Friendly sparring in the 109th District
Danbury High graduates agree on revising school funding, ending gun violence, opposing tolls
DANBURY — A surprisingly friendly rematch is in store for Danbury voters in Connecticut’s 109th House District election on Nov. 6.
Democrat David Arconti, Jr. is seeking his fourth term in the state House and will again face Republican Veasna Roeun, a Cambodian American and a National Guard veteran and city health inspector.
Roeun unsuccessfully challenged Arconti in 2016 but will try to pull off an upset again with his emphasis on cutting government spending, promoting a local charter school proposal and reducing business regulations to try to spur economic development.
But the opponents actually agree on a broad range of issues, from revising the school funding formula to cracking down on gun violence and stridently opposing tolls.
The two even shared a pair of fist bumps and laughs when they agreed on issues during a debate last week — a stark contrast to the tenor of politics across the country this fall.
“I think myself and Dave represent what needs to happen at the national level, which is really remaining on topic and discussing debates and policies rather than rhetoric,” Roeun said. “We stuck with that in our 2016 campaign. Even though he was the victor, I still loved the fact that we ran a respectful campaign and keep this about politics, policies and ideas rather than personality and character.”
Budget fix
Both are young, Danbury High School graduates who grew up in the city. Arconti, 32, ran unsuccessfully for City Council at 25 and was elected to the 109th District the following year.
Roeun, 39, moved to Danbury as a toddler when his family escaped the killing fields of Cambodia in the 1980s. He served 10 years in the U.S. National Guard, including two deployments overseas, and is now an inspector for Danbury’s Health and Human Services department.
Looming largest for both candidates is the state’s ongoing budget troubles and the steps needed to fix them.
Arconti pointed to the two-year state budget and “stopgap measures,” such as caps on spending, that will give lawmakers more time to balance the next budget.
“It’s going to be a really good opportunity to look at how we reform the state government’s relationship
“The pie is the pie, if you’re spending money through the general fund to open up a new school here in Danbury for the charter group, that’s less that can be put toward ECS.” Democrat David Arconti
“I know it’s going to be tough looking for those funds, but ... any money going toward education should be a priority of ours, we need to make sure we would invest in our children.” Republican Veasna Roeun
with municipal governments,” he said. “We have 169 towns and cities in the state of Connecticut — ‘little fiefdoms’ is what a lot of people call them — and it represents 25 percent, about a quarter of the budget.”
The state could migrate toward a countystyle system, using the Council of Governments to regionalize some services, like health services and public works, he said.
“We are shrinking, it’s a matter of now reinvesting in our cities, getting the economy moving faster and touching some of the third rails of Connecticut politics that didn’t want to be touched in the past, like relationships with towns and cities,” he said.
But Roeun argued the Legislature has not acted fast enough. He said lawmakers should root out waste, which he says he saw when he worked for the state state Department of Labor before leaving the job to run against Arconti in 2016.
He said combining budget cuts with fewer business regulations would pump more money into the state’s economy and budget.
“What I want to do is really reduce regulations,” he said. “We’re going to make the state more business friendly. I think that’s a great way to keep our revenue ... I believe our problem originates from spending.”
Where Arconti and Roeun differ most is the proposal for the Danbury Prospect Charter School, which would be the city’s first public charter.
The proposal has earned the approval of the state Board of Education, but it still faces an uphill battle to receive funding from the state Legislature.
Arconti has said he will oppose funding for the new school to instead focus on revisions to the public school district funding, or Education Cost Sharing.
“The pie is the pie, if you’re spending money through the general fund to open up a new school here in Danbury for the charter group, that’s less that can be put toward ECS.”
But Roeun would support the proposal and insisted lawmakers could get “creative” to find the money.
“I know it’s going to be tough looking for those funds, but we’ve got to look at what we have right now and cut where we can,” he said. Any money “going toward education should be a priority of ours, we need to make sure we would invest in our children.”
The state should not cut back on its transportation project spending, though, nor should it consider tolls to bolster its special transportation fund, Arconti and Roeun agreed.
But Arconti said the state might consider a tax on electric cars equivalent to the gas tax to support more projects.
“Battery-powered cars are a disruptor that’s going to be the norm in the next 20 years,” he said. “There’s probably very few gas-powered cars, I would guess, in 20 years.”
Both agreed the state should continue to tighten access to firearms. Arconti will continue to support a ban on so-called ghost guns, which are assembled from parts that make it untraceable.
Roeun did not explicitly support that proposal — but lauded the state’s gun restrictions.