Mornings With Gary Byron Podcast 3-2-26

0:00When you hit our button in the morning, I am 1360 FM 103.3. We hit you back with Gary Byron and news and talk without an agenda. The state legislature last week approved the an e-sert basically to an emergency certification legislation and it's adopting a sweeping list of policies ranging from education reform and election security measures to warehouse mandates. Now there's also a bill SB 298 which featured 98 sections and it passed the Senate on a largely party line vote. There's one Republican that voted with the Democrats State Center Tony Wong. It's a controversial bill and it passed the House on a 9648 vote with four Democrats voting in opposition

1:05and three Republican supporting it. Hopefully no one's confused yet. And basically what it is is SB 298 bundled numerous policy changes and previously stalled measures into one single expedited vehicle. And there's just we're going to get into some of this with our first guest this morning. Good morning. It's Gary Byron 711 here on the old morning board. Our first guest into the Daily Connerton Memorial Company interview chair always joins us the first Monday of every month. He is the president and CEO of the CBIA. Let's welcome back to the show. Chris Deepentima. Chris, good morning. Chris, are you there? I am here as you march my friend. Good morning. Happy March. Great to have you. Yeah, we had no idea what happened there. How you been? How was your month? It's good. I'm very excited looking forward to

2:12to this month and hopefully put in a little bit of a colder February, snowy February behind us and looking and getting some energy strength for the next two months of session that we've got left in front of us. Yeah, short year. You're absolutely right. It's a short session. They're going to try to, you know, that's good and bad. I just I don't like circumventing the legislative process. It's there for a reason. It's government for the people by the people. There needs to be public hearings. There needs to be testimony that people get an opportunity to present. And, you know, I know what an excerpt bill is and they're historically they've been used rather judiciously, you know, especially and they're seldom. I mean, they're sometimes they were in the session. But when you're in session, you have an opportunity to have a hearing and this, I don't know how much of this was really qualifies as emergency, but I can tell you for sure, for damn short, it should have had a public hearing. That being said.

3:14Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, my opinion is just one person spends a lot of time at the capital, which his team is, you know, this I don't think anything in here was an emergency. No, certification. There was a little concern about some fraud and then rightfully so some fraud that's going on with the bottle redemption law that was passed, you know, people from Massachusetts in New York and coming to Connecticut where they only get charged five cents for the bottle redemption coming to Connecticut and returning it and getting ten cents. So the sores were out of pocket, if you will, Gary, you know, that difference and that maybe could have been taken up at an emergency certification to stop that fraud, which was costing about $15 million so far. But that was, I mean, if there was an emergency in there, that was the only of the 15 bills that that needed maybe to be at that right now. But it didn't, it could have waited for the intercession as well and there could have been some something done about it retroactively. But this was absolutely done because the majority party wanted to flex their muscles on some bills

4:21that had hearings the last couple of years and had not passed. And, you know, they even said specifically in the post-emergency certification press conference that they wanted to warn some of the minority party about the unlimited debate that had been happening and not just taking up a bunch of time on the floor, which the rules allow. And, you know, I mean, at the beginning of every session, the rules are set and if someone didn't like those rules, they could have proposed changing them this year, but that we have unlimited debate in Connecticut and gone back to, you know, a long, long time and respect for both the majority and the minority parties. So this was this was just a procedural flexing of the muscles, if you will, at the, you know, near beginning of session were four weeks in with eight weeks to go, as I said, when we basically bypassed the lobbying process, we bypassed the public hearing process, we bypassed the committee process in order to put 15 bills, almost half of which, by the way, never did receive a public hearing

5:25in the past through and get them out of the way. There was a warehouse bill that actually tried to get through the legislature last year in 2025. It was a version where, what warehouse operation mandates passed the house but was not called on the floor of the Senate. The new version of it impacts employers with 250 employees at a single warehouse location or a thousand employees across the state and it includes companies that were not included in last year's version of the bill. So, what, break it down, what's the 2026 warehouse workers protection bill, what is that in tail? Yeah, so this is a perfect example of one of the 15 bills that were in the emergency certification that the bill that ended up passing actually in itself never received a prior public hearing. There have been public hearings last year around a warehouse workers bill, the

6:28governor had a proposed bill of the house, I mean, the Senate had a proposed bill as well as Senate Democrats. The one that passed this year had some similarities in that, basically, what a lot of folks were trying to do is they feel that warehouses have been unsafe places to work and they were trying to make them more safer now. We've had the sum of legislative body visit the warehouses in Connecticut, whether that's an Amazon warehouse or a family-owned warehouse or a supermarket can be a warehouse where they store their goods and safety has not been an issue at all in Connecticut, especially with some of our workers' comp laws that we have and as you know, we're a very regulated state when it comes to safety measures, but this is a national trend that's been happening that Connecticut got swept into and essentially what they eventually passed is a bill that does not allow the warehouse owners or employers to measure the progress of their employees on anything but end-of-shift data. So prior to this, just like many other industries,

7:35manufacturing, construction, even professional services in IT nowadays have boards that measure how you're doing on a half-hour basis, a one-hour basis, a three-hour basis, just to see how the business is doing in more real time. Rather than waiting to the end of the day and everyone goes, hey, how did we do today? We didn't do that well. Uh-oh. So that's basically what passed here. Now the warehouse employers can only measure the employee's productivity at the end of the shift and cannot discipline the employees because of failing to meet up with certain standards, which is basically moving away from a performance-based system, which you know, I'm not too sure how the employees compete. And here's what's most important about this bill theory in warehouse, because most people may be like, well, we're housing. We're Connecticut. We're a high-cost state. We're not a warehouse state. This is the fastest growing industry in Connecticut post-pandemic. Yeah, our employment growth and logistics and warehousing has grown nearly 50%

