Two years ago, Theresa Conroy followed her father’s footsteps and went into politics, becoming the state representative for the 105th district.
Now, Len Greene, Jr. is trying to do the same — by unseating Conroy and reclaiming the position once held by his father.
The two candidates vying to represent the 105th district — which covers Seymour, Beacon Falls and part of Ansonia — both come from families with deep political roots in the Valley.
The two political dynasties are now overlapped in a single race.
‘It’s In The Blood’
Republican Greene’s grandfather was a longtime Seymour Selectman. His father, Len Greene, Sr., was the district’s state representative for 12 years.
When Greene, Sr. retired in 2008, Conroy, a Democrat, won the seat.
Conroy left a 28-year career as a full-time nurse to follow in the footsteps of her dad, who was Seymour’s First Selectman and is now on the board of police commissioners.
Conroy’s cousin is on the Board of Selectmen. Her mom is on the Culture and Arts Commission, and previously served on the Board of Education.
After one term in office, Conroy now faces a challenge from Greene, Jr., who’s making his first bid for statewide political office, seeking to pick up the mantle of the two generations before him.
In addition to Greene’s father’s long career as a state representative, his grandfather was First Selectman in Beacon Falls and on the Board of Selectmen until he died. He gained an appreciation for public service from the two men, Greene said.
“It’s in the blood,” Greene said.
During recent interviews at a Starbuck’s coffee shop in Seymour, both candidates spoke of their quest for office as part of a family tradition of public service. Both also shared their different prescriptions for the state’s woes.
Conroy
At 2:30 p.m. Friday, Conroy was seated in a comfortable leather chair at Starbucks, armed with a pumpkin spice latte. She wore jeans, Adidas running shoes, a blue long-sleeve T‑shirt with “Friends of Theresa Conroy” on the front and a trace of bright blue eyeshadow.
For about an hour, Conroy spoke rapidly and cheerfully about her campaign and her accomplishments in office thus far. She peppered discussion of personal life and political issues with references to family: her mom headed her girl scout troop; her siblings are small-business owners; her son has experienced recession-era job loss.
Conroy was born and raised in Seymour, where she traces her family’s involvement in town politics back to the 1850s. The 53-year-old divorced mother of two boys in their 20s is stepping into the family tradition later in life than her forebears. She was a nurse at the West Haven Veterans Affairs medical center for 28 years before she left that job to become a state representative.
As a federal employee, Conroy hadn’t been allowed to run for office, although she was a member of the Seymour Zoning Board of Appeals, a president of the Seymour Pumpkin Festival and a PTA president.
“I thought I could do a lot more,” she said.
Putting The Valley Back On The Map
Conroy said she felt like the Valley was getting passed over, dismissed or forgotten by people from other parts of the state. She said she aims to put it back on the map.
One way to do that, she said, is through “transit-oriented development.”
That means bolstering train service between New Haven and Fairfield counties, for example. Expanded train service could bring more people and jobs to the Valley, she said.
“We want to bring people back into the downtown areas,” Conroy said.
Valley residents shouldn’t have to go out to Waterbury or the Boston Post Road to go shopping, she said.
To pay for development, the state needs to be more aggressive about going after federal money, Conroy said. Connecticut only gets 60 cents back on every dollar it sends to Washington, she said. She said she plans to push the governor’s office to change that.
Jobs are the most important campaign issue, Conroy said.
“We passed a big jobs bill this year,” she said, referring to the so-called “Job Growth Roundtable” law, sponsored by house majority leader Denise Merrill. The legislation provided for loans and credit for small businesses, tax-credits and exemptions, financing for business development and bond money for job training.
The state now needs to do more to help businesses flourish, she said. “We need to so something with energy costs,” she said. The state should also create a system of “health care pooling” so that small businesses and non-profits can join together to buy health insurance in bulk for less.
Conroy also cited her work with veterans and victims of domestic violence. She said she helped organize the interment of veteran cremains that had gone unclaimed in funeral homes for decades.
As a member of the Domestic Violence Task Force, she worked on three bills: providing for domestic violence education in high schools, 24-hour coverage in shelters, and a pilot program for GPS monitoring of “high-risk offenders.”
