Rob Kwasnicki is a young Republican
– a minor confession: Anyone younger than I, most of the planet, I regard as
“young” – who is challenging incumbent state Representative David Kiner in
Connecticut’s 59th District, which comprises a portion of Enfield and East
Windsor.
Prior to the interview below, I
asked Mr. Kwasnicki to provide a brief biography.
The son of Polish immigrants, whose
background was in farming, Mr. Kwasnicki was born in Hartford and raised in
East Hartford. His father, uncles and grandfather were all blue collar workers.
Others in his family were entrepreneurs and small business owners. One was a
contractor, others owned a hardware store, a machine shop and a small
restaurant in Warehouse Point CT, Village Luncheonette.
Having graduated from Bryant
University, Mr. Kwasnicki helped manage his family’s restaurant then moved to
Manhattan, where he lived for about 3 years, half in mid-town and half in the
upper west side near Columbia University. In New Jersey, he began his career in
IT as a junior programmer, was quickly promoted to network manager in his
mid-20’s, became a system engineer for a consulting company and transitioned in
recent years into marketing and sales. As Director of National Marketing
Strategy, he oversees marketing and sales activity for WinWinUSA.com, a company
that provides an information and communication nexus that allows businesses,
small and large, to share information that will enhance and encourage the
entrepreneurial activity of its members.
“Divorced,” Mr. Kwasnicki writes, “I
am a proud father of a wonderful, warm-hearted and beautiful daughter, Alanna.
Both her mother and I have a great working relationship as parents and support
each other’s respective roles. Outside of work, I enjoy reading, the
outdoors, music, cooking and physical activity. As a hobby, I play drums
and guitar with friends I’ve had since I was 8 or 9, am into photography, wrote
a children’s story (unpublished) and have a couple dozen original songs in
various conditions. I enjoy running the Manchester Road Race during
Thanksgiving, miss rock climbing, but have recently gotten my fix with an
afternoon of rock scrambling at ‘The Gunks.’”
Mr. Kwasnicki grew up in a
Democratic household. His transition to Republicanism began after he had
read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, popular novels by Ayn Rand. In
addition to Ms. Rand’s writings, which “challenged my beliefs and values,” Mr.
Kwasnicki cites as influences his “high school football coach, Jude Kelly, who
was a tremendous mentor and life coach, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jefferson,
and our combat veterans and their families.”
Q: How does a conservative like you
respond to Democratic progressives in Connecticut who believe that elected
officials, both federal and state, should micromanage a nurturing society.
A: A nurturing society would unlock
the extraordinary potential that lies latent in every person. It is the people,
not the government upon which forward progress depends. And the founding
documents of the nation attest to the preeminence of the people, from which
government derives the right to govern. The Bill of Rights codifies our natural
rights. The Constitution sets the framework of our government. It is a living,
breathing document because it provides for amendments and specifies the manner in
which it may be amended. Conservatives believe in a politics of limits. But
government today, especially the federal branch, has become incredibly
overbearing, operating outside its Constitutional boundaries, reckless with the
people’s treasury, and unapologetic in its disregard of the law of the land.
The United States of America is not a top-down, authoritarian construct; it is
a Constitutional Republic. We are a bottom-up society and that is where
the solutions to our challenges lie -- with the people.”
Q: Can you list for us some of the
goals you hope to accomplish if you are elected?
A: Sure. Spending must be brought
under control. Unless this happens, events will control us. The state debt must
be reduced. Borrowing must be brought under the same constraints that apply to
budgets. It’s become much too easy to pass along debts to children yet unborn.
Governmental policies must be reshaped so that businesses already in state will
remain viable, while businesses out of state will be induced to move to
Connecticut. Young people who have graduated from one or another very expensive
college in Connecticut have been uprooting themselves and moving to other
states with lower taxes and less punishing regulations. I think it is possible
to reinstate tax exemptions on clothing and footwear, a great help to young
families. Restoring the sales tax exemption on over-the-counter
non-prescription drugs will help everyone, but most especially seniors living
on fixed incomes. Gas and diesel taxes might be reduced, a direct benefit to
all working families. These reductions would be the equivalent of a raise in
income and would spur small business activity. Get rid of the $250 Connecticut
business entity tax; it’s a nuisance tax that carries a forbidding message to
any business considering a move to Connecticut. Chuck the “special assessment”
tax on employers. The special tax is supposed to renew Connecticut’s depleted
Unemployment Trust Fund which became depleted or “insolvent” on Oct. 13, 2009
and is an impost added on to the unemployment tax businesses already are
charged. The General Assembly should as a matter of course review all
regulations and eliminate those that do not spur business activity; all new
regulations should be sunsetted. A super-majority vote in both houses of the
General Assembly should be required to pass any new unfunded state mandates.