8:40since coming out of the pandemic. It's with the first one to fully recover post-pandemic. And this, along with construction, have seen the most growth in Connecticut because our real state is actually less expensive than New York City or Boston. You still have access to the same rails, the same ports, the same highways and byways. And that's why you see some of these warehouse that have gone up around Bradley Airport and Tweed down in New Haven. This is a growing industry with a lot of employment around it, including Amazon now being connected to the market. That's the first thing I came to mind, yeah. And now we're starting to restrict the industry that's been growing and generating a lot of tax revenue for the state of Connecticut. Do you think the due supply and demand that that property costs will go up just like our neighbors and Boston and New York? It could. It could. And this has been the industry that the state has been had targeted to grow coming out of the pandemic. But now you pass a law like this,

9:42where can I get, I will say, either us or Minnesota probably now have the most restrictive warehouse worker bill in the country, just like that overnight because of the emergency certification process. Because then this bill is also a private right of action on behalf of the attorney general for the employees, which is always a scary thing that when an employee can sue an employer beyond just a worker's comp claim or something like that. And there's a lot of concern in this bill that it will make us much less competitive in an industry that's been really helping pull us out of where we went during the pandemic and helping grow our economy and generating some of those budget surpluses that we've had, some of that investment in the rainy day fund and those investments that we've been able to make in education and infrastructure. There's a real concern here. That combined with the fact that they expanded the codes to include more warehouse companies than they did last year. And that's where the supermarkets and some other folks got sucked in, whereas last year's bill was pretty much targeted just to Amazon.

10:46Again, without us being able to lobby without public hearing, without a committee debate and sending it to one of the House or Senate and bypassing it, it's a real concern. Fortunately, at the last minute, we were able to get those employer thresholds that you mentioned put into the bill so that it only applies to some of the larger companies. And that's the best we were able to do in that 24-hour emergency period. But it's really disheartening because what are we doing up there all day long every day during session? We're allowing to make the bills hopefully better into past good bills. And if that community's voices and heard, you're going to end up with bills like this that really hurt Connecticut. Well, it's problematic. Chris, I mean, it makes Connecticut less competitive, right? Absolutely. And it could have been a better bill. You could have had a bill that passed it. If you're looking to make, you know, potentially make the workplace safer for warehouses, there's pieces of this bill that I think the warehouse employers could even would

11:47even rally it around. And you could have made it a better bill, but to have the private right of action in there, the fact that it just shifts only end of shift metrics. Well, there's added compliance costs too. Let's not forget. Absolutely. That administrative cost, right? That whether it's not paying a fee, but now you've got to hire more human resource people and admin people just for the burden of the filing of the regulatory paperwork. When, you know, we're trying to move to allow businesses to do more with less people, because we can't find the people here. Honestly, that's because it's not because the business, you know, don't have the drop of things. We've got 74,000 drop of things that can I get, but we can't find the people to fill them and now you do something like this. Yeah, I was looking at it. Layers, a new regulatory structure on top of the existing workplaces, safety laws, like, you know, the OSHA guidelines effectively, it kind of presumes a lot of widespread abuse without documented systemic failures in the state's warehouse directors sector. I'm just, it's a terrible, terrible piece of legislation.

12:52It's just unfortunate, you know, we're so over-regulated and we're not exactly business-friendly, and this doesn't move the needle in the right direction. This sets us back. Absolutely. And again, the process and the way it was done also sent a negative message to those who were, again, trying to make this bill better or battling this bill. And I think most everyone knew of a bill in some form or past this session, but then their voices get shut out because of this accelerated process that happens four weeks into session where at least the my time most emergency certifications happen towards the end of session is a basic, a basic agreement. Debate, happen, committees have push bills out. There's been a lot of testimony, a lot of conversation around the bill. Then there's an emergency package because you're running towards the end of time and you bundle a bunch of bills together and go through a emergency process. Yeah, no, I remember that. Yeah, just it's a total lack of transparency. It's real sad. And from

13:53a governance standpoint, the inclusion of all these provisions in this e-cert bypassing traditional committee hearing process, it raises serious concerns about the lack of legislative transparency. And this is something that we talk about on a nearly daily basis. Let me just take a quick 60 second break here, Chris. More with Chris Deepen team right after this. My sister was recently struck with a disorder that left her paralyzed. I stopped by a Euro-American home care and the person I spoke with understood my issue with compassion. Within days, I received caregiver profiles to review for a match. The challenges were huge, yet my Euro-American caregiver met every need and exceeded expectations with kindness and compassion. With Euro-American home care for you in Berlin, it's all about compassion and patience called 860-829-0208. I'll line at home care at the number four, the letter U dot com. Introducing Laundry Pro 3.0 by Aris. Laundry Pro 3.0 with active pure technology and new enhanced features eliminates the need for hot water, detergent and fabric softener. Perfect for sensitive skin,

14:57infants and seniors, saving the average family over $800 per year. Now you can get one free, that's right, free. This month only with the purchase of select Aris, vacuums, or air purifiers, visit activepurehardford.com for more information on the new and improved Laundry Pro 3.0. Call toll free 866-230-9763 or stop by 37 South Main Street West Hartford. Number one for breaking news for Vernon, Chandler, and Rocky Hill, the talk of Connecticut, AM-1360-FM-103.3. 25 minutes after seven o'clock, our guest is the president and CEO of the CBI, a Christian team, a Christian our last five minutes or so. What else? I almost hesitant to ask you. What else are you expecting to go through the... Well, at least we want legislation, I had the legislative process. What else are you expecting this session? Yeah, listen, I'm on a pod to know, and I didn't mean to be negative, it's just frustrating for those who advocate, you know, at the Capitol, you know,

