Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Money
  • Election 2020
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Money
    Election 2020
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Healy: It’s not about the old college try

  • by Mark Pazniokas
  • February 16, 2010
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Even relaxed, Chris Healy is never at rest.

The Republican state chairman fidgets at his desk as he talks about the importance of intensity and intangibles in 2010. He polishes his glasses, neatens his desk, dusts a lampshade and peels a label off a knick-knack. Only as he glances at a bulletin on his BlackBerry does he fall still.

“Evan Bayh is retiring,” he says, smiling.

healy, chris

GOP Chairman Chris Healy holds an impromptu press conference outside Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s office

In Healy’s business, Monday’s unexpected retirement of a popular two-term Democratic U.S. senator, even one from distant Indiana, is a welcome omen to a party hoping to change its luck.

“We haven’t had the intangibles lately,” he said.

The GOP has had a rough run in Connecticut. Since the resignation of Gov. John G. Rowland in 2004, the GOP has lost 20 seats in the state House of Representatives and three U.S. House seats.

Republicans now are outnumbered 114 to 36 in the state House, where there is one vacancy, 24 to 12 in the state Senate and are without representation in the seven-member congressional delegation.

The party’s only household name is Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who is not seeking re-election this fall, giving Democrats hope of capturing an office they last won in 1986.

But Republicans are showing signs of life in Connecticut, and Healy is getting credit for doing what has been increasingly difficult for state party chairmen – shaping a message and setting a direction.

Healy helped disperse a crowded Republican field for U.S. Senate, nudging state Sen. Sam S. F. Caligiuri of Waterbury into a race against U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District.

With his encouragement, Greenwich businessman Tom Foley shifted from the U.S. Senate race to a campaign for governor after Rell announced her retirement. He is the early front-runner for the GOP nomination.

“What Healy is doing is being the honest broker of the political process, which means explaining the facts of life to candidates who may not want to see it that way, at least at first,” said George Jepsen, a former Democratic state chairman.

Even more remarkable is that Healy has been able to exert influence without the backing of Rell,

“It is an unusual situation,” Jepsen said. “Traditionally, the chairman is the political arm of the governor’s office. I don’t think it’s any secret Healy has been at odds with Rell and is more closely aligned with legislative Republicans, particularly House Republicans.”

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, is a fan.

“He’s tried to put together the best team for 2010. A lot of travel, a lot of conversations, a lot of cajoling, arm-twisting, understanding, stroking of egos, etc.,” Cafero said. “He’s been doing that, and he’s been doing that fairly effectively.”

John F. Droney Jr., who enjoyed the strong backing of Gov. William A. O’Neill as Democratic state chairman in the 1980s, said party chairmen work best when they are feared. Without the backing of a governor, a chairman loses his clout, Droney said.

“It is very difficult for you to shape any sort of outcome. People may respect you, or not, but they do not fear you any more. You are reduced to trying to herd ducks,” Droney said.

healy, chris, rear bumper, 2-15-10

But Healy, 52, a former newspaper reporter, lobbyist and campaign consultant, has managed to be relevant, despite having no close relationship with Rell or her chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody.

He also has had to overcome a public struggle with alcoholism.

In June 2007, just as he was coming up for re-election before the Republican State Central Committee, Healy announced he had been arrested and charged with driving under the influence while on party business in South Carolina the previous month.

It was his second DUI arrest since March 2002.

“I’ll leave it up to others to decide my fate,” he said at the time. “I’m at peace. We’ll see where life takes us.”

Healy was re-elected without opposition.

With its intense highs and lows, Healy acknowledged, politics can hold special dangers for someone with an addictive personality.

“I think no matter what I did I’d be all in. If I sold insurance. If I coached basketball. I think that’s just the way I am wired. I have to be very careful. It is addictive,” Healy said. “The fluctuation of emotions is very up and down.”

“It does remind me that you have try to be as level as you can, because there is nothing as exciting as being as successful in politics,” Healy said. “And there is nothing as humbling as getting beat.”

By nature, Healy is combative. He has embraced new media, blogging and Twitter. He is visible at the State Capitol and has shown up at Democratic press conferences to offer the GOP view.

“There are certain things we do here that elected leaders just can’t do and don’t do — to be a little more vocal about the conduct of the Democrats,” he said.

Healy relentlessly criticized U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd last year before the Democrat announced his retirement, questioning the propriety of Dodd’s mortgages and his purchase of a cottage in Ireland.

But in an office cluttered with the usual political memorabilia, including photos of Healy with an array of GOP luminaries, hangs an autographed photo of Dodd.

