Our Choices

For President

Both political conventions this summer produced distinctly unconventional candidates for President. Barack Obama, a biracial freshman senator from Illinois, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, viewed among his party’s conservative base as being as much pariah as partisan, somehow convinced their respective parties to take a chance on someone different this year. They were successful largely because the country as a whole is yearning for something different.

Eight years of the Bush administration has eroded the country’s treasury, its standing in the world, and its economic strength. Tragically, it has also eroded the confidence of Americans in their elected leaders to the point where widespread cynicism and disbelief have infected our political discourse. Elections are no longer the grand masterpieces of ideology envisioned by our democracy’s creators. They have degenerated into the petty art of innuendo and character assassination.

While both candidates this year vowed to put the pettiness behind them in their election campaigns, both have slipped in varying degrees into negativity. But as his campaign has fallen behind in the polls, Sen McCain has waded too far into the mud. He has made allegations about the character of his rival the centerpiece of a campaign that should be offering ideas and inspiration to an electorate shaken by the reality of accelerating job losses, continuing home foreclosures, and widespread fear and uncertainty about the future. Mr McCain and his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, have decided that fostering even more uncertainty and fear in voters is their most promising path to the White House. They have truncated the great insight that Franklin Roosevelt offered at the depths of the great 20th Century economic meltdown to this: The only thing we have … is fear itself.

Meanwhile, the candidate who is supposed to have less experience and know-how has shown a steady hand, acknowledging the challenges of the times, yet reassuring Americans that together we are bigger than our problems. The organization, competence, and effectiveness of Sen Obama’s election campaign along with, yes, his rare ability to inspire people through the spoken word, have shown him to be far more “presidential” than his opponent. By comparison, Sen McCain has seemed unpredictable and erratic as he has quickly adopted, and just as quickly jettisoned, various strategies and positions in reaction to the financial crisis.

The economic plans of both candidates have weaknesses. Mr McCain’s devotion to the Bush tax cuts seems to be just more of the same ineffective medicine for our ailing economy, and notwithstanding his “Joe the Plumber” tax mantra, the McCain tax plan falls short of Sen Obama’s for middle class tax relief. While some aspects of Mr Obama’s economic plan will clearly exceed the country’s means to pay for them, the core of his strategy is fairness, consensus, and fiscal responsibility.

As with domestic issues, any President’s success in foreign affairs depends in large part on the people who advise him. And experience is not always the determining factor. This was made abundantly clear in the Bush administration’s rush to war with Iraq. It unfolded quickly with the encouragement, advice, and support of “old hands” with long experience in foreign policy — Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and, yes, Sen McCain. Sen Obama has the advice and respect of a distinguished bipartisan group of foreign policy and military experts who have worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past. But in the end, it is the good judgment of one person — the President — that will keep the nation out of the endless succession of foreign policy blunders that marked the Bush administration.

John McCain may be the maverick, the gambler, and the man of quick action, but frankly, at the end of this election campaign, Barack Obama appears to have better judgment — and consequently, our trust. We endorse his candidacy for President of The United States.

For Congress

When Democrat Chris Murphy was first elected by Fifth District voters to Congress two years ago, he beat veteran Republican lawmaker Nancy Johnson, who had spent 24 years representing first the now-extinct Sixth District and later the Fifth District. Certainly, Mr Murphy got a big boost in 2006 from an unpopular Republican administration and various Republican corruption scandals. But he recognized from the outset that the Fifth District is a swing district — sometimes it goes Democratic, sometimes Republican. The young Democrat from Cheshire made his best pitch to the middle of the political spectrum and was rewarded for it.

This year, Democrats seem to have the wind at their backs once again. His opponent, David Cappiello, who has distinguished himself in the State Senate, has had a hard time coming up with convincing arguments why voters should replace the incumbent.

Mr Murphy is still running as more of a pragmatist than partisan. He was among a group of Congressmen and women who pushed for a compromise on offshore drilling while also working to extend Amtrak rail service in the Northeast, addressing both the future and the present of the region’s energy woes. He also has taken his cue from Mrs Johnson and her predecessor in the Fifth District, Jim Maloney, by emphasizing constituent services, building a base of support and communication in the district that should serve him, and us, well for the next two years. We endorse his reelection.

