Exclusive: RYAN FAZIO

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As promised. All morning, we go to the Project hotline
right now, and welcome back to the show. State Senator
and gubernatorial hopeful Ryan Fozzio. How you doing, my man,
Glad to get you back on the show. Was good
seeing you a couple of weeks back at the Allan
West engagement in East Table.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, it was great sting here. It's been too long.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, and to meet your significant other quite lovely, very nice,
nice woman and a nice conversation with her.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Congratulations, sir, great, thank you. Yes, we got engaged this summer,
so we're very excited.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah. I want you to know. I don't I don't
think you listen to the show I am on a
regular basis or anything, and you don't necessarily know my story.
But I practice practiced extraordinary restraint there and said wonderful
things to her because marriage is horrible. It was the
worst thing I ever did. And I didn't go to

(00:56):
any I didn't do any of that. I smiled, she biggest.
She just seems delightful and you're very happy, and I
want you to enjoy this time. But I practiced a
restraint I did not think I was capable of.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Just FYI, you're a diplomat. You're a true diplomat, just
sell you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
And you know it's interesting rhyme. I was thinking this
morning when I knew you were coming on. I mean,
I so vividly recall the first time we chatted. I
mean it was when you were first elected in twenty
twenty one. I mean there were some extenuating circumstances. I was,
you know, it was mid pandemic. I was cordoned off

(01:35):
in this back studio here, and I remember the phone
call coming in and we had to direct them in
a very specific, very interesting way. And wasn't it a
special election? I think that's for you. Is that how
you first got in.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, twenty twenty one, it was a special election, and
it was the first election in the country during the
Biden administration where a seat flip from blue to red.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah, and I recall that as well.
Come a long way in four years, I mean from
you know, from that victory and and and what you
just said right there to now not only deciding yeah,
I'm going to go after the governor's seat, knowing Aaron
Stewart is exploratory or not. And she happened to be

(02:24):
at the same event we were at too. Her hat
is in the ring. The governor's facing competition within his
own party. But you do have the support you've got,
Vin Candelora, I know support to you harding. Did that
surprise you? Are you getting hit with Are you worried
at all about the You know that Ms. Stewart might

(02:46):
come at you with the boys club kind of thought process?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Now I listen, there's going to be some negativity. There's
already been, you know, a little criticism of of our
campaign from some competition. But that's what happens when you're
running a strong campaign. And you know, in some ways,
I don't think anything's changed since twenty twenty one when
we first won that special election. We've always been running

(03:15):
hard in order to make people's lives better in this state.
You know, under the belief that this is a great
state with great people but a horrible state government. And
that was positive change that Connecticut could succeed like never before.
That was the reason I ran the first time for
the state Senate, and that's the reason I'm running for

(03:36):
governor because I think our state could do better. And
you know, we're not running a primary campaign or a
convention campaign on the basis that other Republicans you know,
shouldn't have it. We're running on the basis that this
whole state needs a change, It needs new leadership, it
needs exciting Republican leadership that's focused on delivering positive change.

(03:59):
And you know, it's not about anyone else, It's about
a change and leadership for the whole state.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I think you first really caught my attention. I already
had John, I mean, and I enjoyed the conversation and all,
but it was you're the first one who brought to
my attention the whole and you explained it in a
way that made a lot of sense to me anyway,
about the whole public benefits charge and what's going on
with ever source and how we take care of that.

(04:26):
And it makes sense that you would understand it and
be able to rectify it and be able to speak
about it in a way that you know, the average
layperson can understand that you studied economics at Northwestern, So
I mean, and that's you know, key to this thing.
You know, you want somebody in that seat who has

(04:47):
studied economics because we are in a fiscal crisis here
in Connecticut and have been for decades.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
That's that's exactly right. I ran for office a special
because I'd seen economic opportunity and affordability leave the state,
and I think that's that was wrong. I think that
was because of the failures of the state government. It
wasn't because of any sort of deep seated flaw with Connecticut.
It was because of the state policy and the state

(05:17):
leadership failing regular people. And there's no better example of
that than energy policy. You know, probably my greatest, my
most important legislative accomplishment in the Senate was passing a
law in twenty twenty three that requires the public benefits
charges to be disclosed and itemized in our electric bills

(05:37):
every month. You were paying those hundreds of millions of
dollars now of billion dollars a year worth of charges
every single month for many years without knowing it. Now,
as of twenty twenty four, because of the law I passed,
every single person knows the charge that they're paying. It's
about twenty percent of their entire electric bill. It is

(05:59):
a tax to fund fifty some different government programs, and
it's wrong. It's making electric rates third highest in the
country here in Connecticut. It's costing us jobs. It's making
or stay unaffordable. And one of the reasons I'm running
for governor is to finish the job. You know, I
shined light on the what I do as a scandal
years ago, and now I'm running to eliminate the charge

