Cassetti Wants To Fight For Ansonia And Derby In The State House

ANSONIA – Mayor David Cassetti keeps a picture of the late Joe Rossi of Naugatuck on his desk at Ansonia City Hall for a reason. 

In addition to being a World War II veteran, Naugatuck businessman, and civic-minded volunteer, Rossi was Cassetti’s mentor – at a time in life when Cassetti needed guidance.

His dad, Salvatore Cassetti, an Ansonia police officer, died from a heart attack in 1967 when the future mayor was just six years old. Rossi became a huge influence in Cassetti’s life.

It made sense, as the Connecticut Boxing Hall of Famer operated the Rossi Boxing Club in Naugatuck. As a young man Cassetti dreamed of being the next Rocky Marciano.

The two met and Rossi became Cassetti’s manager, guiding him to a 49 – 6 boxing record as an amateur, the mayor said.

“He taught me a lot of resilience, about speaking my mind and letting people know how you feel. And I’ve been doing it forever,” Cassetti said. ​“I can’t even imagine when I didn’t do it. But I believe that you gotta stand up for what you believe in, and I always did that.”

Standing up for what he believes in is why Cassetti, 64, Ansonia’s mayor since 2013, now wants to make the leap to state government. 

The mayor has said that the state – specifically Democrats in control of the General Assembly – doesn’t do enough to help small cities such as Ansonia, whether it’s funding education or supporting law enforcement.

That’s why earlier this year the Republican announced he was challenging Democratic incumbent state Rep. Kara Rochelle for her seat representing District 104 (Ansonia and Derby) in the state House of Representatives.

Rochelle has thwarted previous challenges from ​“Team Cassetti” Republicans, including Alderman Joseph Jaumann and Josh Shuart, the president of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen.

But Cassetti is very popular in Ansonia. 

He not only captured 73 percent of the vote in 2023 to earn a sixth, two-year term as Ansonia’s mayor – his ​“Team Cassetti” Republicans now control all the seats on the Board of Aldermen.

Cassetti’s political capital in the Valley is only matched by Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, who has ruled his city with Republicans since 1991.

In Ansonia, ​“Team Cassetti” has changed the budget process for both the city and the school district, sold the city’s water pollution control authority, sold the land on Olson Drive that used to be public housing, and slashed the mill rate. 

Shuart said Cassetti’s popularity can be traced to the fact he’s down to earth, solution driven, and approachable. 

The two were at the Festa Di Famiglia hosted by the Sons & Daughters of Italy in Derby on July 14. Shuart said people kept asking Cassetti questions on various matters. Cassetti takes the time to find answers. 

“As mayor he has an open door policy and people take advantage of it. They come in and they also call his office and he always quickly researches the situation and tries to come up with a fair solution,” Shuart said.

While Cassetti said his old boxing mentor taught him to speak his mind, he may have influenced the mayor with another trait – a love of conflict.

Cassetti has repeatedly shed the pomp and pretense of the mayor’s title on social media to jump into Facebook threads to exchange insults with people who challenge or bad mouth him. He’s called people names, told people to move out of Ansonia, and gone after political opponents.

Cassetti said he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and has always been that way.

Meanwhile, Cassetti’s mentor Rossi was so argumentative that he inadvertently got Cassetti disqualified from one of the biggest fights of Cassetti’s life. 

Cassetti was in Massachusetts fighting for the New England amateur middleweight title decades ago when, angry that Cassetti’s opponent was hitting him with low blows, Rossi got so worked up that he jumped into the ring while arguing with the referee.

“You’re not supposed to do that,” Cassetti said. ​“He started yelling at the referee: ​‘What are you doing? Can’t you see all the illegal shots he’s throwing to my guy?’”

“It disqualified me, but he spoke his mind,” Cassetti said. ​“I never questioned him, because I trusted him completely. I just trusted everything he did and said. He was a great man.”

Cassetti’s most recent contretemps came July 17, when he threatened an array of bureaucratic punishments for Alan Schwartz of Glen Equities, which owns downtown’s Ansonia Shopping Center, if Schwartz doesn’t get tenants for the center. 

One of the center’s junior tenants, Bob’s Stores, announced that it was closing on July 14, while the space formerly occupied by the anchor tenant, Big Y, has been vacant for at least five years.

The array included threats to fine, double-tax, or buy properties from owners when their storefronts are empty for too long. Cassetti’s tough-love approach gave Rochelle a chance to display a different approach and to rap Cassetti’s statements as unwise.

She said that the two-year-old JobsCT program, created by a bill that she cosponsored, offers grants and tax incentives to businesses in distressed municipalities. Much of Ansonia’s distressed businesses are already in an opportunity zone, which offers further incentives, Rochelle said.

