Angel Cadena Jr., Republican for state comptroller
An angel — with a capital “A” — must be looking over the shoulder of Connecticut Republicans, who had been struggling to recruit a candidate to run for state comptroller.
Angel Cadena Jr., 33, a Marine Corps veteran from Shelton and former legislative intern who has worked on behalf of multiple GOP candidates, recently stepped forward to fill the void by filing paperwork with the state Elections Enforcement Commission in the comptroller’s race.
“I’ve always enjoyed politics. I’ve been studying it my whole life,,” Cadena told Hearst Connecticut Media. “The opportunity was presented to me. It’s something I’m completely able to do.”
A graduate of Southern Connecticut State University who did tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cadena has never run for public office before and is seeking the GOP’s nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Kevin Lembo.
Cadena completed an internship at the Capitol for state Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, and was a veterans’ liaison for Linda McMahon’s unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.
He is currently a campaign consultant for James Brown, who is expected to be the GOP challenger against Democrat Rosa DeLauro in the 3rd Congressional District.
For months on end, Republicans might as well have looked on the back of a milk carton for a candidate for comptroller.
So glaring was the void that it elicited one of the biggest punchlines during the GOP’s Prescott Bush fundraising dinner last month, when party chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. was going through the roll call of candidates for statewide office.
“And, for comptroller, actually, we don’t have anyone,” Labriola said, drawing laughs from many of the 700-plus Republicans in a room that included former Florida Gov. and rumored 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.
A Chicago native, Cadena spoke candidly about the gang violence that took place around him growing up during a Second Amendment rally last year outside the Capitol.
“It is no mistake that the right to bear arms follows the right to free speech,” Cadena said of the Constitution.
Cadena characterized the adoption of tougest-in-the-nation gun law by Connecticut in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre as an “illegal assault on our rights.”
Should he earn the endorsement of the GOP during its upcoming party convention, Cadena would bring diversity to a ticket that some Republicans privately expressed concerns could be dominated by white, male candidates.
Cadena was self-deprecating about his Hispanic heritage in his opening remarks at last year’s gun rally.
“First of all, I’m not here to cut the grass, so stop asking,” Cadena said.
And for comptroller actually we don’t have anyone.