Reynolds' challenger wants more than talk

John Rodolico has a message for anyone dissatisfied with state government.

"You can't change Hartford without changing who we send to Hartford," says the Ledyard Republican challenging the popular Democratic incumbent in the 42nd District.

That Democrat, Tom Reynolds, is an assistant majority leader in the General Assembly and the state representative serving Ledyard, Preston and a slice of Montville since 2004.

He's run uncontested the last two election cycles but is facing off against a determined Rodolico for next November's contest to reseat state legislators to two-year terms.

Rodolico is hellbent on fiscal change. He dismisses Reynolds' talk of fiscal reform as a means of addressing Connecticut's burgeoning deficit as just that - talk.

"Hartford is broken as a system," says the challenger. "The state is bankrupt. So why isn't the state flat budgeting? Whoever is not proposing and voting for responsible fiscal policies should leave Hartford."

Talk all you want about how to fix the fiscal mess, Rodolico says, but when lawmakers say one thing and then turn around and vote on a spending plan that the state can't afford or sustain, they need to get out.

It's going to be a heck of an election in the 42nd District and probably a lot of other places next fall. Connecticut is electing a new top-tier of state government and filling one of its U.S. Senate seats. The governor's race in New Jersey last year and the recent U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts - in which fiscal conservative Republicans filled seats previously held by progressive Democrats - demonstrated that in the current political environment nothing is certain.

Tom Reynolds has been a responsive lawmaker over his six-year tenure. He understands the state's problems and the need to correct them. Recently he called for sweeping legislative changes to reform policies and practices that have created the massive deficit and joined a handful of other Democrats challenging party leadership to work with the Republican governor to rein in spending.

Last year he offered a 10-point plan for long-term budget, tax and government reform and says he's writing a second generation of that "white paper" now.

Reynolds is on the right path but he hasn't gotten traction. He's one of 187 lawmakers and as a group they've failed. So has Gov. M. Jodi Rell. That is what's fueling challengers like Rodolico and a discontented electorate that views government as too big, too expensive and too unwilling to downsize as the private sector has been forced to do.

The upcoming elections, and not just for the General Assembly, could result in monumental change. And in the fickle 42nd District where Republicans have knocked off Democrats and then Democrats knocked them right back a few years later, there's no telling what will happen.

November is a long way off, but not long enough for Connecticut to dig out of the hole it's in. And if new lawmakers replace some of the old ones, will they come together to make the difficult decisions that others have left to them? It hasn't happened in Washington.

Every politician promises to do the right thing. They all go off to Hartford pledging to reform the tax system, improve schools and highways, clean the air and waterways, and secure funds for hometown districts.

They say it and they mean it, but it rarely happens anymore. Instead, they quickly learn "the system" is mightier than they are.

Well, the system is broken. It's really, truly broken. Government is bloated, overspent and in deep, deep trouble. Come Nov. 2, voters will decide which candidates they think can reinvent government, not just in the 42nd District, but all across the country.

Like I said, it's going to be one heck of an election.

Ann Baldelli is associate editorial page editor.