Mondato scorches mailboxes: “Cicarella ripped off taxpayers for $123,000 then build his own pool in his neighbors yard.”

Democrat Brandi Mondato unleashes the fury of facts on embattled Republican incumbent state Senator Paul Cicarella in the 34th Senate District. A mailing from Mondato to voters in Durham, East Haven, North Branford, North Haven, and Wallingford tells the story of Cicarella’s array of legal issues and adds a paragraph on his support for weakening background checks for gun purchases.

The mailer is a vivid presentation of the disabled Cicarella’s years of state workers’ compensation benefits from a fall on a wet state prison floor. Hearst newspapers investigative reporter Jacqueline Raab Thomas revealed Cicarella’s alleged failure to disclose income while receiving $123,000 in workers’ compensation and disability pension benefits. Cicarella worked as a wrestling coach, private investigator and real estate investor while also receiving disability benefits for the injury he suffered after working for 18 months as a correctional officers.

The Mondato mailer adds the strange odyssey of the two-term Republican building a pool on a neighbor’s property–after the neighbor had warned Cicarella he was encroaching on land that did not belong to him. Nevertheless, Cicarella proceeded. Litigation followed. The terms of the settlement are not public but do include a nondisclosure agreement. The wronged neighbor recently returned to court because, he claims, Cicarella failed to perform his obligations under the secret settlement.

Cicarella has been texting voters in the district that he is “one of us.” That is a blank slate approach to persuasion, inviting voters to attribute whatever their background and beliefs are to the candidate seeking their vote. Defining Cicarella’s notion of “one of us” by revelations this year can mean a nightmare neighbor who plays fast and loose with state workers’ compensation and disability rules. There are not enough voters in the district to form a majority in any of its five towns.

Published October 17, 2024.