15:59and then to have kind of voices shut out. And five of those 15 bills, by the way, I didn't mention work, expected to have a hearing in the next week or two. So it wasn't, you know, the process was moving along as it should. But on a positive note, I will say, you and I talked early in the session that CBI had 10 policy priorities that we thought would help move the state forward economically. They're focused around small businesses, making them more competitive. Right. Right. They're really kind of getting crunched on the cost of doing business, increasing in connect and their employees are definitely getting crunched on the cost of living, increasing in connect. And all 10 of those priorities are still alive and well. Two of them were supported by the governor, the expansion of the research and development, tax credit, the pass rate needs, which is our smaller businesses in connect. As well as eliminating more or reducing the cost of occupational license fees. So those in the trades and other industries that have to pay these fees to connect every year, which is essentially a tax. Further eliminating them, we got some movement online the last couple of years and

17:04it was good to see that. I'll say very happily, one of the Senate, a Democrat majority, priority bill, Senate bill two, takes our proposal of eliminating the sales and use tax on energy bills, which most basically every business in connect it pays sales and use tax on energy bills except for manufacturing. They were already exempt, which is 6.35% in addition to the highest, having some of the highest cost of energy in the country. And that bill proposes the elimination of that sales and use tax. They did cap it right now at businesses with $10 million of revenue or less. And our proposal was unlimited to all businesses, but primarily focusing on small businesses. What was that bill we'll have a hearing and we will have to pay down, because it will be another emergency certification. And hopefully we could get that cap expanded so it applies even more small businesses. What was your reaction to learn about Stanley Works leaving

18:04Connecticut? It's frustrating. If you know frustrating Stanley, they're keeping their headquarters here, but they closing their last manufacturing facility in New Brayton, which has about 300 workers working three shifts, a lot of opportunity, whether you're entry-level employer or senior employee there, and they're moving it to Southeast Connecticut. I mean, Southeast, I think they're heading down the Tennessee. Tennessee, yeah, they're going to Tennessee. And actually, somebody told me in confidence, I can't mention their name, but they told me anonymity that even their corporate office, that's just yet to be announced. They're going to be moving as well. Yeah, that's too bad. One of the hallmark manufacturers in Connecticut, hallmark companies in Connecticut, been around a long time, and to feel that they can't compete in this state. And it goes back to taxes, it goes regulation, which you just talked about relative to the warehouse

19:04workers building, so many other things in Connecticut, and affordability for their employees. Because you have a high cost of living state, you've got to pay the employees so much more in order for them to just take home anything. And there's only so much you can do on innovation to compete to offset that high cost. And so Stanley realized that they just can't compete anymore. This is a company that faces global competition. And we've seen other businesses like this unfortunately, in Connecticut, Lego a couple of years ago, there's been some small mid-size companies that have either left the state, or they're still here, but they've expanded elsewhere. And that's the real missed opportunity for Connecticut. And that's why we got to get our arms around the cost of doing business in the state and really implement some of these policy priorities for their state to make the businesses more competitive, make it more affordable for our employees with healthcare and health insurance, and help grow the state rather than hinder it. I couldn't have said it better myself. All right, thanks for your time this morning. We'll talk the

20:05first Monday of April. Thanks again, Chris. We're coming right back. Open phones are next. I see one line open call now. Number one for breaking news for Rockville, New England, the top of Connecticut, WDRC, AM 1360, and FM 103.3. There's just so much going on to say the least, right? And I ran in Israel right here in Connecticut. And having our next guest on is actually a pretty good timing. He's a, uh, represents Vernon, Talon, Coventry, Stafford. He's a big fire in Stafford this morning, huh? Uh, Northeastern Connecticut. He's a doctor too. Mm-hmm. Do you go see the doctor yet? I got to make, I got to make an appointment for physical. This is a great opportunity. This is a reminder for me. You're just looking at me like I had like three heads. You're really going to the doctor today. I'm going to the eye doctor today. Yeah.

21:07Yeah. Yeah. That's why I got the glasses on. Mm-hmm. Just like I did the first time I had to go. Don't you wish doctors made house calls? They, remember those say, oh, no, I mean, they used to. This is before our time. Yeah. Yeah. But then he'd spend more time on the, you know, on the high ways and by ways. True. And they, rather than seeing a hundred people a day, it would be like 20. I do remember my doctor smoking cigarettes when I was little in his office. Like in the 60s, early 60s TV, there'd be a commercial, you know, four out of five doctors recommend Parliament cigarettes. If you're going to smoke, those are the ones. Yeah. Gotta go out and get me a pack of Parliament. All right. It's Gary Byron, 8-11 here on the old morning show. Let's welcome back to the show. State Senator, Dr. Jeff Gordon, Senator, good morning. Good morning. How are you? Let me say, I'm peachy this morning. How are you?