In his desk is a letter Dodd wrote Healy last summer, after Healy sent him a get-well note when Dodd was having prostate surgery. Dodd’s note is a typed form-letter thank you, but there is a handwritten post-script:

“Would you be interested in spending all of next year in Ireland? I could make that ‘mansion’ available.”

Healy said he appreciates worthy opponents, especially when they have a sense of humor.

Jepsen calls Healy “a happy warrior.”

“I am very mindful that it is politics, and you can go out and fight for what you believe in without getting personal or crossing the line. That’s probably why I have lots of friends on the other side of the aisle,” Healy said.

But plenty of legislative Democrats thought Healy did cross a line last year by posting satirical web sites and Twitter accounts that purported to be the work of Democratic lawmakers.

On the site, MeetChrisDonovan.com, visitors were greeted by a picture of House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, with President Barack Obama.

Under a headline that said, “Mortgaging Connecticut’s Future,” the site described Donovan and Democrats voting to borrow $2.3 billion to pay the bills.

“The decision to borrow this money while there are still many meaningful cuts that can be made to our bloated government is just wrong,” it said.

Twitter shut down the accounts. But the web sites remain live.

Healy said he has no regrets.

“This game is about winning and then governing,” he said. “It’s not about giving it the old college try. It’s about laying everything you have out there no matter what the office or cause is.”

Healy said growing public restlessness with the state’s poor economy and fiscal condition is a ripe environment for the minority party to get a new look from voters. The next governor is expected to inherit a budget shortfall of at least $3 billion, and the state was last in job-creation from 1989 to 2009.

“When are we going to get the joke here? No job growth, no population growth for 20 years,” Healy said. “What does that say?”

Connecticut had Republican governors for 16 of those 20 years, but Healy chooses to blame the Democratic legislative majorities.

History says that Healy should temper his expectations on election night, at least with regard to the General Assembly. Since the state abolished the party lever after the 1986 election, no party has picked up more than 8 seats in the House.

If the party competes in every viable race, the numbers will take care of themselves, he said.

“To what degree depends on the national mood, because that will give you the extra two or three points in turnout and in intensity,” he said. “A lot of this just has to do with intensity.”

Two years ago, the Democrats had the edge in intensity. This year, when he thinks of intensity he thinks of Scott Brown standing waving a sign on a frozen bridge over the Mass Pike for eight hours, part of his successful campaign for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

“That’s what you call intensity,” Healy said. “It’s craziness, but it’s what you also call intensity.”

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Pazniokas

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Connecticut’s largest COVID vaccination site is now open. Here’s what you need to know.
by Jenna Carlesso

The state plans to vaccinate 7,000 to 10,000 people weekly at the former Pratt & Whitney airport at Rentschler Field.

Nursing home residents are receiving the COVID vaccination at a higher rate than their caretakers
by Dave Altimari and Jenna Carlesso

Providers attributed workers' reluctance to a variety of issues, from concerns about fertility to uncertainty about the side effects.

Legislative leaders support extension of Lamont’s emergency powers during COVID
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

The governor's emergency powers expire Feb. 9 unless he asks lawmakers for an extension within 72 hours of that date.

Weeks after the election, Secretary of the State’s efforts to monitor disinformation campaigns ended
by Kasturi Pananjady and Dave Altimari

For weeks, an intelligence analyst monitored social media for the Secretary of the State's office. Then her contract ran out.

Keeping Connecticut’s music industry alive
by Matt Fitzgibbon

By recently passing the Save Our Stages Act, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, in its COVID relief package, Congress has temporarily protected The Constitution State’s music industry from economic free fall. But are the courts now willing to do what’s necessary to provide the permanent security it needs and deserves?

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Keeping Connecticut’s music industry alive
by Matt Fitzgibbon

By recently passing the Save Our Stages Act, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, in its COVID relief package, Congress has temporarily protected The Constitution State’s music industry from economic free fall. But are the courts now willing to do what’s necessary to provide the permanent security it needs and deserves?

Opinion A young Black man sees a need for faster racial progress
by Eugene Z. Bertrand

I first learned that I was Black in kindergarten. More importantly, I learned of the negative connotations that come with identifying with my own skin color.

Opinion Sadly, not much has changed since Martin Luther King Jr.’s killing.
by Alberto Cortes

As we approached the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I took the time to read and watch his “I Had a Dream” speech which he  delivered on Aug. 28, 1963; and as I read through it 57 years later, I realize not much has changed.

Opinion The struggle for racial justice and equality is far from over
by Marilyn Moore

On the eve of the annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, I and many others are reflecting on what recently transpired at the U. S. Capitol and how it relates to the injustices that Dr. King and so many others fought to change so many years ago. It is obvious that our nation's fight for racial justice and equality is far from over. In fact, it continues to this day.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO