By Chris Powell
One explanation offered for the failure of the Republican campaign in Connecticut’s state election rings hollow: that the Republicans are good complainers but don’t offer solutions.
Maybe, but even if so, this hardly explains the election’s results. For given the great advantages they had everywhere in the country — like inflation, open borders, and rising crime — on the whole Republicans performed poorly, and that performance was worse in Connecticut only insofar as the state is so Democratic.
The national Republican failure suggests that its causes were common across the country — the party’s association with the unpopular former president, Donald Trump, the desire of some Republicans to outlaw abortion, and the heavy support given to Democrats by national media organizations.
Even if Connecticut Republicans are light on solutions, it has been 12 years since Republicans were in charge in the state, and the state has many problems that have been around for decades. So where have the [ITALICS] Democratic [END ITALICS] solutions been all this time? Where were they on Election Day?
Poverty and dependence long have been rising in Connecticut, prompting state government to keep creating remedial programs.
School performance was crashing long before the recent virus epidemic.
Murders and shootings have risen lately and long have been common in the ever-impoverished cities. (Hartford had three murders last week.) Repeat offenders long have been and remain a major source of crime, but now elected officials boast of closing prisons.
For many years Connecticut has lagged the nation in economic growth and led the nation in the export of self-sufficient people.
The Democratic “solutions” to these problems have been little more than enlarging government and raising government pay. No big problems have been solved or even diminished much, but this has not prevented [ITALICS] Democrats [END ITALICS] from winning elections.
Along with the rest of the country Connecticut eagerly awaits solutions from anyone. But if Republicans lack solutions, why should Democrats, fresh from their sweeping victory, think Connecticut even needs solutions? For when you have a secure government job with a great salary, benefits, and pension, and tons of lucrative patronage to bestow, what’s the problem?
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Sweating out the vote count on her campaign for re-election, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes was indignant and bitter about having faced a strong challenge from Republican George Logan in Connecticut’s 5th District.
Hayes complained that her integrity and even her family had been attacked and that so much “outside” money had been spent on the race by political action committees.
Her hypocrisy was laughable.
For Hayes’ family became an issue only because she had put her children on her campaign’s payroll. (When Republicans do that, it’s nepotism. When Democrats do it, it’s love and trust.)
As for the “outside” money that descended on the 5th District, the television commercials the money paid for suggested that just as much of it was spent disparaging Logan as Hayes.
“Outside” money financed the frequent broadcast of a commercial misrepresenting Logan’s position on abortion. A vote for Logan, the commercial said, was a vote to ban abortion nationally as well as in Connecticut. But Logan was [ITALICS] against [END ITALICS] outlawing abortion.
That commercial became a reason to root for Logan. He fell 1,800 votes short, but if he had won, Hayes might have had to admit either that the people of her district want to ban abortion or that her “outside” money supporters had just been kidding about that.
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The defeated Republican nominee for governor, Bob Stefanowski, is being mocked for claiming that his campaign had some impact. Conceding to Governor Lamont, Stefanowski said: “This campaign was an example of what can be done when you stand up for what you believe in. We may not have won, but we changed the course of Connecticut by advocating for the people.”
This may not have been such an exaggeration. Stefanowski made taxes a big issue, particularly the state gas tax, whose suspension ends in a few days. During the campaign the governor was against cutting taxes. But the morning after his re-election he said he might support continuing the suspension of the gas tax.
Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut. (CPowell@JournalInquirer.com)
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Chris Powell column 