Ridgefield Press
CAMPAIGN TRAIL: What the candidates are saying
Oct 24, 2006

With only two weeks until Election Day, candidates for Connecticut’s highest political offices continue to attack each other in advertisements and battle it out in the blogosphere. With face-to-face confrontation unlikely since all the debates are out of the way, the war of words continues.
The following is a summary of campaign news received between Oct. 13 and Oct. 20:

Fourth congressional race
There has been a lot of huffing and puffing by both the Republicans and the Democrats over recent inflammatory campaign ads concerning the 4th District congressional race.
Christopher Shays, the Republican incumbent, called on Diane Farrell, his Democratic opponent, to pull a television advertisement he calls “dishonest.” The ad features an individual who claims to have supported Mr. Shays in the past but is changing his vote this year. Dennis Murphy, the individual in question, is a lifelong Democrat. Other individuals in the ad supportive of Ms. Farrell are left unidentified.
“Chris’s opponent approved a TV ad that is flat-out dishonest,” said Michael Sohn, Shays for Congress campaign manager. “She wants viewers to think that the people in her ads used to support Chris and now support her. In fact, two people in the ad are Democrats and have been active with the party for years. They have never supported Chris and to suggest otherwise is wrong.”
Ms. Farrell responded in a prepared statement that Mr. Shays is using the ad to try and steer attention away from his support for George Bush, and “his failed policies.”
“This ad highlights what many of us, including Chris, know to be true: There are many people in this district who once supported Chris Shays but are now supporting me because they know that Chris has changed and that he represents the failed status quo that has this country headed in the wrong direction,” she said.
After a recent onslaught of attack ads by the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), Ms. Farrell, joined by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, gave a speech last week denouncing the ads and defending her record as first selectman of Westport.
 “The people here today know how hard it is to get anything done in a municipality,” Ms. Farrell said. “I am proud of my record.”
 Holding up one of the recent attack ads from the NRCC that insinuates Ms. Farrell is a sympathizer of the Taliban, Mr. Dodd called the piece “completely irresponsible” and “absolutely the worst kind of politics in America.”
Mr. Shays himself called on the NRCC to stop sending the “Taliban mailer,” which he called “outrageous.”
“My opponent’s party and shadow organizations working on her behalf have made negative, misleading and outrageous charges against me for three years and she has said nothing about them,” said Mr. Shays. “That is the difference between my opponent and me.”
Last Saturday, Ms. Farrell’s camp allegedly held a closed door meeting with Green Party officials to talk about making concessions if Richard Duffee, the Green Party candidate, drops out of the race, according to a press release from the Connecticut Republican Party.
“What is Diane Farrell trying to hide with her ‘closed door’ meeting with Green Party officials? Perhaps it is the reported ‘concessions’ Farrell is going to offer in exchange for their candidate’s withdrawal,” said George D. Gallo, Connecticut Republicans chair. “The people of the district deserve to know what principles ‘Desperate Diane’ is offering to abandon for a few more votes.”
On Monday, Jan Ellen Spiegal, Ms. Farrell’s communications director, confirmed that Mr. Duffee is dropping out of the race and endorsing Ms. Farrell.
Phil Maymin, the Libertarian candidate, released a statement calling for both Ms. Farrell and Mr. Shays to withdraw from the race.
In the Oct. 17 debate held in Wilton, both Mr. Shays and Ms. Farrell called for further regulation on the right to bear arms. Mr. Maymin says they should withdraw from the race because of “their inability to cite constitutional authorization for their scheme to regulate gun ownership.”
Two weeks ago Mr. Shays received the endorsement of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
“The humane community has perhaps no greater friend in Congress than Rep. Chris Shays,” said Richard Patch, political director for the Humane Society Legislative Fund, in a press release.
Ms. Farrell delivered a national radio address responding to President Bush’s speech on the war in Iraq last Saturday. The address can be heard online at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Web site, www.DCCC.org.

