Quantcast

John Cardamone: Candidate for Common Council At-Large

September 16, 2025
–
Ashley RK Smith

John Cardamone

Candidate for Common Council At-Large

Party Affiliation: Republican

Why are you running for Common Council At-Large, and what do you hope to accomplish if elected?  

My mother raised me to be a patriot and she also taught me if you don’t vote you can’t complain! I believe the same is true. If you don’t like the direction of the city, then you should participate in its governance so that’s what I’m seeking to do. I hope to return the city back to the people because it belongs to them not to some politicians in Hartford or anywhere else!

What does it mean to represent the entire city “at-large” as opposed to a specific district? How will you ensure all neighborhoods are heard?  

You are available to all people you represent them and their voice and their concerns.

What are the top three issues you believe Norwalk needs to address in the next two years, and how would you approach them?  

Spending, especially if the board of Ed and exorbitant pay pensions should also be evaluated! And above all our precious waterfront should be protected from greedy developers and exploitation by politic!

How would you balance the need for economic development with concerns about overdevelopment and infrastructure strain?  

Development and growth is natural for any healthy town or city. But it must be done, reasonably with common sense and not forcing things down the throats of a hard-working citizens!

What’s your stance on affordable housing in Norwalk? What policies or zoning reforms do you support or oppose?  

Affordable housing should be pursued with the priority on citizens Of Norwalk first! For the last 10 years, I have worked with a Homeless Ministry feeding the poor on Sunday mornings and giving out clothes and Bibles. There are many needs out there, including issues of mental health and addictions the poor and especially our senior citizens deserve available housing!

Do you support expanding public transit, pedestrian infrastructure, and bike lanes in Norwalk?  Why or why not?  

when I graduated from Norwalk high school in 1976 the wheels bus organization was just beginning and they came to our high school and surveyed us to see if we would pay a quarter $.25 to ride the bus! 😇 I used to when I worked Norwalk saving society at Caldor in 1979-81. we absolutely need to encourage mass transit and bicycles however, I’m very concerned with these new electric bikes and scooters and things flying around town silently endangering pedestrians and not following the rules of the road!

How do you view the role of the Council in the city’s annual budget process? Would you support reforms to increase fiscal transparency or community involvement?  

Transparency is the number one thing we need in the city government! For too long, the controlling Democratic parties have left many citizens in the dark, and we are there to represent them and their concerns!

Do you support the recent Charter Revision proposals? Are there any structural reforms to local government you’d like to see pursued in the future? 

The charter revision sounded like a great idea since it was long overdue since it’s last revision apparently in 1913 when South Norwalk Norwalk merged as one city I have no doubt to committee worked very hard however, there are concerns again because Norwalk has run like a communist country with one party tha that the Democrats have too much power and the voices of many citizens is not being heard! One of the main things we wanted to see is minority party representation in the city

 How will you promote transparency and open communication between the Council and the public?  

Transparency is the most important thing in government. It must be pursued at all cost! An open door policy for all meetings and any significant committees, making decisions which affect the lives of New York citizens must be Paramount!

Norwalk residents sometimes report feeling unheard during public comment periods. How would you make community input more impactful and accessible?  

all meetings, taking place in Cityhall must be communicated to the public, allowing their manful time to participate inconvenient formats, including zoom and anything else to facilitate the participation of citizens!

What specific steps would you take to support equity and inclusion across Norwalk’s diverse communities?  

DEI is a popular phrase today which perhaps has good intentions. I know the common council has 15 Democrats on it six of whom are African-American for example which equals approximately 40% the African-American population in Norwalk is almost 18% much larger than 12% national average. So then the question becomes who’s left out? Hispanic Americans? Asians? In a Democratic Republic the door is open for all citizens to participate!

How would you advocate for Norwalk’s youth, especially in areas like education, recreation, and job readiness?  

 I’m afraid our school systems need to be overhauled especially our high! I think it’s tragic that we’re spending exorbitant amount of money on a new high school and preparing to knock down a solid concrete 50+ year-old building! 🥵 it would seem what would be better is to retro fit it for perhaps a vocational school where we have more diversity in training young people for jobs in blue-collar industries, military nursing power mechanics back in the day when I went to Nathan Hale and our high school in the early 70s all those things were available we have short changed this generation significantly!

How will you work with other council members to promote collaboration across differing perspectives?  

The first step is always listening. The next step is trying to understand the perspective of those who differ with you, and the third step is trying to exercise consideration in recognizing the value of other points of view.

