Hartford Business Journal

HBJ020623UF

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14 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 6, 2022 Lobbyist Jean Cronin inside the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER Spirited Debate Longtime package store lobbyist Cronin faces one of her toughest political fights in supermarket wine-sales push By Robert Storace rstorace@hartfordbusiness.com I n Washington, D.C., big tech, Wall Street and the defense industry carry significant influence when it comes to shaping public policy and federal spending. At the state Capitol in Hartford there's a different industry group that doesn't have nearly as much financial backing, but wields serious power: package store owners. And behind every powerful interest group typically lies an influential lobbyist. For more than 40 years, lobbyist Carroll Hughes led Connecticut package stores in their fight with supermarkets and others on a number of issues, including Sunday sales and wine in grocery stores. Following his death in late 2021, Hughes' business partner and wife, Jean Cronin, became the face of the package store industry. Now, in only year two leading Old Saybrook-based Hughes & Cronin Public Affairs Strategies and the Connecticut Package Stores Associ- ation, Cronin, 61, is facing perhaps one of her biggest political fights yet. For decades, Hughes and Cronin successfully persuaded lawmakers to give package stores exclusive rights to sell wine and spirits, despite heavy lobbying from the Connecticut Food Association (CFA) to extend sales to grocery stores. This year, the CFA, which represents 260 supermarkets in the state, is doubling down on its lobbying efforts by conducting a wide- scale media campaign to drum up public support. Connecticut is one of only eight states that doesn't allow grocery stores to sell wine and spirits. CFA President Wayne Pesce said reversing that ban is long overdue. Potentially at stake for the state's 1,250 package stores, many owned by independent, small business oper- ators, is their future financial health — wine is their highest profit margin product, Cronin said. Pesce said he expects no less fight from Cronin, who he called a formidable adversary who knows the issue, how the state Capitol oper- ates and most, if not every player in the legislature. "She's very good at what she does and she has great people skills and that's what the job calls for," Pesce said. It was Pesce, in fact, who warned Cronin last year that his group would be ratcheting up the wine-sales battle in 2023. "We actually found out about all of this in the spring of 2022 from Wayne Pesce when he came up to my son and said he was sorry about my husband's passing and that he was coming in big time next year (2023) for wine in grocery stores," Cronin said. "We got a heads-up, we just didn't know what big-time meant. We do now as they are putting on quite a show of force." In addition to the Connecticut Package Stores Association, the Indian American Package Stores Association is also opposing grocery stores on wine sales. Career influences Cronin earned a communications degree at UConn and early in her career held positions in the financial and insurance sectors for Citicorp and Aetna. Later, she served as a commu- nications strategist for the Senate Republicans, prior to becoming a lobbyist and joining her husband's firm in 1986. Hughes, who died at age 79 after a battle with leukemia, was credited with establishing the state's first independent lobbying practice in 1970s; he took on representation of the Connecticut Package Stores Association that same decade. Cronin said her husband was a great teacher, influencer and partner, but they also had different styles, each effective in their own way. "My husband would get a little distressed at times; he was a little more emotional than I am," Cronin said. "He would tend to get worked up on an issue if someone was not on board, or something was changing or getting disrupted. We always had a plan of how we worked through it, but he would often get riled up and I tended to be a little more even-keeled." Cronin said she also gets more involved in the inner-workings of policy issues. Key to her success, she added, is relationship-building with policy- makers. On an average day, Cronin said she will meet with 30 to 40 legis- lators, either on Zoom or in person. Her typical day at the Legislative Office Building begins when the doors open at 8 a.m. Depending on what issues are being debated, she could be there until late into the evening. Today, Cronin's five-person firm includes her son — 28-year-old Sean Hughes, who is vice president — and lobbyist Mallory Daley, in addition to an administrative assis- tant and part-time bookkeeper. Cronin said she's grooming her son to one day take over the family business. About half of the firm's work is focused on representing the package store industry; it has 22 overall clients, including the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, Connecticut School Transportation Association and American Chemistry Council. In the 2021-22 reporting period, Hughes & Cronin Public Affairs recorded $1.3 million in total compensation, putting it among the 25 highest-earning lobbying firms in the state, according to data from the Office of State Ethics. Cronin said operating a small firm allows her team to pivot quickly when issues arise. "We are the strategists, the lobby- ists, the researchers and everything in between," she said. Industry respect Former Connecticut House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, now a lobbyist for New Britain-based JEAN CRONIN President Hughes & Cronin Public Affairs Strategies Education: Bachelor's degree in communications, UConn Age: 61 LOBBYING SPENDING BY INTEREST GROUP (2021-22) CT Food Association $69,377.50 CT Package Stores Association $76,648.29 Indian American Package Stores Association $16,952.50 Source: Office of State Ethics

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