Gay Republican Challenges DeLauro
WASHINGTON, April 02–When restaurateur H. Richter Elser talks about his decision years ago to join his family’s soda business, he jokes that Atlanta, the home of the Coca-Cola Co., would have been the best place to learn the ins and outs of that industry.
Now that the New Haven Republican is determined to unseat six-term U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd, he said, there is no place like Connecticut to figure out how to do just that.
“Realistically, my goal right now is to go out and meet as many people as I can, and meet all of those on the town committees,” said Elser, the owner of Tibwin Grill and founder of Richter’s CafĂ in downtown New Haven.
It’s through the town meetings, he said, that the “bread and butter” work of local politics gets accomplished, and local politics is important to him because Connecticut constituents should be the driving force behind the congressional delegates’ agendas as well as a sort of human pulley system that draws members back to local issues if they get caught up in the whirl of Washington politics.
“It’s one thing to be a representative from California and not be able to go back to your district on a regular basis, but New Haven is a mere four-hour train ride,” he said.
He is also trying to become better acquainted with Republican office holders, who can help spread the word on his political positions as well as give him their perspectives on how to win a tough race. In 2000, DeLauro defeated her challenger, Republican June M. Gold, 72 percent to 28 percent.
“Everyone talks about grassroots campaigning, but grassroots isn’t supposed to be a euphemism for low-budget campaigning,” he said. “I need to go out, so when (U.S. Reps. Nancy L. Johnson, R-6th, and Robert R. Simmons, R-2nd) run into people and they ask what Rick Elser is all about, they aren’t greeted by a blank look.”
This networking may benefit his campaign coffers when political action committees decide which candidate they will endorse, but Elser said he is not banking on them contributing to many political newcomers since they are more likely to turn their attention toward politicians who have established a voting record.
By the end of March, Elser raised $26,000 from individual contributors and contributed $11,000 of his own money. Nearly 40 percent of his fundraising success, he said, came from online contributions made through his World Wide Web site, http://www.richterelser.com.
“It may be a little on the high side because we also use the Web site to process credit card transactions,” Elser said. On the other hand, he added, it has been helpful in expediting contributions through telephone solicitations.
“It’s very easy for someone to say, ‘Send me something in the mail.’ It’s also easy to say to someone to go to the Web site and make an online contribution” while the person is still on the phone, according to the candidate.
“Getting money for a campaign is very much like running or starting a business,” Elser added. “To start a business you must be prepared to invest in it, and to start a campaign you must be prepared to invest in it.”
If he is elected, he added, he would press for more federal funds for Connecticut for a better transportation system that would help stimulate small-business growth.
“In cities such as Waterbury and New Haven that are trying to rebuild their urban centers, small businesses are the first to relocate in a rebuilding neighborhood. They are the sort of local services that are quick to provide employment to people,” he said. “They stabilize the neighborhood.”
If an individual “can’t seamlessly commute through the district, the ability to live in one town and work in another declines.” He added, “We need growth because growth is the only way to stabilize the property tax.”
Which is why, he said, he is not happy with DeLauro as his representative.
“For every dollar of federal taxes Connecticut residents pay, we get 62 cents back,” Elser said. “What really bugs me is that that number has gone down. If I am going to be represented by anybody, I want them to use their seniority on my behalf.”
Even if the state had not been redistricted, Elser would still focus on how federal funds could help him integrate the resources of New Haven’s “weird nexus of planes, trains, automobiles, pipelines, cables and a port.”
Elser needs to win the Republican nomination and the general election on Nov. 5 before he can get the opportunity to persuade Congress to open its wallet for Connecticut.
When he first entertained the idea of running, he said, he tried “to figure out what kind of climate” he, as a gay man, was getting himself into. He has been pleased, he added, by party members’ overall response to his candidacy.
“The Republican Party is much more diverse than people give them credit for being,” he said. “At the most basic level, people want to win, so they want a good candidate. Their concern really becomes: is this a person who makes sense?”
Published in The Waterbury Republican-American, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
