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Updated: February 24, 2020 Editor’s Take

In search of moderate political candidates

By Greg Bordonaro
Greg Bordonaro, Editor

Connecticut’s April 28 presidential primary is set and to the delight of some local Republicans, Donald Trump won’t be the only name on the GOP’s ballot.

Of course, it won’t matter. Trump will be the Republican nominee for president this fall as he seeks a second term in office.

And there is a good chance, if you believe national polls, that Bernie Sanders, a Democratic socialist, could be his challenger.

As an independent voter and thinker who long ago disavowed party loyalty in search of problem-solving candidates, it’s mind-boggling to me that our political system could leave us with such extreme candidates.

On the one side, you have a man child in chief who deliberately taunts and challenges the rule of law and presidential norms, while igniting, at times, our worst fears and emotions.

Meanwhile, his signature tax reform largely benefitted the rich while leaving American taxpayers with a trillion-dollar deficit.

On the other side, Sanders wants to upend American capitalism in favor of providing free higher education and health care to all, while canceling all student loan and medical debt, expanding social security and significantly increasing union power. I think it’s safe to say a Sanders election would send the stock market and business investment into a tailspin.

Given those potential choices this November, I sought out an independent mind and voice who is actively trying to upend a system he says caters to the political extremes.

Photo | HBJ File
Oz Griebel standing on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford.

Oz Griebel, the former CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance, ran as a third-party candidate last gubernatorial election after fleeing the GOP.

Now he’s the chair of the SAM CT Task Force, a group trying to reform the state’s electoral process to give unaffiliated and more moderate candidates in Connecticut a better chance of winning elections.

Griebel is a self-avowed fiscal conservative who is liberal on social issues. A former bank executive, he fits the mold of the typical corporate CEO who was the standard bearer for the Republican party, before Trump arrived.

Griebel said he’s never going back to the GOP and still “fundamentally believes this country is center left and center right.”

The SAM CT Task Force, which was founded nationally by long-standing New York Republicans, recently called on the state Democratic and Republican parties to open their respective presidential primaries to Connecticut’s nearly 1 million unaffiliated voters. They represent about 41% of all voters in the state.

Currently, only Democrats and Republicans can vote in the upcoming primary for candidates in their own party.

An open primary, Griebel said, could shift the outcome of the race on the Democratic side and give moderates more of a say in who wins Connecticut’s delegates.

Predictably, the GOP and Democrats shunned the idea, arguing voters can change parties to become eligible for primaries. In reality, they don’t want any changes that would loosen their stranglehold on the electoral process.

But Griebel isn’t giving up. He said he plans to lobby state lawmakers next year to adopt open primaries.

He’s also pushing for other reforms, including term limits and ranked-choice voting, which would allow voters to rank all candidates for an elected office rather than choose just one. A candidate would need to win a majority of votes before they are declared a winner, even if it takes multiple elections.

Maine has adopted such a system and Massachusetts voters will consider it this fall.

Griebel said ranked-choice voting would encourage candidates to consider views of all voters, not just those who represent a party’s base.

When he was running for governor he said people told him they thought he was the best candidate but backing him would be a wasted vote.

“Ranked-choice voting would get at that issue,” Griebel said.

I think Griebel’s reforms are good ideas that have little chance of coming to fruition. But hey, he’s used to being on the losing end of political fights (he only garnered 2% of the votes in the 2018 gubernatorial election, which was won by Gov. Ned Lamont.)

His best chance to change the system could be to oversee it. So I had to ask, is he considering a third run for governor?

He didn’t say no.

“I’m focused exclusively for 2020 on working with others to build the grassroots movement needed to implement the three SAM CT reform initiatives,” he said. “I look forward to continuing the discussion.”

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