Courtesy of Sean Scanlon

In his bid for the state comptroller seat, State Rep. Sean Scanlon hopes to pull from his experience in the Connecticut House of Representatives and at the Tweed New Haven Airport to equitably manage state finances. 

In the upcoming election on November 8, Connecticut residents will vote for six state executive officials, including the state comptroller. The Connecticut state comptroller is the chief fiscal officer who runs the Office of the State Comptroller. 

The role is responsible for overseeing and controlling state finance, managing insurance and health services and administering grants to municipalities. Democratic nominee Scanlon, a representative from Guilford who works in New Haven, will compete against West Hartford Republican Mary Fay for the open seat.

“I worked a lot with our previous comptroller Kevin Lembo on a number of different things, whether it was budget reforms or health care reform,” Scanlon told the News. “And when he decided to resign … I viewed running for [comptroller] as a continuation of the work that I’m doing in the [Connecticut House of Representatives] to try to make Connecticut more affordable.”

When Kevin Lembo resigned due to health issues on Dec. 31, 2021, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont appointed Natalie Braswell to the position temporarily under the promise that she would not run for the seat this year. With this, the seat is open for the taking in the upcoming elections. 

Scanlon has been a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives since 2014 where he served as a chairman of both the finance and insurance committees, which work closely with the state comptroller. Scanlon said he achieved results he is proud of, including creating a state-run public option for health insurance in Connecticut and lowering drug costs. 

State Rep. Elani Kavros DeGraw is the vice chair of the finance committee, where she works with Scanlon. She told the News that Scanlon is a leader able to cross the party line. 

“I think the fact that he actively would seek input from the Republican leadership members on the committee … makes a difference,” said DeGraw. “That’s what people want to see more of, especially our voters.” 

DeGraw said that the recent child tax credit Scanlon pushed through the finance committee has helped thousands of families in Connecticut. She stressed that under his leadership, the committee presented a budget that didn’t raise taxes, which she said was another “significant achievement.”

Since 2019, Scanlon has also served as the executive director of the Tweed New Haven Airport. 

John Picard, chair of the Tweed-New Haven Airport board, told the News that Scanlon is very conscientious of budget management and able to pay attention to small details in finance. Under Scanlon’s leadership, Tweed expanded from having 80,000 to 500,000 passengers annually. 

“For a little while, there was nothing at [Tweed], and you could park anywhere in the parking lot, which was empty,” said Picard. “There is no question that … [Scanlon] brought Tweed back on the map.”

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker told the News that Scanlon was able to find compromises and address the number of concerns the city had about the airport. 

“I raised concerns about the city’s annual subsidy to the airport … and around noise to the surrounding community and traffic,” said Elicker. “[Scanlon] was able to identify solutions that ultimately eliminated the city’s financial subsidy to the airport in perpetuity and invested our private funds in traffic calming and noise abatement.”

Elicker said that Scanlon demonstrated “integrity” and a “creative approach to problem-solving” while working at Tweed, qualities that he believes the state comptroller needs to have. Elicker is particularly excited about Scanlon’s plans to help municipalities address significantly increasing health care costs.

Scanlon told the News that his experiences managing Tweed have readied him to run the Connecticut Office of the State Comptroller, which is of a similar size in terms of personnel. 

“Certainly, I am prepared to take office in January and get right to work, given my background and my experience working in both the private sector and the government,” said Scanlon. 

Republican nominee Mary Fay’s team did not respond to requests for comment. 

According to Fay’s campaign website, her priorities if elected as state comptroller will be “restoring integrity, tightening financial controls, increasing efficiency and improving accuracy of reporting and forecasting.”On Election Day on November 8, polls in Connecticut will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.