Brian Lockhart
Published 10:46 p.m., Monday, March 19, 2012
Sylvester Salcedo, democratic candidate for U.S. senate, Bridgeport, Conn. March 8th, 2012. Photo: Ned Gerard / CT
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While other Democrats vying for the U.S. Senate nomination were criss-crossing the state seeking support from the party faithful, Sylvester Lee Salcedo was in Mexico.
Salcedo, a Bridgeport-based attorney, last month drove south and crossed the border into Nuevo Laredo, a town in the crossfire of the drug war, spending four hours there. A major plank of his campaign platform is legalizing, regulating and taxing narcotics.
"I wanted to highlight somebody like me could go into Mexico and try to make some overtures that my candidacy is about bringing peace to the war on drugs," Salcedo, 55, said. "I wanted to try to let the Mexicans know somebody in the United States is thinking about them, express our condolences and regret (for) the heavy loss of lives in the cross-fire."
Salcedo was on the front lines during the final few years of his nearly 21-year career with the U.S. Navy, helping federal law enforcement conduct intelligence analysis in high drug trafficking areas like New York, Miami and Puerto Rico, .
"I'm a veteran and I'm specifically a veteran of the war on drugs," he said. "(The nation must) unburden ourselves of all this psycho-morality morass that has kept us back for the last 40 years."
Salcedo said he has also witnessed the negative impact of the drug wars in Bridgeport, where he relocated in 2000.
"I have seen not only in my military tours, but also in my own civilian life, living in the East side, all the ills -- the bad schools, crime levels, lack of investment -- it all has to do with a war on drugs," he said. "Look at the neighborhoods people do not invest in. Nobody's moving there because it's this perception it's overrun by the criminal element. And it's not smuggled diamonds or hi-tech products being smuggled and traded. It's drugs -- marijuana, heroine."
And, he argued, related criminal records make it hard for minorities to find work and rehabilitate themselves.
"You can get over an addiction, but not a conviction," he said.
Salcedo launched his law practice in 2003 and, after losing a 2008 bid for the City Council, moved to Orange with his wife.
His firm -- Hodges & Salcedo, LLC -- is located on North Avenue, and handles probate court cases, business forwarded by the Department of Children and Families, immigration matters and some petty criminal cases.
The Senate contest is currently dominated on the Democratic side by U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, who is viewed as the front runner, followed by former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and state Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford.
They are competing for the nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Stamford.
"It's an open seat, which attracted me," Salcedo said. "And I'm not real excited about the Democratic candidates. I said `this is a chance to try to highlight what I think is of great concern -- the war on drugs and what's happening in Mexico.'"
Asked about his other political positions, Salcedo said, "I consider myself as liberal and progressive as Chris Murphy. I'm the Filipino-American version."
Salcedo said he wants to use his perspective as a veteran to push for a more modern, less expensive military. But, he cautioned, that does not mean closing the Groton/New London naval submarine base -- an issue that often embroils Connecticut's senators.
"I would fight to keep that open," he said. "We need some of the technology. We still need the training."
Salcedo had initially decided he was not going to raise funds for his campaign. But, he said, "now that I've made my Mexico thing and came back alive" he will approach veterans and college students for small donations.
"An election is an open market of ideas," he said.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Salcedo-Legalize-regulate-drugs-3419324.php#ixzz1pcxqHTEZ
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