By Chris Powell
Late-developing enthusiasm among devotees of former President Donald Trump is being given as the cause of Leora Levy’s unexpected victory in the primary for Connecticut’s Republican U.S. Senate nomination over Themis Klarides, the former state representative who had the endorsement of the party’s state convention.
Trump endorsed Levy just a few days before the primary and on the day before the primary the FBI raided Trump’s home in Florida, deepening the impression that the Democratic national administration is determined to destroy him personally, thus restoring the sympathy he gradually had been losing among Republicans.
Primaries are usually decided by enthusiasm, since voter participation tends to be low, and the Republican Senate primary appears to have drawn fewer than 19% of the party’s 500,000 members in the state. Of course that lack of participation also can be construed to mean that 81% of Connecticut Republicans don’t care much for Trump — or for anyone.
But enthusiasm for Trump may not explain Klarides’ defeat as well as that lack of enthusiasm for her. Klarides got about 37,000 votes, Levy not quite 47,000. About 400,000 Connecticut Republicans didn’t vote. What did Klarides have to say to them?
Not much, it seemed.
Yes, Klarides had 22 years in the General Assembly, six of them as House Republican leader, while Levy has no practical experience in government. Klarides was acknowledged as the sort of fiscally conservative and socially moderate Republican that has had some success in heavily Democratic Connecticut. She fairly claimed to be the most electable of the Republican Senate candidates. Her broadcast commercials touted her working-class origins in the gritty Naugatuck Valley.
But where did she stand on controversial federal issues or on any issues that would rouse Republicans?
Exactly how would she hammer the Democratic nominee, two-term U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal? How would she make Republicans want to slog through the heat and humidity of the summer’s worst day to vote for her?
She was light on that stuff. She didn’t give enough Republicans a reason. Indeed, she seemed to lack enthusiasm for her own campaign.
As for Levy, now that the primary is over, her association with Trump flips from asset to liability, Trump being so unpopular in the state as a whole.
Levy’s character is a liability too — that of a clumsy opportunist. Before Trump came to power she denounced him for his vulgarity, but once he gained power she sidled up to him with campaign contributions and bought a nomination for ambassador. She pledged support for abortion rights before calculating that such a position wouldn’t help her gain a Republican nomination, and so reversed herself. While she mocked Klarides as a Republican in name only, Levy herself had donated to an earlier Blumenthal campaign, working both sides of the street for business reasons.
Levy knows where she stands — wherever it benefits her politically.
Levy’s character failings don’t mean that a compelling campaign can’t be waged against Blumenthal. But the senator is not likely to be defeated in Connecticut by support for Trump and outlawing abortion.
A challenger to Blumenthal [ITALICS] might [END ITALICS] become competitive by showing that even as he denounces Republicans as radicals, the senator is far more radical in many respects.
That is, re-electing Blumenthal and strengthening the Democratic majority in Congress likely means nationalizing late-term abortion; prohibiting parental notification of abortions for minors and thus protecting their rapists; continuing the Biden administration’s policy of open borders; giving voting rights to illegal immigrants; gun confiscation; and the full range of transgenderism — federal funding for sex-change surgery and drugs for minors and a federal right for biological males to compete in women’s sports, effectively the repeal of equal opportunity for women.
Weeks ago the Republicans were favored to take both the House and the Senate. But now chances are good that the Democrats will hold the Senate, because Republicans are nominating such awful candidates. To avoid that trend, Levy has three months to become a political wizard who can make people overlook who she is.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years.
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Chris Powell column 