Shortly after he came up short in a Republican primary for lieutenant governor in 2014, Bridgeport resident David Walker declared if Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley’s bid failed he’d leave Connecticut. Foley lost. The former U.S. comptroller general, a candidate for governor, has had a change of heart.
From Ken Dixon, CT Post:
David Walker, of Bridgeport, the former comptroller general of the United States under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said that he and his wife, Mary, eight-year residents of Connecticut, plan to retire here.
“We have decided to fight rather than flee,” Walker, who was John McKinney’s running mate in the 2014 GOP gubernatorial primary, told the debate audience.
“I’m the only candidate on this stage who, frankly … has made government smaller, more economical, more efficient, more effective, and improved the financial condition of the entity I was responsible for when I was the leader,” Walker said.
Full story here.
Walker purchased his Black Rock waterfront home in 2009 for $1,550,000 from former Republican Congressman Chris Shays who sold it after he was defeated by Democrat Jim Himes in 2008. Shays purchased it from David Carson, retired chief executive officer of People’s Bank, who bought it from Betty Pfriem, former publisher of the predecessor papers to Connecticut Post.
When Walker marketed his house for sale in October 2014, he paid roughly $35,000 a year in property taxes. The tax bill has gone up since then, courtesy of the 2015 revaluation of property.
Walker is leveraging his federal experience as a fix for Connecticut’s financial hemorrhaging against a GOP primary field that includes Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti and former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst. The top tier Republican candidates for governor are all on track to qualify for the state’s public financing program that will infuse roughly $1.4 million for an August primary against the endorsed candidate. The primary winner will receive $6.5 million in public funds for the general election.
The party convention will take place in May.
Not one of these Republican candidates running for governor has step up and spoken out about 45’s tax cut that will truly hurt Connecticut, never mind 45 supporting Roy Moore child sex claims being accused of having sexual encounter with a 14 year old girl or the Russia investigation.
Now for David Walker the candidate from Bridgeport, Walker is talking about a listing tour, well what meeting has Walker met with in Bridgeport with blacks? Below is what I found on Walker’s website and it still doesn’t answer my question.
White Paper on Listening Tour
Dave Walker – Connecticut Turnaround 2018 for Governor
2018 may be our last chance! Join the strong Connecticut turnaround team for the change necessary to turn around the state. Read the viewpoint of Dave Walker.
http://davewalkerct.com/ourlastchance/
Here are the 10 Republican candidates running for governor of Connecticut for 2018.
https://youtu.be/vIVNke1QCbo
Thank you for staying in Bridgeport David. My sentiment has nothing to do with your political leaning, nor do I have any criticism of your past efforts in Bridgeport. It does my heart good to know that some of us stay and fight the good fight.
Hold on Lisa, he didn’t say he was staying in Bridgeport–“Walker says he’s staying in state.”
The statement is below the photo of his current residence so, I’d expect many readers would make such assumption. I can’t say for sure if this was done by design, from the mind of Political Consultant, Lennie Grimaldi. Momentum Communications is available to serve political campaigns in need of help and advice. I highly recommend hiring Lennie Grimaldi. NOTE: I’m not sure if Lennie is willing to serve Republican customers. But, this commentary should give you a hint.
No matter where David Walker goes, he’d still be a good guy in my book.
Joel you’re forgetting one simple fact. He tried to get out of the port but wasn’t able too. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU. SMH LOL
PS. When he wins. He’s moving to Hartford. 🙂 That’s F^%Kup SC, AP Good luck with all souls too, #sameasTruglia LOL.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy5hk3
Won’t win. Either he runs his campaign like trump by calling out the Connecticut swamp or he loose big time.
He’s a MSNBC Republic.
Barry, Walker is a supporter of 45 just like the other Republican candidates for governor in Connecticut.
It’s doubtful David Walker has any fear of backlash from Trump’s mindlessy devout followers. The Orange Horror has no juice in the state of Connecticut.
