'm a big fan.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
I love Connecticut, Vinie, I love Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, I'm a big fan and I appreciate you coming
back on and let's stay in touch. Bud.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
That's good, Thanks for having me, see you bu