22:09I'm doing okay, geared up for another weekend of fun, quote, unquote, in the legislature. Yes. Yeah. I know. I can, I, I, that, that, that we're just talking last hour about that e-cert bill that kind of came through with you guys. Last, middle of last week. All right. Let's first talk about some world events. Okay. You are Jewish and you are also the ranking Senator on the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. So that being said, what are your thoughts on the decision? And I think it was some really decisive action to hit Iran hard over the weekend. Well, as an American, my thoughts and prayers are with our men and women in the military, they're in harm's way. We always need to keep that up or most despite all the partisan politics that are floating around. We can't let Iran get their hands on nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

23:12They're a terrorist state. We know they're going to use it for bad and not for political purposes. Well, he said it. And a decision was made by the President to do take decisive action. Certainly going to have to see how that works its way out. But I'm not here to second-guess the President. We'll hear more as things unfold as to the reasoning and the outcomes of it all. But, you know, since we are engaged in what's going on, Congress will do whatever it does getting the information from the President and his administration. We just need to focus on making certain that this action achieves what it's supposed to be achieving and, again, keeping our troops in our thoughts and prayers. And all the peace-loving people of Iran and all the countries around, including Israel, is a very strong ally of the United States for decades. And we need to continue to focus on protecting and helping our allies, our friends. You know, and I respect everyone's opinion and we all should voice them. And that's why,

24:16you know, it's one of the reasons why this show exists. There's many reasons, but that's certainly one of them. The thing is, is that the President has more information, is privy to more information than you and I are than pundits are on cable new 24-hour cable news channels. You know, there are some things he can disseminate and other things that for the safety and security of our nation's well-being and those who are servicemen and women in the military that he can't tell. And I know we all love to argue for transparency. And in the big picture, yes, myself included, transparency and government is paramount. Unless it poses a security risk to any of our service members, there are reasons why that you don't disseminate something that's that detrimental if it's going to impact negatively our service men and women in the military.

25:19And that's well said. And, you know, I know people in the public have strong opinions, but right now none of us have any of the information to the agree that the President and his administration has. And we have to respect that. A lot of that stuff can't be set out loud because of trying to maintain the military operation. And as we know, loose lips sink ships. So you can't be saying certain things while men and women are fighting right now. So I do respect that process. And we're all praying. Like you said, we're praying for Israel. We're praying for our troops. We're praying for the people of Iran who want freedom. I don't I hope I'm not the only one that saw the scenes of Iranian Americans jubilantly dancing in the streets in Boston, in New York City and LA. And I also saw Iranian citizens in Iran. Happy, you know, dancing jubilantly that the I when once when they learned that the Ayatollah

26:22was was killed. Of course, there's already somebody that's in the interim right now. And maybe they've got to watch their actions for a little while longer. But, you know, for as much for as many people as there are that, you know, that that follow and love the Ayatollah, there's even more in Iran who do not support that regime. And the news reports show, in fact, they were protests in the street previously and thousands and thousands and thousands of Iranians were killed by their own government by the Ayatollah. So we have hundreds of thousands. That looks like the people of Iran are continuing to fight and want to have freedom like we do. So yes, the news doesn't seem to show it as much. But the new services are indeed showing what goes on in some of the the cities in Iran, including all around Iran. Yeah. You represent Talland and you serve on

27:27the Public Safety Committee. Just take a couple of minutes just to remind people of the juvenile detention center. I think the last time that you were on with with us, you were talking about that issue in Talland. And then I it's funny because no sooner were you on with with me that morning. I think it was a day maybe two at the most later in which I was reading that the governor was now considering not opening one up in Talland, particularly without any hearing. Most most people in your and in Talland even not warning them where this was even coming to their town. Oh, this was the judicial branch, including the chief administrator of the of the court system and several state agencies purposely doing this behind everyone's back going into a executive session to make decisions and then not letting anybody know until they thought this deal was signed. This is for a criminal youth detention center that could also house youth who have committed serious crimes being put

28:31into a very sensitive part of Talland near daycares, elementary school, special education transition program. So we did meet with the governor, did meet with the judicial branch. We were very strong in our opinions fighting for the people of Talland and people in Talland, other governors constituents also. So right now this deal is on hold. It's not 100% removed. We're fighting to make certain it can be, you know, just completely stopped, but it is stopped for you on state government to look at other properties that the state actually owns and spends a fortune upkeeping but does zero with and see what might be better facilities and safer locations. So we'll have a big public forum coming up in a couple of weeks in Talland and we'll hear even more from the people of Talland and let them know more information. Nice. All right. So as a medical doctor, of course, you serve on that committee, the public health committee. What's what's the deal with

29:35this bill related to vaccines and the religious exemption that's coming? You guys are going to have a public hearing on this. I believe later on, I don't think it's not this week. Is it, well, this month it'll take place. I'm going to try to get a date for that. It could actually attract. I would imagine hundreds if not thousands of people. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. What's the latest on this? Well, this is an effort by a lot of Democrats and I think that Department of Public Health Commissioner is strongly supportive of it to continue to eliminate people's and parents constitutionally protected rights to make medical decisions. I support their rights and I support medical freedom. But this is state government more and more wanting to mandate and it's going to and what it's going to do is say, well, the state doesn't like whatever the federal CDC has come up with. We're going to create our own standard of care and that is concerning when the state decides

30:35to legislate that. But even worse, we'll just empower the DPH commissioner to make these decisions and in a sense, bypass the legislature, bypass the regulation review committee and just create these rules and regulations and with really no oversight, no accountability and that type of process is absolutely wrong. Let people with their own decisions decide things and then once they're giving information, their grown adults, they can decide what they wish to do for themselves or their children. So this is again, state government interjecting into people's lives, interjecting into healthcare and even worse, thinking that it knows better than people of Connecticut. I don't oppose vaccines. I give information to people as a doctor but I don't force them to do things and this is state government forcing them to do it. Many states have a religious

31:35and philosophical exemption. Connecticut is an outlier having removed it. And again, I read the Constitution and these things are constitutionally protected in my mind. Evidently, the Democrats and state government completely feel differently. I don't know what version of the Constitution they read. Yeah, it's a good point. Our hospitals too, private equity is coming to Connecticut to do major damage to several hospitals. And you're addressing that. What's the latest on that? I've been a major legislative leader on this. I want to completely ban private equity having anything to do with hospitals. They completely destroyed a number of hospitals. They made it even worse in Massachusetts, a horrific situation. So I've been fighting to try to ban it. We are moving through with legislation. There's a public health committee today for us to vote on a bill to try to get out of committee that I've been working on to say, hey, we can't let them be involved with hospitals anymore. So moving forward, they're banned.

