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06/02/2020 12:00 AMPending any primary challenges, last month’s conventions have selected the major party candidates for the State Senate’s 34th District, along with the General Assembly’s 99th and 96th District seats.
The primary election will be Tuesday, Aug. 11, for any nominated candidates who do face a primary challenge. The general election will be Tuesday, Nov. 3, for any candidate that does not face a primary and those who win any primary challenges.
34th State Senate District
The 34th State Senate District serves East Haven, most of North Haven, Wallingford, and part of Durham. Republican Len Fasano, who has served since 2003, announced his retirement earlier this year. Paul Cicarella, Jr., an East Haven native who currently lives in North Haven, will run for the Republicans. On the Democratic side, former East Haven mayor and current North Haven resident April Capone won her party’s nomination at convention but will face Aili McKeen in a primary on Aug. 11.
Cicarella was raised in East Haven, graduating from East Haven High School where he was a multi-sport athlete, later coaching the Yellowjackets and founding the town’s first youth wrestling clinic. He served as a corrections officer with the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Cicarella is president and founder of private investigations agency Advanced Investigations, LLC, and the owner of National Bug Sweep and Advanced Installations.
Cicarella lives in North Haven with his wife Christy and their two children, Giada and Paul III. He volunteers with the East Haven and Greater New Haven Chambers of Commerce, MADD, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He is also the vice chairman of the North Haven Republican Town Committee and a member of the North Haven Zoning Board of Appeals.
“I want our district to continue having a strong and powerful voice at the state capitol,” said Cicarella. “We are at a crossroads and facing unprecedented and unique challenges as a state. Now more than ever we need a new generation of leadership to help rebuild our state’s economy and get people back to work. I love our state and the local community. I grew up here and I am raising my family here. I chose to operate and invest in a small business here. I want my children to have the same opportunities as I did and grow up to love this state and be proud of this region as much as I am.”
Capone served two terms as mayor of East Haven from 2007 to 2011, then from 2011 to 2016 as the manager of intergovernmental affairs at the State of Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management, where she served as municipal liaison between state government and all 169 towns and cities, and in 2016 she joined the team at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) to launch the Center for Living Organ Donors where she currently works to fulfill the Center’s mission of supporting the long-term health and well-being of all YNHH living donors.
“As the state moves to slowly reopen, people are still uncertain of what the future holds,” said Capone. “We are going to continue to feel the impact of this crisis for a long time. People need to be reassured that their government is there to help them. When they can’t find that at the national level, it becomes more important that they have it at the state and local level. I’ve helped bring people to the other side of crisis before. It’s times like now that we need people with the right experience to step up and fill those roles. Through my work in healthcare and as mayor, I know what it takes to help people through.”
McKeen was born and educated in Wallingford, where she lives today with her husband Bruce. She has been an adult volunteer with Girl Scouts since 1994 and also participates in advocacy and raising awareness for multiple sclerosis.
McKeen did respond to a request for comment by press time.
In her 2018 campaign for the 34th District seat, she told the Courier “I’ve seen how it works and doesn’t work,” she said. “It’s not always focused on how best to serve the people of Connecticut, it’s often ego-driven. And that’s really frustrating to me...Our budget really needs to reflect our values. And our tax code needs to reflect our values.”
96th Assembly District
In the General Assembly’s 96th District, which serves the town’s northern sliver and parts of New Haven and Hamden, Democrat Roland Lemar is seeking his fifth term. At press time, no challenger had been announced.
99th Assembly District
In the General Assembly’s 99th District, incumbent Republican State Representative Joe Zullo has been selected to defend his seat against a challenge from Democrat Dave Yaccarino.
Born and raised in East Haven, Zullo served as town attorney for eight years. He has also been involved in the town’s schools and a number of civic groups and is a small business owner in town.
“East Haven needs a strong, experienced voice in Hartford to stand up against the majority’s tax-and-spend agenda and who will fight to make it easier for families and small businesses to get ahead,” Zullo said. “If re-elected, in addition to working to oppose new taxes and to prioritize our spending, I intend to pursue initiatives to make the state’s affordable housing laws fairer to towns like East Haven, to make it more affordable for our seniors to stay in their homes, to expand home-based family childcare, and to reign in rising healthcare costs, including the costs of insulin.”
Yaccarino, 36, works in a molecular biology lab in Guilford that is currently focused on improving COVID-19 test capacity. He bought his first home in East Haven six years ago where he lives with his fiancée Stephanie. Yaccarino got his political start in 2017 gathering East Haven signatures for a petition about tax equity. He sits on the Executive Board of the Democratic Town Committee and is running for office for the first time.
“The tax burden in the state is unfairly placed on working class communities like East Haven,” said Yaccarino. “During a time of huge inequality, we need to have the political courage to demand the rich pay their fair share. We need a voice in Hartford to take on that fight and that is why I am running.”