@tax exempt status 🙂
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/kj6njv/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-war-on-christmas–friendly-fire-edition—bill-o-reilly-s-philosophy
Dave: Fiscal restraint and orderly financial affairs are absolutely key to any successful business or government (in acknowledgement to the governance focus of especially yourself and JML), but truly, and I know you must realize this but seem not to emphasize it; Connecticut must create an inclusive, well-considered plan of development that addresses the importance of the urban centers of the state, in the context of the well-being of the state as a whole. It must be a plan that emphasizes economic growth and jobs for the economic backwaters of the state — which is about 90% of the state per the current focus of economic development in lower Fairfield County… Our transportation and labor resources are being neglected and improperly utilized with the effect of much of our economic potential being wasted and our resources misapplied with very detrimental effects. E.g., the shoe-horning of development in the Stamford area is stressing/disabling our transportation system and preventing the development of the
rest of the state (while demanding huge remedial measure$…).
Any Democrat or Republican that would be the next governor of a prosperous Connecticut will have to address the destructive, lopsided economic development non-plan that is choking the economic life out of our state… It isn’t just government-sector stupidity and waste that is killing us; it is the intentional, greedy/self-serving marginalization of most of the state by the state power brokers of lower Fairfield County that is crushing this state —
albeit with substantial help from out-of-control state utility providers that have hijacked substantial political power in the capital…
The next governor must be willing to fight more than government profligacy if Connecticut is ever to regain any semblance of economic prosperity…
The last governor willing to attempt taking on the aforementioned nefarious forces bringing ruin to our state, while also implementing indicated remedial expenditures for the state’s distressed urban and rural areas, was Lowell Weicker… It will take the brass cojones of Lowell Weicker to begin to rebuild/restructure the economy of this state.
The gubernatorial candidate that can
loudly and eloquently clank those brass cojones during this gubernatorial campaign will be the next governor.
Good luck!
Jeff, Forbes magazine would beg to differ about your opinion of the greatness of governor Wieker to Connecticut.
Twenty-six years ago, amid economic turmoil and a looming budget crisis that put legislators at each other’s throats, the then-governor of Connecticut made a fateful decision. Unsure of the best way to dig Connecticut out of its financial hole, Governor Lowell Weicker implemented an income tax.
The Nutmeg State would certainly come to rue that day.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/rexsinquefield/2016/05/23/25-years-13-billion-lost-connecticut-income-tax-continues-to-fail/amp/
Donald, I hear you, and did not favor an income tax when it came into being. However the income tax seemed like a better alternative than other taxes to legislatures since then and has raised BILLIONS itself to fund some of the legislative necessities. What would you have done as an alternative? Maybe Forbes or you have an answer? How about all of the fiscal lesser weights? What is their solution to our problem? Time will tell.
My friends you all make great observations. My comments were not as thought out and informed as yours, I was just referring to his continued residency in Bridgeport. Joel, as usual, you made a good point.
Lisa, it troubles me that a person with the background of David Walker who resides in the largest city in Connecticut with a very large population of blacks and this is Walker second attempt to become governor but has NO connection or relationship with blacks in Bridgeport. Walker can run all around the state but he can’t find time to meet with black voters anywhere in the state where he wants to be governor.
Ron, your point is duly noted. Any person aspiring to public office in Bridgeport, or depending on Bridgeport, must integrate and engage with the 60%+ of residents who are Black and Hispanic. I’m not discounting white residents and voters, I’m stating reality.
Lisa, David Walker has been here in Bridgeport for 8 years plus he bought his home former Republican Congressman Chris Shays. Shays would visit Mt Aery Baptist Church without a entourage or aides and I voted for Shays years until he because a pro war congressman. I invited Pete Spain and his wife and John Marshall Lee and wife to view The MAAFA at Mt Aery Baptist Church and they did attend, Congressman Shays would attend the MAFFA a number of times but for some strange reasons David Walker can’t seem to find a black church in Bridgeport to visit, by the way Shays didn’t visit just before a election.
Ron,
I attended MAAFA previous to your invitation it should be noted. For a guy who will not come out of hiding to meet in public to be so specific on the behavior of another person, is curious if not hypocritical.