32:41And some of these crazy real estate lend lease type deals that they make, that private equity rakes in the money, but just saddles hospitals with expensive lease payments. We should be banning those as well with hospitals. So I would like to be very, very strict and outright ban it. We can't go retroactively back. But right now, I think we're making the bill stronger and better. And I'm going to continue to voice it because ultimately, it needs to be people over profits. And I continue to say that loud and clear state government dropped the ball regulating this. And dealing with the crisis now, uh, it seems we're going to get something done. It's, you know, it's good. It's being done now. It's a shame it couldn't have been done before when this crisis was unfolding. All right. Great. All right. Let me take a 60 second break here. And I'm going to switch gears with you because I know that you're the ranking senator on planning and development committee. And I just got a I got a quick question on that. More with state Senator Dr. Jeff Gordon

33:43right after this. The women's health beauty and bridal show Saturday March 7th and Sunday March 8th at Mohican Sun. The largest women's expo in southern New England. Get your tickets online at fullpoweradvents.com or at the show Saturday March 7th and Sunday March 8th at Mohican Sun. Powered by designs by Desiree. Dinner for two. DJ butters entertainment. DJ Gato. DNA hair tools. Dream on event design and small town moments and dry eye treatment center of Connecticut. Here's yet another success story from one of our Euro American home care families. Without the professional care provided by your agency, keeping mom at home would have been impossible. Your caregivers attended to my mother's physical needs with skill and patience. They also provided genuine friendship. With Euro American home care for you in Berlin, it's all about compassion and patience. Call 860 829 0208 online at home care. The number four, the letter U dot com. He's conservative and he's a little in the middle.

34:48The talk of Connecticut morning show. 103.3 Hartford and 104.5. Let's feel 24 minutes after eight o'clock. Our guest is state Senator Dr. Jeff Gordon. All right. Yo, Jeff, you are the ranking center on the P on P and D planning and development. Are Dems still trying to push statewide zoning? I mean, I know I've asked you this in the past, but why even have local TPs at this point? If that's what the state government is looking to do. Sure, the state government and the Democrats are continuing to push more and more state takeover of planning and zoning land use. In fact, it's more and more taking away people's rights to decide what's best for the communities in which they live. So there was the mass of housing bill last year. The ink isn't even dry on it. The regulations haven't been fully created. The errors in the bill haven't been fixed. And now there's a push to do even more. It's insane and it doesn't do anything to make

35:52housing more affordable. I keep proposing with my Senate Republican colleagues common sense things. The towns are doing now to address housing affordability and Democrats continue to shoot it down left and right. They even voted no on amendments I ran last year to help disable veterans get housing, to help seniors get housing. Can you imagine voting no on that type of stuff? That's just terrible. So again, this is what happens when you have a super majority of one party rule and they just keep pushing this and don't seem to care that people know their towns and elect their local officials. But evidently, they you know, they feel that bureaucrats in Hartford know better. And these are bureaucrats that have probably never even gone out to your town. Yet they think they know what to do. I want to go back just a way I only have about maybe four minutes remaining. Back to that special session with the emergency

36:53excerpt last week. Did anything the Democrats passed in that so-called emergency session do anything to make Connecticut more affordable? That's really the emergency here. Absolutely. They did zero in an emergency certification bill, 121 pages long, that had zero to do with anything emergency. And the real emergency right is the affordability crisis. And to make things even worse, they pushed this through complaining that Senate Republicans talk a lot. Well, we do because we have to ask lots of questions about the crazy thing the Democrats are doing. And we propose a lot of good amendments that address affordability. In fact, amendments that were brought up by us in the emergency session to try to deal with making things more affordable. The Democrats just voted no. And can you imagine that? They say that they're working on an affordability bill. They've basically taken the ideas we've been promoting for a long time that

37:57they've been ignoring. And they turn around and they vote against cutting the income tax more, eliminating or trying to lower the car tax, trying to deal with social security taxes, tax on tips, things that will make a real world difference for hardworking people and seniors. And the Democrats voted no. And just I don't know how they explain that to their constituents, but they're on the record of voting against making Connecticut more affordable. That is absolutely high. How do they say we're we want to make Connecticut more affordable? And then you're like, okay, well, we're here's three issues. We're presenting him to you right now. And then you vote against it. I don't get how do you say that you're trying to make it more affordable? I hate it hearing what you just said because it really bothers me. You got senators like you, Rob Samson, John Kissle. You guys all have talent. You have the ability to talk for hours and hours until the cows come home. How petty and childish and downright arrogant of the Democrats. And they always,

