The two candidates vying to represent the 105th District in Hartford offered sharply differing views about the economy and state government during a debate Thursday (Nov. 2).
Democratic state Rep. Theresa Conroy emphasized her legislative experience, noting local projects and initiatives that have received money and attention due to her lobbying efforts in Hartford.
Her Republican challenger, Seymour Deputy First Selectwoman Nicole Klarides-Ditria, tried to use Conroy’s experience against her, saying that returning the incumbent to Hartford would give a “rubber stamp” to Gov. Dannel Malloy.
About 100 people turned out to watch the back-and-forth in the Seymour Middle School auditorium.
The 105th District covers Seymour, Derby, and Beacon Falls.
Conroy has represented the 105th since 2012, when she defeated Republican Len Greene, who had taken the seat from her in 2010.
The debate was moderated by Seymour High School Political Action Club members Jacob Hunnicutt, Jessica Chambal, and Jacob Liedke.
From the candidates’ opening statements onward, Klarides-Ditria did her best to align Conroy with Malloy, whose approval rating plunged to a dismal 24 percent in June, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
Conroy was called on several times to give her reasoning for specific votes, beginning with the deal to keep Sikorsky in Connecticut — at a cost of $220 million in taxpayer funds — which recently passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support.
She said manufacturing jobs still have a home in the state, and that Connecticut beat out others who were willing to give deals to the helicopter company due, in part, to the state’s good overall quality of life, education system, and skilled work force.
Klarides-Ditria said the state was “backed into a corner” to make the deal, and wouldn’t have been if Connecticut were more business-friendly in the first place.
“We chase businesses out of the state and then we chase them back in, with money,” she said.
The moderators also asked Klarides-Ditria to clarify her own record.
For instance, what programs specifically could be cut to balance the budget without new tax revenue?
Klarides-Ditria suggested cutting things like lawmakers’ salaries, the Citizens’ Election Program for publicly financed political campaigns, and the state’s “Still Revolutionary” tourism campaign, to save about $20 million.
But at the same time, she chided Conroy for voting with Malloy to reduce the budgets of departments like Mental Health and Addiction Services.
And during the debate’s closing statements, she repeated a line of attack she has voiced often during the campaign, saying Conroy bears responsibility for a reduction in funding at Griffin Hospital.
“Griffin Hospital has lost $7 million since 2012 and will lose over $10 million within the next year,” she said.
Conroy said Klarides-Ditria was trying to have it both ways.
She said that Republican leaders in Hartford — Klarides-Ditria’s sister, Themis Klarides, leads the House Republican caucus — didn’t subject their budget to review by the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis.
“There was no (Republican) budget,” she said.
“Budgets aren’t easy,” Conroy said later. “You struggle. You trim. And that’s what we’ve done. Yes, mental health has been cut, other services have been cut, but to the least harmful denominator, that’s what we need.”
As for Griffin Hospital, she said she fought in Hartford to get some of the funding restored.
“I stood up to Gov. Malloy,” Conroy said.
Reaction
Afterward, neither candidate highlighted any particular exchanges during the debate, and both expressed optimism going into the campaign’s final days.
“I think it went well,” Conroy said. “I think the people here see that I just don’t have talking points, that I live and breathe these issues every day, I’m passionate about it and have been moving the ball forward in the state of Connecticut.”
“It was good to get out there and discuss the issues,” Klarides-Ditria said. “It was how I thought it was going to go. Now back to the door-knocking like we’ve been doing since May.”
The two will debate again at 12 p.m. Friday on WATR, a Waterbury AM radio station.
