Ridgefield Press
CAMPAIGN TRAIL: What the candidates are saying
Oct 3, 2006

With only a month remaining before the 2006 election, the local political all-stars are out in full force, meeting with Connecticut residents and talking about their plans for the district, the state and the country should they be elected.
The following is a summary of campaign news received between Sept. 22 and Oct. 1:

4th District race
Congress was rocked last week by the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla) after evidence emerged that the congressman was writing “overfriendly” and sexually explicit e-mails to a male teenage page. In Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, both Christopher Shays, the Republican incumbent, and Diane Farrell, his Democratic opponent, released statements condemning Mr. Foley’s impropriety and calling for a full investigation into his misconduct.
Mr. Shays targeted the leadership in general for not investigating Mr. Foley when it was discovered that other members of Congress may have known about the Florida congressman’s behavior.
“If they knew or should have known the extent of this problem, they should not serve in leadership,” he said.
Ms. Farrell expressed her sadness over the circumstances and her anger over the leadership’s failure to act on prior evidence.
“That the Republican House leadership apparently knew of this situation, but took no action, is yet another example of why this leadership must change,” she said. “This leadership, which has been so terribly wrong on so many policies, now seems willing to cover up events to protect its members. Clearly, we need a new direction for this Congress.”
While Washington considers the political and ethical implications of the fallout from the Foley incident, Mr. Shays and Ms. Farrell continue to campaign on issues that more directly affect the state.
Mr. Shays spent the last days of September working on national and state security initiatives. He signed one bill that appropriates $8 million from the federal government to bolster Connecticut’s defense of its public transportation system.
In Washington, Mr. Shays chaired a hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations on “Weapons of Mass Destruction: Current Nuclear Proliferation Challenges.”
Turning his attention to the environment, Mr. Shays issued a response to the Coast Guard’s Broadwater Report, a proposal for natural gaslines to be built in the Long Island Sound.
“The Coast Guard’s report heightens my concern about an LNG facility in Long Island Sound,” he said in a prepared statement. “Long Island Sound is our Yellowstone. It would be irresponsible to site an industrial facility in the middle of it, posing a safety and environmental risk to such a precious natural and economic resource. As a longtime advocate for protecting and preserving the Sound, I believe the ends simply do not justify the means.”
In the early part of this week, Ms. Farrell also spent time discussing energy issues and the environment. On Tuesday evening, Ms. Farrell brought together a panel of experts in Ridgefield to discuss a more comprehensive and innovative approach to “the oil-centric energy policy the Bush administration has championed relentlessly since it took office in 2001,” it said in a prepared release.
“Given the instability in the oil rich centers of the world, it is imperative that our leaders strive to make our nation energy independent. Yet from day one, the Bush Administration, with support from the Republican leadership, has made it a priority to give huge taxpayer subsidies to oil companies, even though they continue to post record profits quarter after quarter,” Ms. Farrell said.
After Mr. Shays reported that the Bridgeport Harbor would be receiving $24,000 from the government for new dive suits, Ms. Farrell called the funding “welcome,” but “inadequate.”
Referring to last week’s $15,000-a-plate Greenwich fund-raiser in which President Bush was the guest of honor, Ms. Farrell said that her opponent was spending more effort raising money for his party than he has in doing his job working for the state.
“The truth is this — this week Chris Shays helped President Bush raise more than 30 times as much money in two hours as Bridgeport received,” she said in a prepared release. “Chris Shays is on the House Homeland Security Committee, and on his watch, Connecticut’s homeland security funding dropped from $46 million in fiscal year 2004 to $13.5 million in fiscal year 2006.”
The two candidates will have ample time to discuss their different viewpoints on the issues when they engage in 11 debates this month. Excluded from the conversations will be Richard Duffee, the Green Party candidate. He recently released a statement questioning the neutrality of the League of Women Voters after the group rejected his request to participate in the debates they will sponsor in Norwalk and Wilton.
Phil Maymin, the Libertarian candidate, has been invited to participate in seven of the 11 debates in the district, while Mr. Duffee only expects to participate in two.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce will hold a luncheon forum for Mr. Shays and Ms. Farrell. The event will take place from 11:45 to 2 at the Greenwich Country Club, 19 Doubling Road.

Senate race
In the Senate race Joe Lieberman, the Democratic incumbent who lost the primary and is running as an independent, has received a little help from his friends. Last week, two groups were formed to show their support of Mr. Lieberman. “Dems for Joe” and “Vets for Joe” were both launched, with the latter group lending a hand to the re-election effort by conducting a canvassing initiative through “Joe’s Door-to-Door Corps,” it said in a prepared release.
Ned Lamont, the Democratic Party-endorsed candidate, continued to criticize Mr. Lieberman for his position on the war in Iraq.
After the National Intelligence Committee concluded last week that the war in Iraq has made the country less safe, Mr. Lamont pointed to Mr. Lieberman’s “stubborn” refusal to back a strategy for a change in course for the country.
“Senator Lieberman made it clear today that after three years of stubbornly sticking to a failed policy, he’s still not willing to take a real look at what’s happening on the ground and take the steps necessary to protect our troops and secure our country,” Mr. Lamont said in a prepared release. “But it’s very clear that Senator Lieberman’s stay-the-course strategy undermines America’s security at our nation’s peril.”
Mr. Lieberman delivered an address in response to the National Intelligence Committee’s findings reiterating his criticisms of the Bush Administration’s policies in Iraq, it said in a prepared release.
 Mr. Lieberman included in his address a call to the President to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld because “it would reinvigorate our military, from the halls of the Pentagon to the streets of Baghdad and give us a chance to begin a new dialogue with our allies around the world,” according to the release.
 He also directed an attack at his opponent’s plan for the war, saying that a timeline for troop withdrawal  would “weaken our security, leave our troops more vulnerable to attack while they remain, and we will leave Iraq to become a failed state and terrorist breeding ground when we’re gone, divided between Saddam loyalists, Al Qaeda terrorists and Iranian and Syrian surrogates.”

Gubernatorial race
Debates have been set for the candidates running for governor. M. Jodi Rell, the Republican incumbent, and John DeStefano, her Democratic challenger, have agreed to two debates, one to take place on Oct. 9 in New London, and the second to take place on Oct. 18 in West Hartford. Both will be broadcast live on television.
Mr. DeStefano criticized Gov. Rell for misleading the state on job growth. Ms. Rell reported that nearly 20,000 new jobs have been created across the state in the last two years, it said in a prepared release.
However, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Connecticut ranks 44th in job creation during Rell’s leadership, it said in a prepared release from the DeStefano camp.
Mr. DeStefano picked up an endorsement last week from the Love Makes A Family PAC, a group that is working for marriage equality for same-sex couples.

The under ticket races
On Sept. 25, a number of Republican candidates for various state level positions appeared on a Connecticut television station to address the main issues in each of their races.
Linda Roberts, the Republican state treasurer candidate, looked at the “relatively poor results recently reported by State Treasurer Denise Nappier on the state’s $23-billion investment portfolio, and mismanagement in the treasurer’s office,” it said in a prepared release.
 Ms. Roberts was joined on the program by Richard Abbate, the Republican candidate for secretary of the state, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Susan Bysiewicz. Also involved in the roundtable discussion were Cathy Cook, who is challenging Democratic candidate Nancy Wyman for state comptroller, and Bob Farr, who is challenging Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic attorney general incumbent.

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