What prior experience, professional, civic, or volunteer, has best prepared you for this role?  

I have a fairly diverse vocational experience my masters degree is in divinity, and I have pastored three churches in lowerFairfield County, over the past 30 years. I also have worked at local retail banking beginning 45 years ago and retire from that several years ago. I also have been a painting contractor and had a small business for 37 years. I’ve also been a real estate agent now for four years. I’ve also done a significant amount of ministry with veterans,(publishing a book, War Stories and remembrance) seniors, the elderly the poor and the homeless over the last 40 years and I’ve traveled to at least 25 countries. One One of my favorite things in life is to meet new people!

If elected, how will you stay accessible and accountable to the people of Norwalk over your term? 

I try to use common sense I know how to balance a checkbook, and I always try to speak the truth! Jesus said that is what set us free! and along with loving God our neighbor as ourselves, that is how I try to live my life, and I hope it will be a parent to others who would find me approachable with whatever need they may have!

Thank you for your consideration. 

Editor’s note: NancyOnNorwalk sent questionnaires to all Common Council At-Large candidates who were endorsed by Aug. 7, with a response deadline of Aug. 18. Candidate profiles are being published individually as submissions are received. Candidate Luis Estrella’s responses are being published later because we initially had an incorrect email address for him. Candidate responses are published as submitted, without editing for grammar or style.

More Stories

Comments

7 responses to “John Cardamone: Candidate for Common Council At-Large”

  1. Mike Mushak

    Please read this entire interview closely and draw your own conclusions, as any educated voter should. Then imagine being represented by a Republican candidate who talks like this. Republican Common Council candidate John Cardamone’s own words from this published interview, verbatim:

    “there are concerns again because Norwalk has run like a communist country with one party tha that the Democrats have too much power and the voices of many citizens is not being heard! One of the main things we wanted to see is minority party representation in the city”.

    After reading these bizarre words calling our great city a “communist country”, and then turning around and demanding “minority representation” without understanding that you might actually have to convince people to vote for you, it shouldn’t be a mystery why Republicans can’t get elected in our city of well-educated and diverse voters. This is almost as absurd as Republican mayoral candidate Vinny crying crocodile tears that his photo was included on a political postcard with leaders of his own party!

    Vote Democrat up and down the ballot this November. For sanity’s sake!

  2. Liz Conti

    Admittedly, using the words “communist community” are indeed strong, but yet the message is correct with respect to the fact that only Democrats are in power. This means that voices are not being heard, and many democrats are so ultra-focused on national politics and rhetoric that they regard 40% or so of the populous in a biased way, simply because of party affiliation and assumptions. Cardamone has a point and viewpoint that is viable, yet those who refuse to value diversity of thought, and acceptance of others in the community whose viewpoint is open-minded will never hear any viewpoint outside of their “norm” of perspective as reasonable.

    It is true that one-party rule and control can indeed be viewed and described as communism, which is a mechanism that controls the populous and censors any voices that choose to protest the views of those in control.

    Scary as the word is, so is the fact that only one party rules Norwalk, and diversity of leadership is not present. That certainly leaves many without adequate representation, does it not?

  3. Sharon Hametz

    Two comments:

    First, despite lots of recent evidence to the contrary, I’m going to assume that everyone on this forum is interested in civil debate. But to get there, we need to stop re-defining and throwing around inflammatory terms for the fun of it.

    Liz, Communism is an economic system wherein the means of production are controlled by the workers. Under that definition, I’m pretty sure you would agree that Norwalk is not a “communist community”– the proliferation of big box stores alone shows that we are nowhere near that.

    The implementation of Communist systems often result in politically authoritarian societies (as they did during the Cold War), and the term itself has become the go-to phrase for some pundits on the right for any proposal or policy that they don’t like. But that doesn’t make it any more correct. The use of it in this context is factually inaccurate, unnecessarily inflammatory, and, honestly, intellectually lazy.

    The Republican party isn’t in power in Norwalk right now because you don’t have the votes. It’s not a nefarious scheme by Democrats, and it certainly isn’t because of any kind of authoritarian political/economic system–Communist or otherwise. Last I checked, everyone can still vote and no-one’s being arrested or prevented from saying what they want. (At least not in Norwalk. I can’t speak for the rest of the country at the moment, but that’s a discussion for another forum.) We can think about other ways of ensuring that all voices are heard, including the sort of electoral reform that was considered for charter revision. But stop complaining about your lack of power with phrases that call to mind Soviet gulags. Right now, you don’t have the votes. Republicans had them before, and they may have them again in November. Until then, try to engage in civilized debate about issues instead of name-calling.

