A Republican has not served as Secretary of the State since 1995.
“I plan to be the first Republican Secretary of State in over three decades in Connecticut,” he said. “I am a principled conservative. I am a proud Republican and I am an American optimist.”
“When I do my job, I’m measured in the billions. It’s a difficult job and a job I love. For the last two decades I’ve been Apple’s salesperson of the year.”
He added that if he wins in November, he would retire from Apple Inc.
“For the last three years I’ve been on the front ranks of election issues here in CT where most Republicans have been sitting on the sidelines. In fact, most sat on the sidelines today when we voted on the unconstitutional mail-in ballots, which passed today in the Senate.”
“I sued the state of CT over the constitutionality of mail in voting. The same result in Pennsylvania was overturned as unconstitutional.”
“Connecticut does not have the infrastructure or the capability to do mail in voting like they do in Colorado, where they took a decade to get it right. And they have clean voter rolls, which we don’t have. I’ve identified over 400,000 names on our voter rolls that are either dead, gone or duplicate.”
“I figured I can’t get anything changed as an activist, so I’m going to run for office,” he said. “I’m going to do it from inside out.”
“As Secretary of State there will be some key deliverables. First, there is a major commercial division and I plan to create CEO councils of small, medium and large businesses. We’re going to identify the regulations that need to come off the books.”
We’re going to create a digital depository so that we have business to business marketing that is not available today. And I’m going to build a concierge model, a customer-centric model so they can onboard with ease, and maybe a human on the other end.”
“On the election side, we’re going to clean the voter rolls. We’re going to establish accountability. We’re going to make sure that a landlord in Bridgeport cannot steal the identity of his tenants and use that to vote absentee ballots for all those people in his council race.”
Greenwich resident Michael Goldstein, a doctor and attorney, said he’d served on the board of Temple Sholom, and was the former New York County Medical Society President. He described himself as a Constitutional conservative.
“I believe in the Declaration of Independence, the promise of equality for all and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness,” he said, adding that he Bill of Rights the one of the most amazing documents in the history of civilization.
“It is under siege by the Democrats,” he said. “We have cancel culture, where if you protest against the government, you can be fired from your job. That’s totally unacceptable. Mothers who go against the school boards because they want their children educated instead of indoctrinated are being called domestic terrorists by the Attorney General of the US. Thank God he wasn’t put on the Supreme Court.”
“We need to pick people who will fight for you and fight for America. People will stand up, and not shake the other party’s hands, but go and do battle. Because we are in a battle.”
He said the country’s energy situation was a disaster.
“We’ve gone from energy independence to energy dependence and what has Jim Himes done as people can’t pay their bills? Have you seen him say a word. He’s Don Quixote, he’s waiting for the windmills while people are starving. I’m surprised he’s not saying, ‘Let them eat cake.'”
Goldstein said he’d like to reform the healthcare system from the inside.
He said intense government regulations had turned doctors into “compliance officers.”
“The loss of competition with obsolete anti-trust laws,” he continued. “One of the articles I published in the Wall Street Journal talks about doing something better than Obamacare and lowering drug prices.”
“I believe in peace through strength,” he said. “There are three versions of peace through strength: There is Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Walk softly and carry a big stick.” Donald Trump’s ‘Talk loudly and carry a big stick.’ And Joe Biden: ‘Talk loudly and carry a toothpick.’ The toothpick doesn’t work and that’s why Putin is in the Ukraine.”
State Rep Harry Arora (R-151) announced formally on Tuesday his candidacy to become his party’s candidate for the state’s Treasurer addressed the crowd.
“You took a bet on me. In the past five years I’ve won two races. I’ve made a significant contribution as your State Rep. I have fought for good legislation, good policy and worked hard for constituent service.”
“The CT State treasurer manages $26 billion or more,” he said. “And is responsible for overseeing $45million in pension assets. Over the past four years 2017-2021, our pension assets have done about 7.5-8%. Sound pretty good? No. What has the market done? 15%.”
“What has a 70-30 passive portfolio done – 70% equity 30% fixed income, which is about how we are allocated? 13%.
“If you did a passive portfolio with no fees, you’d have made $5 billion more on a portfolio.”
“Why is it they are under performing. They are choosing good managers, but they are betting against America.”