Gala raises money — and speculation about a political career
HARTFORD — In one way of looking at it, a gala fundraiser that drew business and political elites to honor a former elected official in a minor league baseball park on the coldest night of the year was just that, a gathering for a charity, like so many.
On the other hand, the firepower at Dunkin’ Donuts Park Friday night to applaud Shawn T. Wooden, who served one, 4-year term as Connecticut’s state treasurer, would impress anyone familiar with politics, business and the civic power structure — especially in the Black community — in and beyond Connecticut.
And that raised an obvious question.
“Shawn Wooden was always committed to Hartford,” said U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Brooklyn, N.Y. Democrat who’s minority leader in the House of Representatives and likely the future House speaker when and if the Dems win back that chamber.
Wooden and Jeffries are pals from NYU law school.
“He had so many opportunities to practice law across the country including at some of the biggest law firms in New York City but he was determined to go back to Hartford and to build a life here and contribute to his community. And that’s what he has done,” said Jeffries said.
So, does Wooden intend to run for office again? Call me crazy but I can’t help thinking a bunch of politicos in a room toasting one of their own is at least in part a candidate rally. The lack of any open electoral goal by the guest of honor made for an unusual evening.
Yes, I did ask Jeffries why he voted to condemn socialism in the Republicans’ mindless resolution the day before, and whether he thinks the Dems and GOP can work together, especially to avoid a debt-ceiling crisis cleanly. More on that in a minute; he’s cautiously optimistic.
Praise from the powerful
At least two Wall Street billionaires made the trek to the minor league ballpark that Wooden had a strong hand in creating during his tenure as Hartford City Council president: Robert F. Smith, founder of Vista Equity Partners and Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton. I barely need to say Sen. Richard Blumenthal was on the podium with effusive praise, as was Erick Russell, Wooden’s successor and Frank Borges, a former state treasurer and Wooden mentor.
Brand-name Democrats in the audience included state House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
Wooden in 2018 won the job overseeing Connecticut’s debt and investing the state’s $45 billion pension funds — and did not seek reelection in 2022. He’s joining Apollo Global Management Inc. as chief pension strategist.
“What we have learned about the man is that his heart and his mind and his actions work together to support the community,” said Smith, who’s said by Forbes and Bloomberg to be the richest Black American, worth $8 billion to $12 billion (as if the difference matters).
Smith and Johnson, whose firms both did business with Wooden’s office, recalled a corporate call to action that Wooden organized
after the May, 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, starting with an op-ed article.
“This is the greatest country but I can tell you that it won’t be if we continue on this path,” Smith said. “I saw these CEOs of these companies saying ‘This is a person we can get behind.’”
“Shawn said, ‘I need to make a difference here,’” Johnson, whose grandfather founded Franklin Templeton, said from the podium. “I can tell you he made us a better firm.”
Blumenthal called Wooden’s initiative for baby bonds a national model that he wants Congress to copy. Under the plan, the state would give newborns in low-income families a bond at birth that could be worth thousands of dollars for education, a house or a business when that baby reached young adulthood.
“We’re going to rename it the Wooden Baby Bonds proposal,” Blumenthal declared.
Blumenthal, who turns 77 next week and just won reelection to a third term in the Senate, asked, “Will there be a Black governor or a Black senator for the United States of America from Connecticut? The answer is yes and it may be sooner than you might think.”
He then immediately said very few people can
bring folks together like Shawn Wooden.
‘You can never say never’
The event, chaired by Alan Lazowski, founder of LAZ Parking, and Bloomfield Mayor Danielle Wong – two people very close to Wooden — raised more than $500,000 for the Women’s League Child Development Center STEAM Lab and BSL Education Foundation. Immediately before it, Wooden and a bunch of state Democrats held a separate fundraiser for Jeffries’ political action committee.
In a light but poignant moment, emcee Dennis House of WTNH-TV Channel 8 recalled that he Wooden was a guest on his former show at WFSB-TV Channel 3 when Wooden ran for mayor of Hartford in 2011 — and bumbled through the question about why he wanted the job. The candidate learned from his mistake and jokes about it today.
Wooden, 53, effusive in his thanks – “You shared in the price for me to serve,” he told family members from the podium, fighting back tears – later told me, “It’s absolutely not a setup for a future run.”
Then again, he added, people want him to run for office again. I heard more than one person speculate he might be interested in the CT 1st District seat in Congress, held for the last 24 years by Rep. John Larson, who was in the program as a speaker but was not present Friday night.
“If you’re wired like me, you can never say never,” Wooden said.
‘Shameful’ failure on baby bonds
The gala didn’t have many of the usual elected officials and lobbyists that we see in pure political events; not Gov. Ned Lamont and notably, no one from the Lamont administration that I noticed.
Lamont has so far not financed the baby bonds program, which was adopted as part of the state’s 2021-22 budget. The CT Mirror described that disconnect in a recent story and Wooden elaborated bluntly to me.
He said he and the governor agreed on fiscal policy and got along fine. “As it related to matters of racial equity and economic inequality and those issues, we just don’t see the world the same way,” Wooden said.
“On baby bonds, for us to be first in the nation to pass this,” he said, “and to spur Massachusetts, the state of Washington, California, Maryland, Kansas all looking at it or implementing it — the fact that he has not supported it I think is shameful.”
Jeffries also hailed the baby bonds idea. In his remarks, he said of Wooden, “He’s a good friend and I use that phrase in the real sense of the word, y’all, not the Congressional sense of the word. Most of the time you hear a member of Congress use the phrase ‘my good friend,’ we don’t mean it, y’all. But with Shawn Wooden I absolutely mean it.”
Jeffries on socialism, debt limit
I asked Jeffries about the vote in Congress Thursday on socialism, which divided Democrats. “Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America,” the resolution said.
All Republicans and 109 Democrats, including Jeffries, supported the resolution. Eighty-six Democrats including all five members of the Connecticut delegation opposed it. A wedge issue? Hardly, Jeffries said.
“It was a silly resolution,” he said, and he put out word that everyone should just vote however they see fit considering the “whereas” clauses condemning dictators were not objectionable.
Democrats were “unified in our view that it was a totally unserious resolution, consistent with the fact that the House Republicans, who are extreme, have no vision, no plan and no ideas to make life better for everyday Americans,” he said.
As for the more serious issues facing the nation, Jeffries said “It remains to be seen” whether the two parties can work together “because the extreme MAGA Republicans are in control in the House and they’ve got a lot of interesting ideas largely designed to cut Social Security, cut Medicare and cut things that benefit the health, safety and wellbeing of the American people.”
Congress must and will vote this spring to raise the U.S. debt limit to pay for prior obligations – which many Republicans say they will block barring deep spending cuts. “We’re going to have to find about a half a dozen Republicans to partner with us and it is our hope that that will happen,” Jeffries said.
Wooden couldn’t help but muse about joining his friend in the halls of Congress especially with Jeffries as speaker.
“I would imagine I’d get pretty good committee assignments.”