For State Senate

In the ten years Republican John McKinney has represented the 28th Senatorial District in Hartford, he has worked to ensure that the interests of towns of Fairfield County have been heard in state policy discussions that have been dominated, under Democratic majorities, by the needs and priorities of the cities. In his role as Senate Minority Leader, he is in an excellent position to work in concert with the Republican administration of Governor M. Jodi Rell and the Democratic legislative leadership to forge policies and enact laws that reflect the interests of the whole state and not just the major populations centers.

By the time the next statewide election rolls around, Connecticut may be facing a billion-dollar deficit. Addressing a challenge of that size will require the commitment and consensus that will only come from a bipartisan effort. At a debate in Fairfield last week, he noted, “The only way we’re going to do that is if we sit down at a table together.” Mutual understanding, he realizes, is the first step to opening opportunities for consensus.

Mr McKinney’s opponent this year, Democrat Martin Goldberg, a tax lawyer who teaches at the University of New Haven College of Business, has argued in this election campaign that the state’s way out of the fiscal ditch it has stumbled into is dependent on progressive income taxation, focused primarily on those making $500,000 or more. Comprehensive budget cuts on the state level, he believes, will “cost us more in the long run.” Mr McKinney looks at budget solutions the other way around: look for savings in the budget first, before implementing tax increases. It’s a philosophy that makes sense.

This year we see no reason to turn an experienced and effective legislator out of office. We endorse John McKinney’s reelection bid.

For State Representative

Democrats everywhere sense that this may be their year, and that is certainly the case in the two Assembly Districts representing Newtown. In the 112th District, covering the southwest corner of Newtown, incumbent Republican DebraLee Hovey is facing a vigorous challenge from another Monroe resident, Democrat Michelle Mount, a lawyer and director of legislative affairs for the City of Bridgeport. And the decision last spring by the popular 18-year incumbent Republican State Representative Julia Wasserman (106th District) not to seek reelection opened the door to higher office not only for the local Republican Legislative Council chairman, Will Rodgers, it presented a tempting opportunity for a 25-year-old Democrat, Chris Lyddy, who had been elected just four months earlier to his first elective office — a seat on the Legislative Council.

All four candidates would present a strong voice for Newtown in the state legislature. The special qualities and qualifications of two make them our choices this year.

In the 106th District, we endorse the candidacy of Republican Will Rodgers. Mr Rodgers, a member of the council for the past 11 years and chairman for the last five, is the embodiment of service. As a local lawyer, as a colonel in the US Marine Corps Reserve serving in Iraq, as a journeyman council member, and as a family man, he has answered every imaginable call for help and assistance — and some we cannot imagine. But it is his long tenure on the Legislative Council that has developed his instincts and insights about what a community needs (and needs to avoid) to thrive and succeed. The easy issues — more money for education, fewer unfunded mandates, fair tax policies — are there on the surface for anyone to grasp and advocate. Mr Rodgers speaks slowly and deliberately and with a deep knowledge of the deliberative consensus-building that shores up every step toward progress in all these areas. He says he learned this lesson from Mrs Wasserman: Effective legislating is more about building relationships than building reputations. We have no doubt that he is the one Newtown needs in Hartford for the next two years.

We must acknowledge the enthusiasm and energy Chris Lyddy has brought to this race. He is a man in a hurry, however. He had not yet completed his first six months of his first term in his first local elective office before announcing his plans to move on to a bigger, more important political arena in Hartford. At The Bee’s debate last week, he acknowledged that he had learned from Mrs Wasserman that “it takes some time to get things done,” but he swept that lesson aside a moment later when he described himself: “I’m a doer. I’m a go-getter. I want to change things now!” Lots of people smiled in the audience — but not for the reason he thought.

In the 112th District, we are backing Democrat Michelle Mount, who should bring new vigor to the representation of Newtown and Monroe. Her work in Bridgeport has earned her a network of connections and relationships in Hartford on the majority side of the aisle that should complement the work done by Republicans McKinney and Rodgers on our behalf. Her positions on property tax relief, state aid to municipalities, and open space preservation align with the interests of Newtown.