Rick Torres may be considered an anomaly by some. Not only is he a Republican in a city where Democrats outweigh the GOP faithful, he's a Latino Republican.
On a warm spring morning, Torres, 51, sits at a table outside the Harborview Market, the business he owns in the neighborhood where he lives, talking about the life experiences that shaped him into the staunch conservative he is today.
Torres is working hard to secure the Republican nomination -- there are six candidates -- to unseat Democrat U.S. Rep Jim Himes in the Fourth Congressional District.
It would be easier, especially in Bridgeport, to be a Democrat. Hispanics tend to vote Democrat. And, in fact, at one point Torres himself was a Democrat.
Not any more. Not after living across the street from the P.T. Barnum housing complex in Section 8 housing -- housing subsidized by the government -- after he father moved the family back to the U.S. from Cuba in 1967.
"I believe in me, I believe in you," Torres said.
"I don't believe in the government. The problem with the government is they don't get it right. I want to fix it and the only way to fix it is to get government out of it."
He wants, he said, to "liberate the people living in public housing ... It was intended to help, but it does the opposite. The children don't see anyone who's never been on welfare. Everyone's been on welfare so long, that's the norm for them."
Torres said he thinks there should be a homesteader plan--if you've lived in public housing for 10 years or more, it's yours.
"Get them off welfare, let them earn as much as they can, and keep as much as they can," he said.
"Open the doors of education. That's what you and I take for granted. That's foreign to them. That's just the way it is and there's no other way to say it better."
He admits that some of his stands are not always popular with his customers, but that doesn't bother him, Torres said, as he points to a man sitting inside.
"That guy, he's a Socialist." Going against the grain, the accepted way to do things, the easiest way, is not something new for Torres.
The GOP candidate for mayor in 2003, he was ousted in 2007 as chairman of the city's Republican Town Committee after he urged GOP members to switch to Democrat to vote in a primary for mayoral candidate Chris Caruso. Torres said it was the best way to get rid of an entrenched Democratic machine.
As a high school senior, he was offered full college scholarships, so long as he played football or basketball. At age 18, though, his shoulder was shot, his knees were shot, his back hurt. Torres just wanted an education.
He founded himself at the Milford Academy, and bartered the carpentry skills he'd acquired at Bullard -Havens Technical High School to pay his way at the post grad prep school rather than play football, which would have also gotten him a free ride.
Torres found himself the winner of the popularity polls at Bullards-Havens, where he captained the basketball team, played football and was elected as the prom king.
He's also found himself ostracized, and was ready to quite Milford Acemdy after two month when none of his fellow students, all much wealtheir than he was, would even speak to him.
He's had success in business-his Harborview Market received outpouring support from the Black Rock community when he needed zoning variances to stay open. He's also had disappointments-a deal that would have brought a car manufacturer to the city fell through.
Today, Torres said, he is comfortable speaking to any sort of group.
"It's really cool. I can give a talk at the highest level of corporate office," he said, "and then I can go into an inner-city black church and give it again and then I can go into a Hispanic church and give it in Spanish."
Torres said he'd talked to millionaires in Greenwich, and students at Housatonic Community College.
"I give the same talk about small government and free markets," he said. "It's really a decent message."
Until the last election, the district was held by Christopher Shays, who was defeated by Jim Himes.
"I'm not a Chris Shays style representative," Torres said. "I'm not a moderate. I'm a conservative through and through."
He knows that means the Republican organization in the district is leaning toward candidates like Rob Russo and state Rep. Dan Debicella, who follow the Shays ideology.
But, he's raised about $50,000 and said there are many people in Fairfield County who agree with him. "I've found a gold vein, so to speak," Torres said. "I think we're going to strike it rich."
His goal is to raise "at least" $300,000 for the primary.
And he has no doubt that not only will he win a Republican primary, he'll win back the seat for the party.
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