She also wondered why Cassetti didn’t react as aggressively when several tenants in the River Plaza on Olson Drive and Big Y supermarket left years ago. She called Cassetti’s threats a campaign ploy.

Cassetti said his comments were triggered by Stop & Shop’s recent announcement that it would close its Division Street store by Dec. 31.

Blunt? Yes. Pugnacious? Sure. But disqualified? Cassetti doesn’t think so. For one thing, he doesn’t regret his occasionally intemperate speech.

“I speak my mind because I see things,” Cassetti said. ​“I am more of a moderate Republican. I work with everybody.”

Cassetti supporters say the mayor is refreshing because he’s not a slick politician spouting canned statements. They also point to Ansonia’s Main Street transformation and the lowered mill rate as proof Cassetti can get things done.

“I think having been a businessman himself and a roll-up-your-sleeves type, people connect with him,” Shuart said. ​“Also him being ​‘born and bred’ in the Valley is authentic. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. And he’s a homeowner, husband, father, grandfather – which ticks a lot of boxes.”

Shuart said people respect the fact the mayor is the real deal who wants to make Ansonia and Derby better places to live. The Alderman, who holds a doctoral degree in sports management, said the mayor has already advocated for regionalism among the two cities, including for a senior center and the school districts (both initiatives were ultimately not supported in Derby).

“Above all, he has seen Ansonia and Derby in many variations over the decades and wants them to be the best. Anyone who talks to him about the cities will quickly realize that he genuinely believes it and will do whatever he can to make it better for families.”

Cassetti said he learned to be tough early in life. 

He was born into poverty that worsened when his father died. His mother, Lillian, who was from Gilbert Street in Derby – much of his family is from Derby – raised him on South Street in Ansonia. 

He remembers getting into fights frequently growing up, being picked on by bullies, and having oatmeal one Thanksgiving Day because his family couldn’t afford better in the wake of his father’s death.

“We had nothing, but by the mid-to-late 1970s, my mother (now 98) owned a few houses. She was doing very well,” Cassetti said.

His fighting had him bouncing between elementary schools, he said.

“I was a little out of control. Every week I was in the principal’s office. I spent a lot of time there,” Cassetti said. ​“From eighth grade into high school, I calmed down a little.”

Cassetti graduated from Emmett O’Brien Technical High School in 1979, having learned carpentry. He started boxing as an amateur that year. 

About to turn pro, with his first professional fight lined up, Cassetti learned that his girlfriend, was pregnant. So he did the right thing. He married her, he said. They have two children.

He married his current wife, Alfonsina, in 1997. They have three children together (editor’s note: the original version of this story inaccurately reported on the mayor’s marriage history). 

In the early 1980s, Cassetti took another huge step. He started his own construction company, Birmingham Construction, which specialized in sewer construction. In between he received a business administration degree from Gateway Community College in 1995.

“It was a small company,” Cassetti said, ​“but it grew from there. I built it from scratch, you know. I didn’t inherit it from anybody. I started with the last $500 that I had to my name back in 1986.”

That work, he said, taught him how to serve people’s needs. Cassetti turned the business over to his son, Anthony, in 2013, his first year as Ansonia’s mayor.

Over the years opponents have pointed to Cassetti’s personal and business finances as reason not to vote for him.

Cassetti’s construction company had financial problems which came to light during Cassetti’s first re-election campaign. It was subject to a list of federal tax liens. Click here for a separate story on additional tax liens from 2015.

At the time Cassetti had filed a complaint with police saying a former accountant stole money from the company.

No arrests were made, according to Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch.

“The court did not think there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt so no warrant was signed,” Lynch said.

The Valley Indy reported in 2013 that Cassetti’s companies owed some $15,000 to the city. Cassetti paid the taxes after the story was published. Courts have also ordered the mayor’s wages to be garnished due to unpaid debt. Click here for a 2019 story from The CT Post.

Cassetti said his son turned the business around.

“We do multi-million-dollar sewer projects all over the state,” he said. ​“I’m not allowing him to work in this area, because I am the mayor. I am still the owner, because he works under my license, a sewer license, and I don’t want him working here. All our work is focused up in the northwestern corner of the state, the Torrington area.”

Supporters said Cassetti is simply a man of the people, specifically in Ansonia and Derby.

“Being in the construction business for 40 years, my whole goal was helping people and their problems that they had. So when I became mayor, it was academic for me. I knew how to handle people. I knew how to be tolerant of their needs,” Cassetti said.

– Valley Indy reporter Eugene Driscoll contributed to this report.