39:01you know, I know that they are in the super majority, Jeff, but I got to tell you that's the only weapon and being in the minority that we have is the filibuster, the ability to speak. I got 40 seconds. It's all yours if you want to address that quickly. Senate Republicans represent around 1.1 million people in this state. And we're proud to do it. To say that we can't be talking, that we can't be promoting amendments. We can't be asking questions, especially on bills that come out of the very last minute that the public doesn't even see in the middle of the night. That is unbelievable arrogance. And to hear the speaker of the house chast ties us for doing that and saying we're abusing the filibuster is absolutely wrong. And that just tells us that they don't seem to care about the public. They just care about their own special interests staying in power where my Senate Republican colleagues and I will keep fighting for the people of Connecticut in that means we have to talk a lot and propose a lot

40:04of amendments. All right, so be it. There you go. Great answer. Thanks for your time this morning. Senator, appreciate it. Open phones are next. All of our lines are open. I would say call right now. Gary Byron and his trusty sidekick Joe the producer, the talk of Connecticut WDRC 103.3 FM Hartford and 104.5 FM Lichfield. It's a big election year when you think about it. And I know the first thing that comes to mind is yeah, we're going to be we're voting on a new governor, right? Lieutenant governor. We've had three Republican candidates. We have Betsy McCoy on Jews with us last week. We've had Aaron Stewart on a couple of times. We've had Ryan Fazio a couple of times all live in studio. You know, Macquarie running for Lieutenant governor. We've had about a number of times going back into the fall. You know, and then you then you look at the congressional first congressional district, Amy Chai wants to take on John Larson. I would imagine

41:07it would be John Larson. Second congressional district. We just had him George Austin. We had George Austin in here. Now that Mike France pulled out, wants to go against Joe Courtney. Uh, third congressional district. Uh, we just we just had it in man here too, is right? Yeah. Uh, Chris Lansia. Chris Lansia. We got a he actually he's probably do back in. He wants to go against the Laurel. Rosa De Laurel. Well, no, actually he was just here. What about three weeks ago? Yeah, he was just here. Love the shirt he brought. Oh my god, that shirt was dynamite. I wear that shirt all the time. I know you do. I'm well, I don't mean all the time. I've seen you wear it a couple of times. I'm going to wear tomorrow. I'm doing it. I've gone like three cycles since I've worn it left. You know what it is? It's a real thick long sleeve shirt. Yeah. And the design is just absolutely. I love it. I might wear mine tomorrow. I'm going to wear it. Let's match you and me. Let's do a match. We'll be like the Bobzie twins. People will love that. I got it. Now stuff

42:07to grow. Start growing the beard. Sit my hair back. Uh, fifth congressional district. We just want to take on Johanna Hayes. We've had a few Jonathan DeBarros came on. Yep. Right. Um, oh, oh, I know we just had her in Michelle Batello. Yes. And then we're going to have in Chris Shay. We haven't had him on yet. Waiting on Chris Shay. Yeah. His campaign. I'm sure they're listening. Get back to me. Let's nail the date down. Well, I skipped the fourth congressional district purposely. That's Jim Himes. And there's a couple of people running for that Republicans that want that, right? Yep. And that brings me to our next guest into the Daily Connerton Memorial Company in the future. Good morning. It's Gary Byron 9-11 here on the old morning train. So happy to have you on board our next guest into the Daily Connerton Memorial Company in the future. Uh, is a Republican candidate for the fourth congressional district. By the way, we are on Facebook live right now. They'll be taking your phone calls at the bottom half of the hour.

43:08Let's welcome back to the show. Daniel Marassi. Daniel, good to see you. Good morning to you. Hello. Hello. Good morning, guys. Love the hat by the way. USA hockey. We're representing. We're gold medal winners. It's our national sport on two fronts. The men and women. Who would have thought we'd be Canada, huh? Uh, I would have. I, I will, we will, I watch it Sunday morning. And I can tell you this from someone who's a hockey coach. And part of that's my spirit in getting in this election. It's pure gamesmanship. That's what I, how I viewed the Democrats. It's a pretty binary code for me. It's us versus them. And just like how it is on the ice, how it was us versus Canada. And I was watching that game as we were playing for the 51st state. And I got a little emotional to be honest. You know, 1996 was a seminal moment in my life watching the World Cup. If you remember, you're an old guy, right? No. Oh, no. I'm kidding. No, you look. Okay. I look. Yeah. You're scoring

44:10brownie points with me real quickly. I see. Yes. How old do you think of a person I am here? Uh, 41, 31 is right. Yeah. Yeah. What are the lottery numbers now? But, you know, I, it was, it was really interesting because the next day we were announcing the campaign. It was the next day's present. They were not saying campaign. And I, I do believe in kind of, you know, energy and, you know, part of being a hockey player is you can control. You can control. And you, you pray to the hockey gods as you will. Everyone tapes their stick a certain way. Everyone has their routine, right? And I think Republicans have gotten away from their routine. I think candidates have gotten away from people. They've gotten away from what built New England, what built this country. So I'm sitting there. I'm watching these guys play a bunch of 20 year olds. I played pro hockey. So like watching the NHL and stuff. It's not as, you know, so let's, let's talk a little bit about you. All right. Um, obviously you've run for office before you run for this office

45:14before. Yeah. Briefly. Yes. Two years ago. Two years ago. Yeah. All right. So tell me how you entered that race. And, and well, I ran against Bob Duff. Um, I got a state senate nomination. I originally just want to volunteer to work for Bob Stuffinowski because I wanted to outreach for young people under 40. So you ran for state senate two years ago, two, four years ago. 2022. Okay. Okay. So you want to go in chronological. I asked you about two years ago. Yes. Two years ago. About running for this office. Yes. I was in the convention after the state senate nomination. The state senate was four years. Yes. Four years. You really want to talk. Let's, I'll tell you what, since you want to talk about that so badly, let's go back four years ago. Well, I want to get all over the place here. Pretty soon he's going to be interviewing me. I'm going to be wanting to be running for the fourth congressional district. It's going to be mornings with Daniel Morecci. Oh, we could try. Um, okay. So we'll play by your rules here. Let's go back four years ago. And it, right? Correct. Okay. And that's when you ran against. Well, I ran against Bob Duff. That's how I got on the scene. Okay. And we got the nomination.