    Second, there are three things, at minimum, that every candidate for public office should be able to get right every time: his/her own name, the name of his/her opponent, and the place he/she is running to represent. So the reference to “New York citizens” under the question about transparency is pretty baffling. I assume it was a typo that auto-corrected to “New York” rather than Norwalk. But if that’s so, the fact that Mr. Cardamone couldn’t be bothered to proofread an official campaign statement before publication tells me all I need to know, particularly when many of his answers lean heavily into the “Norwalk for Norwalkers” vibe we’re hearing so much about. Why should we trust him to take the time to be informed about issues before the Council?

    PS: If the reference to New York was somehow the fault of NoN, I apologize for the previous paragraph.

  4. John O’Neill

    One thought for NON in order to help with transparency of candidates. As these candidates will be making decisions about our money
    it may be useful to research Civil Court Documents on-line to make sure they’re paying their own bills. It’s all public information.
    Some may find it useful. Maybe that’s a question to ask each individual candidate??

    1. David Muccigrosso

      I think it’s bad that we’re always looking to invalidate our political opponents by combing through their finances for the slightest hint of corruption.

      This is just an analog version of the digital “cancel culture” practice of going through someone’s internet comments to find anything that can remotely be construed as offensive towards some target audience in order to rile them up.

      I’m SICK of the constant silliness. A few years ago, someone tried accusing me on these forums of being a property owner because some poor sod with the same name over in White Plains or wherever owned an apartment building. Regardless of whether I might be right or wrong on the merits of any given argument here, does that have ANY bearing on whether I’m actually right or wrong? Of course not!

      John’s statements here speak for themselves. I oppose his candidacy on those grounds; I don’t need to dredge his bank account for suspicious activity to know that, and I don’t encourage anyone else who opposes him to bother with trying to disqualify him on such grounds.

      At any rate, most corruption and malign monetary influence in our politics doesn’t work like a direct “quid pro quo”. The reality is, any old entrenched interest can reasonably easily find a politician who happens to ALREADY and HONESTLY agree with their preferred policy, and will happily run for office out of their own ego/ambition, and simply needs to be properly bankrolled to be successful. If our only tool is to dig up these financial ties and “expose” them, we’ll be playing whack-a-mole forever. The real solution is to make it easier to defeat incumbents by breaking the two-party system into more parties. The less entrenched incumbents are, the easier it is to defeat the interests that back them.

  5. Bryan Meek

    Pure communism may exist in just a few countries, like North Korea and Cuba. China and VietNam, while ruled by the communists parties there aren’t really classical definitions of communism.

    We hardly are, but let’s not lose sight of how we flirted with Totalitarianism in the guise of a pandemic that wasn’t even in the top 50 all time killers.

    Totalitarianism is a political system where the state or a single ruler holds absolute control over all aspects of public and private life. It seeks to dominate every facet of society—politics, economy, culture, and ideology—often suppressing dissent, controlling media, and using propaganda, surveillance, and force to maintain power. Individual freedoms are heavily restricted, and loyalty to the regime is demanded.

    Churches and schools were closed while liquor stores and casinos remained opened. People were fired for not taking experimental gene therapies that were never (according to their inventor), never designed for mass populations, rather individual and personalized DNA structures. Leaders mocked those who wouldn’t comply. Travel and gathering were restricted. The current administration warned and chased away political opposition from an outdoor gathering at the beach while allowing a protest to march across I95 without a permit. Government forced the media to censor opposing view points. I could go on.

    Fortunately we are no where near close to communism and the nation spoke loudly and clearly that we will not tolerate Totalitarianism either.

    Back to Norwalk. The real story here is we are out of money and need to continue increasing taxes to oblivion to pay for all the stupid things we did not need and can not afford, while ignoring many more critical issues like the treatment plant and water systems and roads that needed to be improved yesterday, not after 1000s more cardboard apartments are approved.

  6. Bernard De la Rivera

    John Cardamone is all too familiar with getting in the trenches and helping the community. He has visited many of the local churches and mosques in Norwalk. He can be found on the weekends bringing food, clothing,Bibles and prayer to those in need. An author of war and remembrance a collection of some of our veterans stories he personally interviewed, John has worn many hats serving his community. What a great service to Norwalk if he were voted to common council.
    Detractors have no idea of the time and energy he has spent those in need. He is worthy of your vote.

Leave a Reply

Newsletter

Chalk Talk promo
Secret Link