GOP challenger Mark Block: ‘Talk less and listen more’
TRUMBULL — By his own admission, Mark Block a former town councilman, likes to talk.
“When I say I want to talk less, I literally do want to talk less,” Block said.
He’s putting his love of good conversation to the side and is listening to voters instead, ramping up his door-to-door canvassing as Election Day draws ever closer.
Block, a Republican running for first selectman of Trumbull, is running on a fiscally conservative platform, states on his campaign site that he wants to lower town spending, encourage civility in the town discourse, and make government more accountable and transparent for residents.
Block’s platford is essentially the same as Democratic incumbent Vicki Tesoro’s, so he has taken to pointing out small but significant differences.
For example, Block has vowed to do away with the 1-TR vehicle that the town’s chief executive uses. He promised to only rely on his personal car if elected.
“I’m actually going to eliminate the car for the first selectman, they’re not necessary,” he said.
Block also said he would be more approachable to residents as first selectman and would prioritize cutting spending while maintaining town services and encouraging commercial development. In his campaign, he said he has eschewed taking a targeted approach to building support among the Republican core, and instead has knocked on random doors.
That approach, he said, has resulted in him speaking with a cross section of voters and the results have been encouraging, he said.
“Without question, the number one issue that voters are saying, to me, regardless of party is the spending, the taxing being done in town,” he said.
While Block originally was inspired to run due to his criticisms of the town council’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, he said that the task force is of secondary concern to residents, who are more concerned about where their tax dollars are going.
He also has been critical of the development at Westfield Trumbull mall, although not necessarily of the apartments being built there. Rather, his concern is the plan for the rest of the property.
The town also has been looking into ways to make the Trumbull Center shopping plaza more pedestrian friendly, but Block said if nothing is done while he’s in office, he’d want the center to be sold.
“Something has to be done with the town center. And quite frankly, if the developer for whatever reason, really doesn’t want to do anything with it, I’d ask the developer to sell it to somebody that does want to do something with it, the developer will walk away with quite a bit of money, and somebody will come in, and they will do something beautiful and special with it,” he said.
With the challenger and incumbent running on similar platforms, Block has also taken to criticizing Tesoro’s record, saying she is nowhere to be found with constituents and that she’s not approachable.
Voters, he said, have also made that observation and he called that another example of her failing to be front and center, even during a campaign.
“Can you walk a couple of streets during a campaign so you can get some photos to put on a website? Sure,” he said.