NORWALK, Conn. — State Sen. Bob Duff was officially endorsed Monday night for a sixth term representing the 25th District, comprising Norwalk and Darien.
The District 25 Democrats gathered in City Hall’s Common Council chambers to endorse Duff, who had been expecting a challenge from 20-year-old newcomer Israel Navarro. Navarro, however, was not at the event.
“He was not expected at the convention this evening and has elected not to pursue the nomination for the 25th Senatorial District,” said Democratic Town Committee Chairman Edwin Camacho.
Instead, Monday night’s event turned into a love fest for the current assistant Senate president pro tempore and a favorite to ascend to Senate majority leader.
Duff was nominated by Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, who said Duff is a young man who has “dedicated a significant portion of his life of helping not some people but all people.”
The nomination was seconded by four people: Public Housing Resident Network Vice President Daisy Franklin, former Town Clerk and current District 142 House candidate Andy Garfunkel, Rep. Bruce Morris (D-140) and Rep. Chris Perone (D-137).
Duff has “consistently not only put in the hours, but new ideas for policy,” Perone said.
“Bob is on the cutting edge of everything in terms of policy that moves the state forward,” Morris said.
“Bob is a great man to follow in the footsteps of going into the legislature,” Garfunkel said.
“He is a person that you can call on, a regular, everyday resident, that you can call with your problems,” Franklin said.
In accepting the nomination, Duff said over and over again that progress has been made.
He thought Connecticut was at a crossroads two years ago, he said, that it could become more prosperous or it could go in a different, unwanted direction.
“I think we have taken that route of progress, of making sure that, in the long term, we have economic prosperity, that we expand our tax base, that we grow jobs,” Duff said. “What we do know is that you can’t have economic prosperity, you cannot grow jobs in the state just in silos. You have to do that working together on a number of different fronts. You do that by having a balanced budget.”
Four years ago, Gov. Dannel Malloy inherited a $3.6 billion deficit, he said. Now there is money in the rainy day fund, pensions are being paid down and a signal is being sent that Connecticut is financially stable, Duff said.
“We have funded education not just in Norwalk but state-wide,” Duff said. “We are closing the achievement gap. We now have the highest reading scores in the nation. We are tied with a number of other states with the highest math scores in the nation. Connecticut is making progress.”
Norwalk got $500,000 more in school funding this year than it got last year, and it got $1.8 million more last year than it got the year before, Duff said.
In addition, Interstate 95 is finally being improved, he said. A ground-breaking for a new train station at the Merrit 7 complex will hopefully take place soon, he said. There are “many, many more M-8 trains” for Metro-North commuters to use, he said.
“We know we have had problems on Metro-North,” Duff said. “I have been in touch with the chairman, the president, the chief of staff and others all down the line at Metro-North and we are not going to rest until we get a railroad that is reliable and that makes sense and that helps commuters get back and forth to wherever they are going. That is going to be our top priority going forward.”
Moving back to state-wide issues, Duff said 208,000 people are now insured through the Affordable Care Act. Connecticut is the first state in the nation to raise minimum wage to $10.10, he said.
“We are lifting families out of poverty. We are lifting women out of poverty,” Duff said.
And look around Norwalk and you’ll see a lot of state funding, Duff said, ticking off investments made in the Wall Street theater, West Avenue, Ironworks SoNo and a new brownfields grant near the South Norwalk train station. Small businesses such as Ola Foods and J-Star have gotten help hiring new employees, he said.
“We are making progress,” he said. “We have large businesses; also we have United Technology Corporation that said any state but Connecticut they would rather do business in. What happened this year? They just made a $1 billion investment in the state of Connecticut over many years to hire thousands of new workers. So we’ve gone from that, (from) rather do business in any other state, to making investments of over $1 billion. That’s making progress.”
There are 55,000 new jobs in Connecticut and the “lowest growth in state budget since last administration,” Duff said.
“We are going to be here for the long term,” Duff said. “We are going to put Connecticut back on the map. We want people to come here, we want people to live here, we want people to work here. We want to make Connecticut the number one state. This is not a race to the bottom it is a race to the top.
“I love this job.”
Original story:
NORWALK, Conn. — State Sen. Bob Duff was officially endorsed Monday night for a sixth term representing the 25th District, comprising Norwalk and Darien.
The District 25 Democrats gathered at the Norwalk Inn to endorse Duff, who had been expecting a challenge from 20-year-old newcomer Israel Navarro. Navarro, however, was not at the event.
“He was not expected at the convention this evening and has elected not to pursue the nomination for the 25th Senatorial District,” said Democratic Town Committee Chairman Edwin Camacho
Instead, Monday night’s event turned into a love fest for the current assistant Senate president pro tempore and a favorite to ascend to Senate majority leader.
Duff was nominated by Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, and the nomination was seconded by four people: Public Housing Resident Network Vice President Daisy Franklin, former Town Clerk and current District 142 House candidate Andy Garfunkel, Rep. Bruce Morris (D-140) and Rep. Chris Perone (D-137). Morris and Perone are up for endorsement Tuesday night. Morris faces a challenge from former at-large Common Councilman Warren Peña, and Perone is being challenged by Councilman David Watts (D-District A).
Neither Peña nor Watts attended the event.
This story will be updated.
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