(06:22):
and make not only energy but the entire state affordable.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Not even to be a wise guy, Ryan, and again
we're on with Republican whip, Ryan Fozil. That's it, it
says on the CT Senate Republicans dot Com. But it's accurate.
Not to be a wise title, but I also want
to be recouped. You know, if I footed other people's
bills for exit. You know, I'm a I'm a struggling

(06:47):
single father. You know I got a huge mortgage. I
not only want that fit that charge to go away.
I want the money. I want it retroactive. I want
three electricity for maybe six months. And I know, sounding
like a wise guy right now, and I know it's
never going to happen, but it's logical that I'd want it.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Oh yeah, you know, listen, there's there's some misconceptions about
the public benefits charges. Please, but one one that's not
is that Connecticut had the longest quote unquote shut off moratorium,
meaning you could keep your electric electricity on without paying
your bills for basically any reason, you know, up to

(07:34):
like a middle income for four years during and after
the pandemic. I think we were the very last state
to have that be the case. And and uh, we
have to pay back those charges, and that's something that's
embedded in the Public Benefits Charge. There are some fifty

(07:56):
other programs embedded in the Public Benefits Charges, so it's
basically like a government budget by itself, and all of
that adds up to us having the third highest electric
bills in the country. The other thing I'll say is
there's a lot of subsidies in there for private energy
producing companies, so it's not just paying other people's bills.

(08:18):
I would say that's about a quarter of everything is
kind of redistributive government in the in the Public Benefits Charge.
But there's a lot more in there, including a lot
of subsidies for expensive, private for profit energy production.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
And you know, I don't want to come across as heartless.
That was a tricky, crazy period of time and some
people couldn't pay and I'm understanding of that. I think
that whole period in a lot of ways, was mismanaged.
I remember getting those checks at one point, you know,
from the from the federal government, and thinking this is great.

(08:57):
I don't need them. I mean, talk about wasteful space.
I might in a year or two or three, but
I don't right now. I think we were quick to
the draw with a lot of things. And I get it.
It was a pandemic. It was a wildly strange period
of time. But we can walk things back. And I

(09:18):
think that's one of Lemont's problems because even when I
look at the police reform, you know, the bill he
signed there, I do think there have been moments of
realization like, wow, I was hasty. We were hasty, we
did things unnecessarily. But have the courage, have the character
to walk it back. Now, say you know that that's

(09:41):
what I did at that time when there were riots
in the street. I thought it was the right thing
to do. I was wrong. I'm walking it back. I
don't think he can do that. I think that's one
of the problems on the left is they don't have
the wherewithal to be to admit a mistake and walk
it back.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, listen, but people in leadership, especially in the Democratic
Party for many years, you know, had a playbook that
said you never let a crisis go to waste. And
that was no better illustrated than after the George Floyd
incident and all the riots that ensued. They passed a

(10:21):
lot of legislation to tie the hands of our police.
And because of that, it's not an exaggeration to say
that across the country thousands of more people died from
violence with the pullback in policing than otherwise would have,
including in Connecticut. Connecticut saw its murder rate go up
more than the rest of the country, and the state become,

(10:43):
which is historically a very safe state, became a lot
less safe, including in places like we were hanging out
new Haven. New Haven saw it's homicides basically double from
twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three, going from twelve a
year to twenty three a year. That swift a horrible tragedy,
but it's also a failure of leadership, and the people
who were in power should be held accountable.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
And to add insult to injury, it's a NonStop chorus
of crime is down, crime is down, and it's just
like I know better and that's inaccurate, and that's insult
to injury, because not only is it a significantly less
safe place that both of my kids are, you know,
attending school on a daily basis, but on top of it,

(11:28):
you're saying, actually we are heading in the right direction,
no or not. And it's very clear. I know you
delivered quite a message on Monday. You were with Steve Aroscoe,
who was also at that event in east Haven, who
I support his run for mayor in New Haven, and
you were talking about how you know Republicans can win

(11:50):
in deep blue new Haven, how by all means? Ryan
tell us.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
How My point was this, Republicans have to go everywhere,
talk to everyone, don't take a single vote for granted.
Everyone deserves better representation or good representation. And I think
in a lot of our cities, you know, working class
residents have suffered under Democratic leadership, the very most. You know,

(12:16):
as I said, homicides in New Haven for a period
of time nearly doubled. You know, city schools have been
totally failing our students who deserve a great public education.
I think that Republicans need to be willing to speak
to anyone and everyone and be ready to provide leadership

(12:41):
to the people who need it most and have been
failed by Democratic leaders the very most.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Very well said, as I knew you would be this
entire stretch at State Senator Ryan Fozio, gubernatorial hopeful Ryan
Fozio representing right now the thirty sixth district. We're going
to do a lot of talking between now and then
as the race continues to pick up speed. Make sure
you're paying attention. This one really matters. Ryan. I could

(13:11):
talk to you for another forty five minutes, but we're
already out of time. I appreciate you taking the time
this morning, and we'll talk again soon