Generally, all state mandates increase municipal obligations, which are costly
– and the costs are not absorbed by state politicians. State mandates are
unpurchased raids on municipal budgets by state politicians who continually
tell us that they want to adopt measures that will reduce the municipal
reliance on property taxes. A super-majority should be required whenever
mandates are imposed on municipal governments. We call a sponger that person in
a restaurant that has just gorged himself and passed along the bill to the
stranger sitting beside him. Mandate makers are spongers, pure and simple.
Q: I think you might take a breath
here.
A: One last shot. Corporate welfare
is tax theft. During his first term in office, Governor Malloy imposed a broad
based tax on nearly everyone doing business in Connecticut. The Malloy tax
followed by thirteen years the Lowell Weicker income tax. Tax money is now
being collected from small business owners and shuttled along to mega-companies
to restrain these companies from moving out of the highest taxed state in the
nation. Harry Truman, who was used to plain speech, would have called this
middle class robbery. It distorts the free market, gives the blackest of black
eyes to honest capitalists, withdraws from the public market place the
entrepreneurial capital small businesses need to expand and create jobs, and
leaves the impression on the general public that politicians are “investing” in
the state’s economy – when, in fact, they are playing Russian roulette with
people’s futures. If I am elected to the General Assembly, I will fight to blow
that imposture sky high.
Q: The 59th District
comprises parts of Enfield and East Windsor. For the last several House
elections, Democrats have prevailed and won the seat by large margins. So,
there is a high hill any Republican candidate for office must surmount to bring
that seat into the Republican fold. On occasion, elections in the district were
uncontested. There are three possibilities: 1) People are creatures of habit
and sadistically will vote for Democrats no matter what, even if the
Republicans were shrewd enough to put God on their ticket; 2) In the past,
Republicans have simply surrendered certain districts to Democrats, and the 59th is
one of them; 3) No Republican contestant has in the near past advanced a
message that would pluck the heartstrings of voters in the District. Other
Republicans have argued that Connecticut’s one party state has deprived voters
of alternative choices: Old and bad habits have doomed voters in the District to
an unchanging political treadmill. What do you hope to bring to your campaign
that will be different and more appealing than that of your Republican
predecessors?
A: I hope to make it clear to my
neighbors, friends and fellow residents in the 59th through
a vigorous campaign that in November they will have two clear choices for State
Representative: An incumbent who, to my knowledge, has not challenged any
position or issue pushed upon him by his party’s bosses, has worked the
majority of his young professional life in politics, has shown no true
leadership, has failed in providing adequate support to our districts schools,
and provides a narrow corridor of life experience, verses me: A candidate who
has a career outside of politics and knows how to bring people together; a
candidate with a breadth of experience, a background encompassing a wide range
of perspectives; a leader who will stand up for what is right and proper,
regardless from where an issue arises; someone who truly believes in the
extraordinary potential of each individual, and a candidate who enjoys whole
milk.
I have traveled in nearly every
state in our union and am amazed at what we, whom politicians often refer to as
“average Americans”, accomplish in our family’s lives, communities and
businesses.
My message, my core belief, is that
we the people are the source of solutions. I want to see a Connecticut
that believes in itself again; Where working families feel secure in a bright
future, whether working for an employer or as small business owners; A
Connecticut where communities embrace and support each other; A Connecticut
that has a government body humbly administering the business of the people as
servants first, leaders second.
My opponent’s political party at the
capital has a much different view about us, “average citizen.” My
election to office would represent a clear rejection of their views and a
boisterous confirmation that Connecticut is filled with “extraordinary people.”
The CT Comeback begins by electing a
new state representative in the 59th.
Comments
William Martin