You know that I live across the street from Dave Walker. Were I to invite you to my home, would you come? I have offered alternatives on more than a few opportunities that you ignore, resist, etc. Dave is a friendly guy. This run for Governor takes him all over the State and I do not get to see him much. But I am sure i can arrange a visit for you so that you might see how this man from Alabama differs from some of the stereotypes featured in these troubled times.
So I invite you to reach out and invite Walker. I’ll bet he has not had such an invitation from anyone in the City. Enjoy a “one on one”. It is a way to lower barriers and meet people where they are today. I have invited Walker to the NAACP meeting when he supported the Freedom Fund Dinner and completed the application for membership this year. By the way you are always welcome to attend that meeting, the fourth Thursday of each month at the Burroughs Center on Fairfield Ave. The General Meeting at 6:30 PM follows the Executive Committee meeting. All are welcome.
Ron…an invitation from me to you? Yes, once again. Or, an invite from you to Walker? As you have extended to other non-persons of color to MAAFA or to your community? Time will tell.
JML, thank you for the invite but this isn’t about me but a concern of Dave Walker who is running around the state meeting with voters but he can’t find the time to meet with blacks in his own city, JML, why? I’ve been saying this for years, since the time that Walker started talking about C4BB, I kept asking about many blacks were members and that Walker needed to a better outreach to blacks but Walker never did. It’s not my responsibility to put Walker in touch with blacks and if Walker feels that it’s not worth his time sitting down blacks then the he’ll with him and blacks shouldn’t vote for Dave Walker. It’s his call. 5a
Ron, he meet with black voters at a Voices of Women of Color event in Hartford on 11/28. Based on the youtube video, there were black women there. If you type “Voices of Women of Color” into youtube, his talk should come right up.
DC, Faber, C’mon Man, Walker can’t sit down to listen to black voters in Bridgeport where he resides after living here for 8 years?
DC Faber and John Marshall Lee, please tell me what is so hard for David Walker to sit down with blacks in his own city and listen to the concerns and issues that blacks have and why is it so hard for Walker to visit some black churches?
Hi Ron, I believe he will, right now he is being a Republican politician trying to get his party’s nomination. As the race heats up and should he get the nomination I would almost guarantee he would speak with any group that invited him.
Do you know of any black groups or churches in Bridgeport that have invited him to speak? Most aspiring candidates go where they are invited, or where they can reach the maximum number of voters.
Emerging voter block: Democrats for Walker.
This group, the envy of any GOP pol, will include state workers who put STATE before SELf and form the tipping point coalition that gains momentum and produces a Walker victory.
Emerging voter block: Republicans for Ganim.
This group, the envy of any Democrats pol, will include state workers who put STATE before SELf and form the tipping point coalition that gains momentum and produces a Ganim victory.
Given the tenor of the times it would follow that someone is going come out and accuse one or more local politicions of harrassment.
The party crisis is happening elsewhere, Ron. Not New England.
The people of the state of Alabama have a dilemma: “I b’lieve them women but Judge Roy Moore is a God-fearing Christian man. He done quoted the Bible. Doug Jones is one o’ them Godless dad-gum demmercrats what sanctions the baby killin’…”
Donald: The income tax that Lowell Weicker was a necessary stop-gap measure to the eroding (even then) tax-base of the state as a whole — especially the cities… The ruinous economic development policies of the state, per the “Gold Coast” “rigged deck”, had already undermined the financial foundations of the state. Weicker needed money to stop the total collapse of the cities and he did what he had to do… (Of course, his policies were not enough, they were emergency, stop-gap measures… So we didn’t see any real reversal of fortune of the state… And the majority of the voting public elected him because they knew that he was maverick and would do something to change the negative momentum of he state, while the Democrats and Republicans would only give us more of their failed “same.”
As far a Forbes goes; they are a right-wing, non-apologetic, hyper-capitalist propaganda tool that can only deal with such things as tax hikes in a (knee-jerk) reactionary manner… Not very credible/balanced wrt to opinion (even though they are quite withy producing reliable economy-related numbers…)