“When we go back in [session] that’s what we’ll be working on,” Conroy said, referring confidently to her future in the legislature.
Conroy said she’s spoken with about 3,000 voters in her re-election bid. Only four have told her they aren’t voting for her, she said.
But Conroy stopped short of predicting success on Tuesday.
“I still worry,” she said, crossing her fingers. “I think the people have seen that I’ve worked hard for them,” she said.
Greene
Later on Friday afternoon, Greene stepped into Starbucks with his campaign manager, Kurt Miller. Dressed in khakis and a maroon Norwich University windbreaker, Greene asked Miller to order him a “tall drip,” which he had with milk and sugar.
As a candidate and as a person, Greene contrasts sharply with Conroy.
He’s 30 years old, married, with no kids. Where Conroy rambled happily in conversation from legislative accomplishments to personal details to hopes for the Valley, Greene spoke deliberately and in a focused manner about where government has gone wrong and how it needs to improve.
True to his Republican bona fides, Greene decried bloated government and over-spending, both of which need to be reined in, he said.
Greene has worked as the deputy clerk for the environmental committee in the state legislature for three sessions. He was a legislative analyst for the Republican caucus and he worked for Peter Schiff’s unsuccessful primary campaign this year for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
In between those jobs, he’s worked in public relations.
He’s now working full-time on his bid for the 105th district seat.
Greene has also served on Seymour’s Zoning Board of Appeals and is now on the Board of Finance.
He said his time on the Board of Finance has given him an appreciation for budgets and for standing up for taxpayers and against bloated spending plans. Seymour’s budget went through three referendums before it was passed, and Greene helped win a “very minimal” increase in property taxes instead of a big hike, he said.
“I learned a great deal from the experience,” Greene said. “I learned it was my job to look out for the taxpayers.”
‘People Aren’t Satisfied’
His role as a state representative will be just the same, only on a larger scale, Greene said.
Hartford is currently suffering from a loss of “identity” and “accountability,” Greene said. To regain those things, spending needs to be cut, he said.
That’s going to take “a lot of tough choices,” Greene said.
Greene said he’d like to look first at consolidating state agencies and privatizing certain state services.
For instance, other states have contracted out the work of their departments of information technology and saved “tens of millions of dollars,” Greene said. Connecticut could do the same: give the work to the private sector and get “more bang for our buck.”
Greene, like Conroy, said jobs are a big campaign issue. State government needs to “get out of the way of business,” he said.
“Hartford made employers into the bad guy,” Greene said.
He mentioned that the state passed a measure levying a 10 percent corporate surcharge on large businesses. The state has also instituted an onerous paid sick leave mandate, he said. Such “roadblocks” to business development have to be removed, he said.
“The more government does, the less it does well,” Greene said.
Greene said he’s finding a lot of anger out on the campaign trail among voters. “People aren’t satisfied with the ‘hope and change’ they’ve seen over the last two years.”
He said he’s often asked, “Are you the incumbent?” When he says no, voters reply, “You got my vote.”
“It’s good in a way. It’s a catalyst for real change,” Greene said.
Greene left Starbucks on Friday afternoon and headed off in his dark silver Nissan Frontier 4×4 for some door-knocking Haley Ridge Road in Beacon Falls.
The first house he visited was, unexpectedly, the home of a grammar school classmate Jessica DeGennaro. The expecting mom answered the door with her 14-month-old daughter, Sophia. DeGennaro and Greene chatted briefly, but didn’t talk politics.
As Greene and his campaign manager hit the rest of the houses on Haley Ridge Road, the candidate showed himself to be a laid-back doorknocker. At each home, whether the door was answered by a woman holding back a dog or a dad with kids in Halloween T‑shirts, Greene introduced himself and offered a palm card with his cell number written on it. He asked if they had any questions. Everyone said no. He thanked them and departed.
“I don’t like to push people directly,” Greene explained between houses.
As Greene finished up on the street, a vibrant rainbow erupted in the sky. That led to talk of luck — and a lucky family pin. Greene said his dad gave him his own dad’s lucky GOP elephant pin, which his grandfather wore on election days since 1960. Greene said he plans to wear it on Tuesday.