Senate race
At two U.S. Senate debates held last week, which were slated to be toe-to-toe battles between the two Democrats, Ned Lamont, the Party- nominated candidate, and Joe Lieberman, the incumbent running as an independent, the standout performance, according to most accounts, came from the embattled Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger.
Mr. Lieberman’s camp accused Mr. Lamont’s “lefty bloggers” of cheering on the conservative Mr. Schlesinger in an effort to try and shave away Republican votes from the incumbent senator.
“Instead of touting Ned’s performance ... the usually Republican-hating keyboard jockeys spent an inordinate amount of their hype on Alan Schlesinger,” it said on the Lieberman camp’s Full Lamonty blog. “The bloggers know that Negative Ned’s message of blame and blather has totally failed to resonate with voters outside his anti-war base, and that Lamont’s only hope in this race now is to try to peel away Republican voters from Joe Lieberman’s broad-based coalition.”
 Both Mr. Lieberman’s and Mr. Lamont’s sides claimed to be victorious in the Oct. 16 and Oct. 18 debates.
“Every time Senator Lieberman appears on stage with Lamont, it is clear that he can’t explain away the hard facts showing he has failed to deliver,” said a release from the Lamont camp.
“With (the Oct. 16) debate, Joe Lieberman decisively showed the voters of Connecticut why he deserves to be re-elected, highlighting his strong record of working across party lines to deliver results for Connecticut and his unique ability to break the partisan gridlock that is blocking progress on so many big challenges facing the country today,” said Sherry Brown, Lieberman for Senate campaign manager in a prepared statement.
Before the debates began, both sides released “debate aids” from their respective blog sites to “assist” voters in “seeing through the other side’s distortions.”
The Lamont camp issued a Lieberman-phrase dictionary that included definitions to catch phrases the senator would be expected to use. For example, the Lamont camp defined Mr. Lieberman’s use of “cut and run” as “anyone not for staying the course. See: Ned Lamont, Sen. John Warner, James Baker, Colin Powell, Sen. Chuck Hagel, Sen. Chris Dodd.”
In response, the Lieberman camp unveiled “the Nedulator,” described in a press release as an “easy-to-use scorecard for adding up Lamont’s desperate debate comments.”
After third quarter numbers on campaign donations were released last week, Mr. Lieberman’s camp accused Mr. Lamont of trying to “buy the election.”
Mr. Lieberman called on Mr. Lamont to release his family’s income tax returns from the past five years after learning that Mr. Lamont used part of his own $10.75 million personal bankroll to triple his buy for negative television attack ads, according to a release.
Mr. Lamont, who contributed $3,751,378 himself in the third quarter to his $9,049,299 total raised, said that he is avoiding accepting contributions from PACs and lobbyists. Roughly $1.3 million came from individual donors, according to a release.
“It is a strong contrast to Lieberman’s reliance on Washington insiders and PAC lobbyists that so many thousands of people have answered Ned’s call for change,” said Tom Swan, Lamont campaign manager.

Governor race
In the race for the governor’s seat, John DeStefano, the Democratic candidate, got a lift last Friday against his opponent, M. Jodi Rell, the Republican incumbent, when Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, held a rally on behalf of Connecticut Democratic candidates in Hartford.
“This may be a small state, but in this election, there are few states bigger than Connecticut, and Chairman Dean’s visit on Friday shows that the national spotlight is shining brightly on us this November,” said Nancy DiNardo, Connecticut Democrats chairwoman, in a release. “We are proud and honored that he is taking the time to come here and lend a hand to our candidates.”
The Connecticut Republican Party, meanwhile, has filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission against Mr. DeStefano regarding alleged violations of the state’s campaign finance laws.
“This isn’t the first time John DeStefano and his campaign have showed a clear disregard for the state’s campaign finance laws. This second violation demonstrates how arrogant and out of touch John DeStefano and his campaign truly are,” said George D. Gallo, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, in a press release.
In December 2005, Mr. DeStefano’s campaign was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine for failing to report the occupations of employers of 32 contributors donating more than $1,000 each. State Elections Enforcement Commissioner Jeff Garfield described the violation as “serious neglect” on the part of the DeStefano campaign, according to the release, which went on to list a number of recent alleged violations.
Mr. DeStefano’s camp is launching a television ad that focuses on a statement made by Ms. Rell in the Oct. 9 debate, in which she was asked to identify her biggest mistake while in office, and she responded that she couldn’t think of one.
“We’ve all made mistakes. It takes courage to admit to them, and wisdom to learn from them,” said Mary Glassman, Mr. DeStefano’s running mate. “It is incredible that Gov. Rell is either unwilling or unable to admit making mistakes, especially considering her record. Under her watch, Connecticut has dropped to nearly the bottom state in job growth, 77,000 children don’t have health insurance, and property taxes and energy costs are soaring. And, of course, one of Gov. Rell’s biggest mistakes was vouching for Gov. Rowland, again and again.”
On Sunday, Oct. 15, Ms. Rell delivered the keynote address during the Fourth Annual Connecticut State Firefighters Memorial Service at the Connecticut Fire Academy in Windsor Locks, honoring firefighters who have perished in the line of duty.

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