Vincent “Vince” Mase Sr. is the Democratic candidate running for state representative in the 86th General Assembly District. Mase said he will be a leader in Hartford and at home. He plans to bring his experience as a practicing lawyer, union leader, local government participant, and a track record of bringing “parties, opponents, and opposite sides together to achieve a resolution and bring benefits for all involved.”

The 86th Assembly District represents North Branford/Northford, northern Guilford, and parts of Durham and Wallingford.

A Northford resident of 34 years, Mase has been a union member of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) AFL-CIO since 1978 and has served as president of NALC Branch 19 for the past 12 years. Mase earned his law degree in 2003 from Quinnipiac University, retired as a letter carrier in 2005, and began his second career as attorney with his own practice.

Mase is proud to note his memberships with New Haven County Bar Association, CT Bar Association, and Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association. A believer in the value of public education, Mase is also proud to note his three children earned doctorates following their North Branford Public School educations, and that he has two grandchildren currently the school system.

In 2018, Mase was appointed to his current post as a member of the North Branford Board of Education. In 2017, he served briefly as an appointed member of the North Branford Town Council, filling a vacant Democratic seat. Mase has also made past bids for elective offices as a 2017 Democratic North Branford Town Council candidate and as the 2016 unaffiliated candidate for the 86th District state representative.

Mase said the 86Th District needs a state representative who shows he truly cares about his community by representing them with innovative leadership in Hartford and at home.

“I consider myself to be a leader, and a leader has to go beyond the halls, beyond the four corners of a document. You have to be able to think outside the box,” he said.

Mase said he would be a visible presence in the towns he represents. He would make a point of following local issues, listening to the needs of his constituents, and speaking out at town meetings where issues are at stake.

“I believe a state representative really cares about the people in his community [and] it doesn’t matter what his position is. If 250 people in my community are [upset] and I’m the state representative, guess what? I’m going to get to the microphone, I’m going to say, ‘Hey, look. I’m the state representative. You [board] members have to listen to my constituents. You’re not here for yourself. You’re hear for the members who voted you into office., That’s what a state representative does,” said Mase, adding, “I would go out to the districts to visit those people. I would go to the Town Council to say, ‘Hey, is there anything I can do? Whatever you want me to do, that’s what we have to do.’ If you’re claiming you’re the voice of the people, then don’t make it words, make it your actions.”

Mase would also focus on investing in the growth of the district by focusing on agriculture, small businesses, education, and bringing in new businesses to provide jobs and help take the tax burden off residents. Mase said he would seek to support new businesses that are “environmentally friendly to other businesses and, most of all, to our families, children, and grandchildren. Our towns need small businesses that will increase the values of our homes and not businesses that will depreciate the values of our homes.”

Bringing Change to Raise Revenue

Mase said the legislature is going to have to “work together” to support realistic strategies and changes that can benefit the state and support residents.

“When you say you’re going to cut costs [and] you’re going to cut taxes, it automatically means you’re going to cut services. And two major targets they always look at are seniors and the boards of education in the municipalities,” said Mase. “We cannot rely on cutting costs. We cannot rely on cutting jobs. You can’t say to the people of Connecticut, ‘We have to make job growth,’ and in the meantime, you’re laying off state workers; you’re having people have to pay more for their health benefits and more for their pensions. You’re [also] diminishing their buying power. So let’s look at it from the other side. Instead of cutting taxes, instead of cutting costs, where can we focus on raising revenue?”

Mase said building up opportunities to generate revenue locally and statewide, is a win-win.

Locally, “we have to make our shoreline attractive to people who drive through Connecticut,” he said. “We have to be able to make this a destination where people will want to spend the night, where people will buy gasoline, where people will stop at a restaurant, where people will stop at a hotel. What have we done in the past X amount of years to develop Connecticut’s shoreline? We haven’t done that.”

Mase said to give residents more job options, he would work in Hartford to help put a focus on giving high school students a path to entering Connecticut’s advanced manufacturing firms such as Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, and Electric Boat.

