The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
DuPont ‘machine’ aims for seat
First-time Republican candidate betting on ‘bipartisan experience’
WATERTOWN — Longtime manufacturing leader Rich DuPont has spent a lifetime building things in Connecticut.
His father was a tool and die maker in Waterbury, where he grew up and learned the machines in their small family shop. He went on to become an executive of Waterbury’s Mirror Polishing and Plating for more than two decades before striking out on his own to build his consulting firm, Resource Development Associates.
Along the way he became a top liaison between the manufacturing industry, community colleges and politicians to push the technical education and business support that he believes is not just Connecticut’s past, but its future.
Now DuPont, 59, is putting together an ambitious run in the Republican primary for the state’s 5th Congressional District.
Although he has never run for office before, he argues he has almost 20 years in lobbying and in negotiations that make up for his lack of experience in the every day grind of politics.
In the party’s Aug. 14 primary, he will face fellow first-time candidate Ruby O’Neil, a retired Southbury professor, and former Meriden Mayor Manny Santos, who won the GOP endorsement at the party convention.
“I’m not seeing enough that makes me comfortable enough to sit by anymore,” he said last week. “I’ve got too much invested in all these years helping to move things forward to see someone with good intentions come in and possibly jeopardize or compromise all that
we’ve been building for the last 15 years.
“I’m not a politician, but I understand politics.”
‘Unique situation’
DuPont was not considering a run this year until U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat, abruptly announced she would not seek a fourth term amid revelations she covered up an office abuse scandal involving her former chief of staff.
The news gave Republicans new hope about their opportunity to reclaim a Democratic-leaning district in the contentious fight across the country for control of Congress in the November midterms.
Santos had been the only Republican candidate, but suddenly the field was wide open and DuPont saw his first opportunity in a decade to run.
“It’s a unique situation,” DuPont said. “I’ve been asked to run in the past, but I’ve worked across the aisle with (the Democratic delegation) ... For me to compromise those relationships to get into a race that couldn’t help but become political, I never felt was in the interest of our community and this district.”
When he decided to run, he called former U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson for her advice and support. The former Republican Congresswoman held the 5th District seat for 24 years before losing it to Murphy in 2006, and she worked with DuPont when manufacturing was languishing in Connecticut, she said.
The pair worked closely together during debates about tariffs and trade in the early aughts and she enthusiastically endorsed DuPont earlier this month for his ability to help separate groups work together.
The winner of the Republican primary is likely to face either former national teacher of the year Jahanna Hayes or former Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman after a hotly contested Democratic primary.
With only about one quarter of voters in the district registered as Republicans, Johnson said it will take someone with DuPont’s bipartisan experience to court enough independent voters to flip the seat for the GOP.
“I liked his tactile approach,” Johnson said. “Life isn’t about clouds, it’s about dirt. If you’re afraid to get dirty, forget it, honey. I like that really down to earth, it’s us together (approach) ... and he’s real.
“I like the fact that somebody with his background in making stuff, in doing things — in educating others, will be on the floor of the House” she said. “Because I can tell you there’s not a whole lot of them there.”
Manufacturing the future
Originally, DuPont never wanted to get into manufacturing after hanging around his father’s dirty shop as a child.
After graduating from Sacred Heart High School, he enrolled in classes at what is now Naugatuck Valley Community College to study natural resource conservation and spent several summers as a state park ranger. He went on to work as an analytical chemist responsible for environmental management at Mirror Polishing and Plating before eventually ascending to vice president of the company.
There he became an outspoken advocate for manufacturers across the state, serving as president of the Smaller Manufacturers’ Association of Connecticut and a slew of other industry and technical school councils across the state.
DuPont founded his consulting firm in 2004 and now lives in Watertown. He has worked with community colleges to develop more technical and manufacturing education programs.
He still leads the advanced manufacturing program at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport.
After decades of declining manufacturing jobs, the numbers are slowly creeping up and are now the highest since 2011. But thousands of open hightech positions at local firms go unfilled every year while the state’s community college and technical schools struggle to keep up with the demand for qualified workers, DuPont said.
In this sense, DuPont views “manufacturing” as the vehicle to secure more federal funding for Connecticut educational, economic development and infrastructure programs through its connections with the Department of Defense.
Frank Gulluni has worked with DuPont to develop new community college programs across the state and echoed that philosophy last week. Gulluni is the director of the Manufacturing Technology Center at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, and DuPont credits him as a mentor.
“Rich has manufacturing at his core and that’s the only way we’re going to turn Connecticut around economically,” Gulluni said. “It’s the first time in my 50 years of serving the public that I can honestly say we don’t have to scratch for jobs, for opportunities. There are more out there than we could ever hope to fill with the resources we have now.
“We need to find a way of getting this done so we don’t have to lose industry,” he said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for Connecticut to rebound.”