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06/02/2020 12:00 AMPending a primary challenge, last month’s conventions have selected the major party candidates for the General Assembly’s 87th District and the State Senate’s 34th and 11th District seats. For those races with candidates facing a challenge for their party nomination, there will be a primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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.”
11th State Senate District
For the 11th State Senate District, which serves a western pocket of North Haven as well as part of Hamden and New Haven, incumbent Democrat State Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney won his party’s support. At press time, no challenger had been announced.
87th Assembly District
For the 87th Assembly District, incumbent five-term Republican Dave Yaccarino will face a challenge from Kathy Grant (D).
Kathy Grant has lived in North Haven for 22 years where she has raised her three children and taken part in community activism, volunteerism, and public service. Grant, who graduated with a degree in political science and sociology, began her career with the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch in 1992 before going on to work at Superior Court for Juvenile Matters in New Haven and as a support enforcement officer at the Superior Court in New Haven and Meriden. Grant works at a rehabilitation facility in Guilford and as a per diem teacher for the Wallingford Public Schools. She is working toward a second degree in health information management.
“Deciding to run for state representative was not a hard decision considering my extensive community service and activism,” said Grant. “The middle class increasingly struggles to pay health care premiums, deductibles and co-pays, and now many people are losing their health care benefits because they are out of work, and unemployment is currently an alarming 16 percent in North Haven.”
Dave Yaccarino has held North Haven’s District 87 state representative seat for 10 years. Also the owner of Lincoln Street business DJ Comics, in Hartford he serves on the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding; Screening; Commerce; and Executive and Legislative Nominations committees.
A life-long North Haven resident, Yaccarino has owned DJ’s Cards and Comics in North Haven for 27 years. He served as a 16-year volunteer for the Boy Scouts and co-founder of Boy Scout Troop 811. He also coached Max Sinoway Baseball and North Haven Girls Softball. Yaccarino volunteered for Saint Francis Cabrini Church and is a member of the Mens Club. He worked as a youth group mentor and also lent a helping hand to adults with special needs, emergency shelters and soup kitchens.
Yaccarino is a member of the North Haven Republican Town Committee, co-chair of Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame and a former member of the U.S. Navy Reserve. He has an associate degree in liberal sciences from Gateway Community College where he is inducted into the Hall of Fame and taught a U.S. history course.