🔒HBJ analysis finds CT state lawmakers have diverse occupational backgrounds; 10.3% are business owners

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State Rep. David W. Yaccarino (R-North Haven) can usually tell when another legislator isn’t a baseball card or comic book fanatic.

Yaccarino owns DJ’s Cards and Comics in North Haven, a business he’s operated for nearly three decades, even while serving in the legislature for the past 14 years.

“Someone will say, ‘Do you make a living doing that?’ That’s the famous line,” Yaccarino said. “And I say, ‘Are you sure you know what you just said?’ It’s embarrassing.”

While he’s not the only successful business owner in the Connecticut General Assembly, his shop — which sells sports and gaming cards, comic books and collectibles — might be the most unique.

Hartford Business Journal conducted an analysis of the occupations for all 185 members of the House and Senate (there currently are two open seats, one in each chamber) for the 2025 legislative session, which convened on Jan. 8.

The intent was to determine the current or most recent jobs held by each member of what is supposed to be a part-time legislature, in an attempt to gain some insight into the life experiences and, possibly, motivations of Connecticut’s lawmakers.

The analysis also found that the state legislature has fewer working-class members than is typical nationwide.

The data

According to HBJ’s analysis, legislators in the House and Senate have more than 65 different occupations.

The top occupation among all legislators is attorney, with a combined total of 25, or 13.5% of the General Assembly.

That number would have been higher, but two attorneys who were elected as legislators did not take their oaths of office for the current session:

• Rep. Christine Conley (D-Groton), who is expected to be appointed to the state Workers’ Compensation Commission; and
• Rep. Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford), who is expected to be nominated as a judge.

It also should be noted that HBJ included only practicing attorneys in its count, not just anyone with a law degree.

Rounding out the top five occupations in the General Assembly are teachers (including pre- and post-secondary educators; administrators were counted separately) with 20 legislators or 10.8%; business owners with 19 (10.3%); nonprofit-related professionals with 12 (6.5%); and real estate professionals with 10 (5.4%).

Of the attorneys, 21 are members of the House, making it the top occupation in that chamber. That’s followed by teachers/educators with 17 and business owners with 14.

In the Senate, the top occupation is business owner with five, followed by attorney and union-related (four each).

White vs. blue collar

An overwhelming majority of legislators have white-collar jobs; only a couple (1.08%) qualify as being in, or having worked in, working-class roles.

That’s below the national percentage determined by a recent Duke University and Loyola University Chicago study, which found the share of state legislators nationwide with working-class jobs in 2023 was 1.6%. In fact, the universities found 10 states where “not a single lawmaker” had a working-class job.

The study, which reviewed the occupations of 7,300 lawmakers nationwide, defines working-class jobs as requiring manual labor, like a construction worker; service industry roles like restaurant servers; clerical jobs like receptionists; or jobs working for union organizations.

It did not count business owners, sole proprietors or farm owners, but did include those who worked for them. It also didn’t count traditional blue-collar roles like police officers or firefighters — the General Assembly has five of those.

The full list of occupations in Connecticut’s legislature is diversified and includes some jobs that might be considered unusual for a state lawmaker.

For example, Rep. John Piscopo (R-Thomaston) is a former house painter. Sen. Christine Cohen (D-Guilford) owns Cohen’s Bagel Company, a bakery; Sen. Paul Cicarella (R-North Haven) owns a private investigations firm; and Sen. Norm Needleman (D-Essex) founded a pharmaceutical manufacturing company 40 years ago called Tower Laboratories.

Then there’s Rep. Kenneth Gucker (D-Danbury), who owns ECI Restorations, a business that restores classic Mercury Cougars and Ford Mustangs.

‘Swinging a hammer’

Gucker says he comes from a “very blue-collar background.”

He earned a degree in graphic design and studied engineering, eventually working in commercial construction as an engineer. But when the economy soured, he said, “I went back to what got me through life, which was swinging a hammer.”

Gucker started his own construction business, but restored Cougars on the side. He bought his first Cougar, a 1970 model, while in college at Western Connecticut State University, and he’s been restoring them ever since.

Gucker founded his restoration business about 25 years ago, when demand for his skills grew to the point where it became his primary income source.

He has since built “many show-winning Cougars,” he said, and is now a national judge for competitions.

Gucker has, however, shuttered his restoration business in Shelton to focus on helping his constituents. He’s in his third term; he served two terms from 2019-23, lost re-election by a staggeringly close 26 votes, then regained the seat last November.

“I still have work that needs to be done, but at this time I want to see what my workload is going to be so I can see if it’s worth opening up my shop again,” he said.

Schedule flexibility

Gucker believes his situation illustrates why there aren’t more working-class people in the legislature.

“What affects some of these people is the scheduling,” he said. “Legislators have to be flexible to be able to come back and forth (to Hartford).”

Schedule flexibility is one reason there are so many lawyers and real estate agents in the General Assembly, he added.

By contrast, for sole proprietors like himself, or the self-employed, “people think you can call your own schedule,” Gucker said. “No, you really can’t, because the responsibilities that are incumbent upon you to keep the business open are far, far more” than many realize.

Quinnipiac University political science professor Scott McLean agrees. He says there are two schools of thought about the way a state legislature is populated.

One is called “descriptive representation,” which suggests the legislature should reflect a state’s demographics, including gender, race and educational background.

The other suggests that people may believe lawmakers are advocates for various interest groups, but don’t need a background that closely reflects those groups.

Instead, a professional “might actually do a better job of that if they have a background as, say, a lawyer,” McLean said. “Or they might understand fiscal policy well because they were a business owner.”

Pay raise

McLean also says that another reason there are so many professionals in the legislature is something more basic: low pay.

Until a few years ago, the base pay for legislators was $28,000, reflecting the intended part-time nature of the job. The legislature is in session for six months in every odd year, four months in even years.

“You can’t live on that, especially when you’re working class,” McLean said.

In 2022, however, the General Assembly approved raising the base pay to $40,000, and it took effect on Jan. 4, 2023, the first increase in more than two decades. The legislation also approved adjusting the rate every term; the first adjustment will increase the base again to $43,600.

Legislators can earn additional pay if they have a leadership title, which many do. Annual compensation for committee co-chairs and assistant leaders, for example, is $50,685, according to the CT Mirror.

Another issue is that, although it’s a part-time position, increasingly the legislator role requires closer to full-time hours, or at least year-round work, particularly for those in leadership positions pulling the strings of power.

‘They have no idea’

For Yaccarino, serving in the legislature is not about the money. Like Gucker, he has a background in auto repair and believes his experience as a blue-collar worker and business owner is invaluable in the legislature.

He says his business is more difficult to operate than other retail stores, because of the volatile nature of and competition for cards and collectibles. And yet, at its core, he still has to keep his shop’s lights and heat on, and pay his employees.

“I’ve talked to fellow legislators,” Yaccarino said. “They have no idea how hard it is to run this business.”

A member of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, he said his experience helps him do a better job.

“You know, I believe in fiscal responsibility, because with that, you could do more with money,” he said. “When I had my busy times, I put money back in the product, or improving the building, or maybe helping my employees a little better. And that goal goes a long way.”