The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Republicans make their case
With so much agreement among the three Republicans running for the 5th District about President Donald Trump’s positions on tax cuts, tariffs, Obamacare and guns, the opening statement of the only woman in the race stood out.
“We have an opportunity to win this seat back from the Democrats and neither one of these guys will win it,” said Ruby Corby O’Neill during a 5th District GOP debate Monday night in the West Hartford studio of NBC Connecticut.
O’Neill, a retired psychology professor from Southbury who is challenging front-runner Manny Santos of Meriden and Watertown businessman Rich Dupont, said neither man had a chance against the Democrat who emerges from the Aug. 14 primary, both of whom are women.
“(Either Democrat) will chew them up and spit them out,” O’Neill said. “But I am what the American dream looks like, and I am the best choice.”
If Santos or Dupont were concerned by O’Neill’s suggestion, they did not show it during the hourlong debate, moderated by Max Reiss, an NBC Connecticut political reporter.
“I have a proven track record, I work collaboratively, and I have the endorsement of Nancy Johnson,” said Dupont, speaking of the last Republican to represent what is traditionally the most competitive Congressional seat in Connecticut. “Through education, employment and economic development, I can get things done.”
Santos, who was endorsed by Republicans at
the party convention in May, said Connecticut needed a Republican like him who would support the White House’s agenda.
“The majority of voters see their representatives from Connecticut to Washington, D.C., as obstructing the good work of this administration,” Santos said. “I understand impact public policy has on our cities and I understand the economic development challenges we have, and that the conditions that our state is in now were created by Democratic policy.”
The 8:30 p.m. debate, livestreamed on Facebook, lasted an hour and did not include the public.
The candidates answered seven questions, agreeing in their support of the Second Amendment, Trump’s tariffs, and Trump’s tax cuts. They stood together in their opposition to Obamacare and the pharmaceutical industry’s role in the
opioid abuse epidemic.
Republicans are spending their final weeks before the Aug. 14 GOP primary campaigning and advertising in the 41 cities and towns of northwestern and central Connecticut.
O’Neill had the most money of the GOP candidates, going into the final six weeks of the primary race, according to the latest financial disclosure statements filed with the Federal Elections Commission. O’Neill had $103,000 to spend going into July, although $81,000 was loans she made to her campaign. Dupont had $56,000 to spend, although $45,000 of that was a loan he made to his campaign. Santos had $5,000 to spend.
In contrast, the two Democrats preparing for their own mid-August primary had hundreds of thousands of dollars more to spend. Front-runner Mary Glassman had $270,000 to spend; challenger Jahana Hayes
had $254,000 to spend, according to FEC filings.
Glassman, a former longtime Simsbury first selectman, and Hayes, who won the 2016 National Teacher of the Year award, squared off for a second time in as many days in a debate on Monday night in Torrington. On Sunday afternoon, the two candidates traveled to Newtown to debate questions about education, gun safety and health care before a standing-room-only crowd of 150 people.
The Congressional candidates are running to represent a district that stretches from greater Danbury to Massachusetts. U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat who has represented the district for three terms, dropped plans to run for re-election after revealing that she covered up an office abuse scandal.