Comparing the city’s government to a decaying water pipe in need of replacement, Ansonia’s Dave Cassetti announced Tuesday he’s seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for mayor.
“Ansonia is in need of repair,” said Cassetti, a former Alderman and current member of the Economic Development Commission, launching a five-minute speech announcing his candidacy at his Ansonia business.
“The sort of repair Ansonia needs now, however, cannot be achieved with concrete and asphalt,” Cassetti said. “The damage goes deeper than neglected roads. The damage includes neglected taxpayers, a neglected school system, and a neglected economy.”
Click the play button above to hear Cassetti’s remarks in full.
Cassetti, assuming he gets a spot on the November election ballot, would be the first challenger to Ansonia Mayor James Della Volpe since 2009, when the mayor defeated Judy Larkin-Nicolari by about 1,000 votes.
Ansonia Republicans did not run a mayoral candidate against Della Volpe in 2011.
Cassetti announced his candidacy at BIRM-I Construction, the Riverside Drive business he began 25 years ago, before a handful of local Republicans and supporters.
“I always wanted to be in business, and I always wanted to be mayor someday,” he said prior to his speech Tuesday.
BIRM-I, a utility contractor that focuses on municipal sewer, water main, and asphalt and concrete work, is now worth about $2.5 million and employs 14 people, he said.
“I’ve built myself up to be a team leader,” Cassetti said. “It’s something that Ansonia needs right now, leadership. It’s almost crying for it.”
Larkin-Nicolari’s candidacy in 2009 was mostly symbolic.
Cassetti’s criticism of the Democratically-controlled city government didn’t pull punches.
He even announced he was stepping down from the business to focus his attention on his mayoral campaign full-time.
Cassetti was born and raised in Ansonia, and is a 1979 alumnus of Emmett O’Brien High School.
He’s been married to his wife, Alfonsina, for 15 years, and has five children ranging in age from 8 to 27.
“I’m looking forward to this race,” Cassetti said. “I’m looking forward to campaigning and meeting the people, because they’ve been really beat up in the past five or six years.”
Asked how people have been beaten up, Cassetti replied: “Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
During his speech, Cassetti blamed the city’s ills on “an administration that has monopolized the city government for more than a decade” and said Della Volpe has “failed at the charge of leadership.”
Cassetti criticized “city hall’s neglect” in a number of different areas.
Cassetti faulted city officials for not making economic development and business growth a bigger priority, saying the city now has a heavier tax burden than its neighbors as a result.
He also said the city’s school system is “perpetually neglected while a lopsided city budget squanders money elsewhere,” and said Della Volpe should be more involved in the process.
“A fierce debate over school funding rages each year at budget time while Ansonia’s chief executive sits back without comment — the budget system in Ansonia conveniently gives the Mayor no role in the process, and he appears all too content to stand aside and let others make the tough decisions,” Cassetti said.
Cassetti didn’t make any specific policy statements in his speech, but said he would “spend this summer talking to residents, business owners, community organizations and city officials.”
“My goal is to understand precisely what Ansonia needs from their city government,” he said.
In addition to his construction experience, Cassetti has been president since 1997 of the Ansonia-Derby UNICO, an Italian-American service organization that has distributed $52,000 to local students.
Cassetti also served for two terms as an alderman in Ansonia’s seventh ward, served for 10 years as an Ansonia Police Commissioner, and compiled a 49 – 6 record en route to becoming the state’s middleweight boxing champion in the early 1980s.
The Valley Indy left a message seeking comment on Cassetti’s remarks with Mayor Della Volpe Tuesday afternoon. Della Volpe is in his seventh, two-year term as mayor.
