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Kokoruda Makes a Second Run for State Seat

Noreen Kokoruda knows what it takes to run a campaign for the 101st state representative seat. She has done it once before. She is prepared to make that run again.

District Republicans held their nominating convention Jan. 13 and within 20 minutes had given Kokoruda their enthusiastic and unanimous endorsement. No other names were placed in nomination. That evening Kokoruda was clearly the party’s candidate of choice.

“We are very excited to have Noreen as a candidate and we are very excited about her prospects,” Jeanne Stevens said in her nominating speech. “Her dedication to our town and to our residents is unquestioned. She has great rapport with people. We know her as a listener who respects the opinions of others. Those are the qualities that have served Madison so well and will serve the district when she gets to Hartford.”

The district includes all of Madison and a portion of North Guilford. Guilford First Selectman Joseph Mazza rose to second Kokoruda’s nomination.

“You have no idea how excited I am to have a very electable Republican campaigning for this seat, to win this seat and to bring some Republican representation to our towns. I am encouraged and I urge everyone to come out and support her. I’ll be campaigning with her,” he said.

Kokoruda has served for 14 years as a selectman in Madison and prior to that served for more than nine years as chair of the town’s Beach & Recreation Commission. Those years of service have given her wide name recognition, which is considered a significant asset in a special election that gives candidates only a few weeks in which to organize and campaign.

Fellow Selectman Joseph MacDougald, also seconding Kokoruda’s nomination, said, “Noreen knows all the issues in our town...She has more energy and more heart than just about anyone I know. When she wins this election, the Board of Selectmen will lose a strong member, but Hartford will gain more.”

Kokoruda told the convention delegates and the group of supporters who gathered at the Memorial Town Hall, “When I was first asked about running for this seat, my reaction was, ‘Not me.’ That time, I thought, had passed by. Then, as I thought about it more, I realized that maybe this was the time for me.”

This special election, she said, “has presented me with a great opportunity.”

Looking around the top floor of the Memorial Town Hall, the Republican said, “I sat in this room months ago during the candidate debates...I heard all the same issues I have heard for years...Nothing has changed.”

In an earlier interview, she said issues of state funding, state spending, deficits, the economy, jobs, and making Connecticut more “business friendly” have all been discussed for years with no action or resolution.

“I hope our new governor has some sense. He ran a town and he knows what its like. He talks about shared sacrifice and I think he knows that towns have been sacrificing for a long time. Finally, I hope Hartford will share those sacrifices,” the selectman said.

She added, “I am very blessed. Thank you all for your support. When I arrived home this afternoon I found my front door filled with contribution forms. It is heartwarming.”

The contribution forms she referenced are the certification forms now required by the state’s Citizens’ Election Program if a candidate wishes to qualify for state financing for her campaign. In this special election, according to Kokoruda’s treasurer Jennifer Tung, the candidate must collect $3,750 in small contributions—small contributions are defined as between $5 and $100—from 113 supporters within the district.

 “I qualified,” Kokoruda announced to the nominating convention Thursday and she received a round of applause, an acknowledgment that she is well known within the district.

“Now we have a job ahead of us,” she said. “We need to get out the vote on Feb. 22 and we need to organize absentee ballots.”

She later said she expected to spend the weekend beginning her door-to-door campaign, despite the temperatures and the piles of snow.