“Revenue-generating is getting people back to work,” said Mase. “Manufacturing hasn’t been dead; it’s just been dormant. And I don’t understand why our legislators haven’t said, ‘Wait a minute, we have vocational/technical high schools in Connecticut—why hasn’t somebody gone into these vo-tech high schools?’ We should be working with the high schools and local community colleges to develop these kids. We should have been going to these schools for the past 12 years, so that these kids, when they come out, they’ll be getting jobs—jobs that stay here in Connecticut, that [pay] income tax, raise restaurant revenue, gasoline sales, sales tax, all of that. And that’s where we’re going to start building revenue.”

Mase said he would also push for the legislature to review state properties that could be sold, developed, or leased to bring in more funds.

“How many properties does the State of Connecticut own? In the neighborhood of 4,000 properties. Do you know many of those properties are located in prime real estate areas? And what is Connecticut doing with the property? Nothing,” said Mase. “Why hasn’t someone gone to the governor or the legislature and said, ‘Instead of arguing about cutting costs, and cutting budgets, why don’t we look at the properties that Connecticut owns and see if we can start putting those properties to work [on] the tax rolls of either the towns or the state?’ They haven’t done that yet. Am I the first person to think of that? Now I’m not saying that every government building has to be sold, but we should be looking at property to see is it valuable to the state to leave it empty, or is it valuable to the state to sell it or develop it? That’s another way of raising revenue.”

On Tolls: Information is Power

Mase said he would make a well-informed decision on tolls based on facts, not a political position.

“Now, I don’t know whether the tolls is a good idea or a bad idea, yet. But what I don’t like is when people take a position and we don’t have all the information. Now I know Governor [Dannel] Malloy ordered a $10 million spending project to study the tolls. Why are we taking a position? I look at this way: If we can say that 40 or 50 or 60 percent of the traffic from out-of-state trucks, out-of-state drivers [are] costing the state money, then we should move forward with something. But if the study comes back and says that’s not the problem, tolls are going to be a bad idea, then we can put that to bed and focus on other areas,” he said, while also noting, “We have 300 bridges that need repair. How are the Republicans going to cut taxes and still maintain them? How [are they] going to be able to afford giving all of these millions of dollars to repair the bridges and the roadways of Connecticut when we can’t currently meet our deadlines now [or] our obligations?”

Strengthening Our Economy, Retaining Residents

Mase has questions about Connecticut’s stalled economy and said its time for a change to get it moving ahead.

“Why does Connecticut have a one-percent economic growth when the rest of the nation has a 4.2 percent of economic growth? Whoever’s in Hartford is not doing their job, and I think it’s time for a change. My opponent [Republican Vincent Candelora] has been there for 12 years. Are we better off today than we were 12 years ago? I don’t think so,” Mase said. “People are flooding out of the state. People are taking [their] retirement pension and saying, ‘I can’t afford to stay here, I’m taking it to another state.’ I want to stop that. And I’m not going to stop that by cutting taxes and cutting services. We have to stop that by saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to start raising revenue. We’re going to give tax money back to the towns and the municipalities, so that they lower the property taxes, and people want to stay here.’”

“Because I’m a union man, I’ve been involved in the union and union politics. One thing I learned is I work for the people. I don’t work for Vince Mase. Although I have debated my members at a union meeting, when I lose and my members make a motion for me to do something, guess what? I do it.”

As both a union president and a practicing labor attorney, Mase said he fights to protects people’s rights. That’s something he will continue to do in Hartford, he said.

“I’ve been in the trenches and I’ve fought in battles to get people’s rights protected. And that’s what I want. I want to be known [as] the state representative that comes out on the floor, at either a town meeting or a hotly debated meeting, and will say, ‘Hey this is what my people want, and I’m going to speak on their behalf.’ I want people to say, ‘You know what? You can count on that guy,’” said Mase. “When you’re in trouble, he’ll come out; he’ll take the heat. So that’s what I want to be known for. Speaking up for the people.”