46:19We did really well. We won Darianne. We made a little bit of a momentum and name for our selves. And at the time, I kind of wanted to find my political lane. Didn't really know what that looked like where that was. So I decided that we should try to run for the congressional seat. There was great candidates there. Bob McGuffee. I believe won the convention. I threw in my delegates. And at the time, it was, um, you know, it wasn't the right time. My mom had just passed away. I just, it's terrible. I'm sorry. Yeah. I just come off a state senate race and I was trying to find my voice. And to tie, that's how I talked to you two years ago when we met. We were talking about what my ideas were for congressional scene, how things would work. And things didn't work out. I took a step back to try to reevaluate, try to figure out my life, what I wanted to do with politics, what I wanted to do for CT4. And it all kind of ties back into why I'm running now. What I was saying about the Olympics is I was watching it getting emotional because I coach

47:24little kids. I see hockey moms and parents every day just grinding away, paying a lot of money, trying to build an experience for their family, for their kids. And they're getting squeezed out, left right from DC, the Hartford, every policy is against that family. And that really is my inspiration for running. And it's why I'm not only back in the race. I'm back in it with a fury and with a mission oriented salience about what I want to do and what I want to bring to the district. All right. So we'll talk about that in a moment. So let's go to two years ago. You decide to run for US Congress. Yes, sir. Okay. Same district. CT4. CT4. Well, yes, CT4, exactly. What did you learn from that? What did you learn from that that you could maybe, since you have a Mulligan here, you can do, you can have a do-over. What would you, what have you learned that you could apply to this campaign? It's a good question. I learned to be a little tighter on messaging. I learned to be a little more empathetic when it comes

48:28to how the game is played. That doesn't mean that I want to sell out any sort of, I don't even know what that, what do you mean? You're going to be empathetic towards how the game is played. I think that I was a little bit arrogant, you know, trying to come onto the scene, thinking that things, you know, I deserve it by proxy of being young, by proxy of thinking I have a better message rather than going through what I needed to process the relationships I needed to form, to build an actual momentum and to make people understand where I'm coming from. Why, maybe I am a little more brass. Why, I am a little more terse in my politics. Why, I am a pissed off Republican. I'm a young Republican from Connecticut who has lived my entire life under a Democrat supermajority. Have you ever held, excuse me? Have you ever held elective office? Even in your own municipality, you're a Norwalk guy, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Have were you ever on their town council abroad of Alderman or board of education? I was not. Nope,

49:28nothing. Just heading right into the fire. Absolutely. Okay. You got to run before you can walk. All right. So why? Well, I think I'm good at it. Number one, and we haven't won anything yet. Well, we haven't really put our full effort forward yet. Our full effort with, and when I say that, when it comes to the congressional race, when it comes to building the brand that we want to build. See, I think the problem is in Connecticut, we have been so used to losing that our automatic default is a losing mentality. There is a lot of people in our state in our district that are unheard. For example, CT4 is purple. It's not a radical left blue district. Sure. You have your crazy 10, 15% those people on either side. But most people are hardworking people, very smart, sharp people who want their economy to be free from Connecticut, free from DC, free from all that

50:30stuff. And there isn't a message for people who are under 40 who want to buy a house and grow up in the place where they lived, where their family was. There was a time, not all that long ago, that CT4, fourth congressional district, the gold coast, if you will, was fire engine red. It used to be all Republicans down there. What made it change to a shade of blue? I think that Republicans lost the culture, wars when I was growing up. And I also think that Republicans lost their messaging. They lost what they stood for. I call them country club Republicans. I'm a conservative through and through I believe in a free market, all that stuff, Milton Friedman, of course. However, the way the economy is now, it's not working. And that doesn't mean that I want the government. I want Republicans to get more creative and stop falling back on 401Ks

51:34and their homes because there's an entire generation of people that don't have any stake in the game. If you look at someone like me who's 36 years old, I was marked out of Trumble High into a guidance counselor's office told the sign on the dotted line, take out a college loan, do this, go out, take out that. This was everyone was done. We were told that was the only path forward. Then we were told we were going to get a job that is going to pay the right amount of leverage that we can have the life that we grew up with. All of that is gone. Our jobs are outsourced. Our taxes are absolutely out of control. And I think Republicans have relied more on their stock portfolio than the actual people and the tangible jobs and the tangible core things that make Republicanism great, which is the family, the community, and the economy that works. We were talking about your guidance counselors and the back when you were in high school. What career path did you take? I was a history major. I want to become a teacher.

52:36And I obviously played hockey. I played college hockey. Sure. I could imagine you did. But so what did you do professionally? You were going to become a history teacher. What did you end up becoming? I ended up playing hockey and then I ended up after that. I graduated. I didn't end up becoming a teacher. I ended up going into the hospitality sector. I ended up putting up wedding times, actually. I had managed a crew. I worked for Down in Danbury. And it was actually a really good job. I got to work with a lot of immigrants and got to be outside and learn how to just build things. And it taught me a whole different set of skills and appreciation for, you know, just blue collar work. And then after that, I actually, before I got into politics, I worked at the post office, Fairfield post office. I was a clerk. And I was going to take the route of my father just kind of go to service. You could retire with a pretty good job. I was going to go through and, you know, I was on the postmaster track. And I decided that I wanted to fight for my district, fight for my future because in my opinion, New England, we're rugged Republicans. We have an archipenurial spirit. So what are you doing right now? I coach hockey full

53:40time. You're a paid coach. Yes, I am. All right. I didn't know that. I didn't know. That's great. Because you're combining something that you love to do. You have a passion for hockey. That too. But like within a school, like within a school system or is there another youth hockey organization and a school system? So you do both. I have three teams. I have about 60 kids from, we have enough time from it from 10 to 18. So again, back to one of your original questions, why I wanted to run is, you know, I'm around the rink. I'm around these kids. And if I'm not going to run, who's going to fight for their future? You know, you're around, not soccer moms, hockey moms. I got to take a 60 second break here when we come back. I want to talk about how we turned CT for red. And you brought a guest with you this morning. You can talk a little bit about her as well. All right. More with Republican candidate for the fourth congressional district, Daniel Moreci, right after this craving homemade goodness come to Effie's place where

54:41every meal feels like mom's cooking from juicy sticks to savory seafood, crisp salad, stacks sandwiches, and hearty pastas. Plus, Effie's one of a kind Greek specialties. You won't find anywhere else. Effie's place has breakfast, lunch, or dinner. No dishes, no stress, just mouth watering meals made with love. Effie's place has been serving the West Hartford area since the 1960s. Come hungry, leave happy. That's the Effie's place way. 91 Park Road, West Hartford. Effie's place where food feels like home. Scrap prices are through the room. Steal, hired, and copper. And Dan Dan, a metal man, an Eastern economic recyclers has cash for you. Smaller, large manufacturers. Job sites. And Dan, a metal man. We'll send you a free can or roll off. Just fill it up for cash. He's an economic recycling in Waterbury. The highest price is paying in the CD. 73 Denver Place Waterbury. 203, 756, 3603. Here in Joe, in the morning, on the talk of Connecticut, WDRC,

55:44celebrating 100 years AM 1360 and FM 103.3 Hartford. All right, 25 minutes after nine o'clock. Our guest is Republican candidate for the fourth congressional district, Daniel Moreci. By the way, I'll be taking your phone calls very shortly, 860-243-1316, case you want to call now and get into the queue. We're just talking behind the off camera and off the air during the break about your background in coaching. And yeah, so I left out when I was on the post office to your favorite subject, talking about Bob Duff. Beta Bob is, I think that's your favorite subject. But when I was at the post office, believe it or not, which made me actually fired up to continue politics, I got the hat jack called on me, someone from the Democrats and Nancy on Norwalk called up to basically get me fired from my job, which is a good job. I was a clerk at the Fairfield post office. That's a pretty good job. You get in with the post office, man,

56:47you're sick for the rest of your life. So to my guest here, the my better half, I had to go home to the first lady and say, I either have to quit or continue to do this politics thing. And that's when we had our first conversation when she's like, you know what? I think we could do this. I think that you have a message that can resonate and you flash forward four years later. I figured out and I fall in in love with coaching hockey figured out how to make a buck doing that. And we're still on the road. And she's still, she's with me right now, still supporting the whole thing to her chagrin. She fully supports you, but she's full enough. She supports me enough, I guess, but who is she? She is, do you want to say? She doesn't want to say, but her name is Leah. She is my fiance. Yeah, so we have to win, so we can get married and buy a house. That's what that's the message I'll give to your listeners

57:48right now. No, but you know, that's part of the campaign trail is, you know, you you ask about how to turn CT red is I don't think about turning it red or turning it blue. Like I think that that's no fence like simple terms. Like how about just turning it real again? Like we are on the campaign trail. We are on the the campaign trail of life. We're trying to get engaged, push our pennies together, stay in CT for one of the greatest places to live in the entire world. As you said, the gold coast and the radical left these communists down there are hindering us at every turn. And that is my politics. I am anti that and whatever gets us to our end goal to get me to provide for my fiance for us to live a happy life and have children, that is what I plan on doing. So are you doing this for yourself or are you doing this for the people of CT for? Why can't it be both? I mean, obviously, I want it, you know, things to work out for myself. It sounds a little bit like you're trying to make you want to, you're looking for a career. No, I'm not looking for a career. I am looking for a to build a coalition of people to finally

58:55change the trajectory of the Republican party. How are you doing that? How are you building this coalition of people? Well, on the campaign, well, first, we're running for Congress, obviously. Second, I want to take this to the streets, guerrilla marketing, our social media is pretty big, Attenmer, SEC and I want to build a group of people who are just like us. There are a lot of regular Republicans out there that don't call themselves a Republican because they've never met one. They've never had someone talk to them like a normal person. You know, we all get it. We all like tax cuts. We are all patriots. But how are we going to bring that message to the unaffiliated voter who doesn't really understand what's going on, maybe in Hartford, but what they do understand is that they understand that every single left-wing politician that has come down into Bridgeport has ransacked their city. And they have been left to live in destitution. And my goal is to show

59:56younger people, I'm a hockey coach that, hey, there's another way. I'm on team Connecticut. Okay. All right. You want to crack at them. You want to take some phone calls? I'll take any calls. Let her in. All right. 860-243-1360. We've got open phones. I see a couple of lines open. I would say call right now. You, Daniel Maressi. Both up next. Stay right there. Very nice. All right.