Carter Appleauds Trump For Appointing McMahon As Small Business Director

By Scott Benjamin

Former U.S. Senate candidate Dan Carter (R-Bethel) says President-elect Donald Trump made a smart move by appointing former WWE CEO Linda McMahon of Greenwich to become the director of the federal Small Business Administration.

He said critics have hurled “daggers” at some of the cabinet appointees, including McMahon, because they are wealthy and made significant money contributions to Trump’s campaign.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich), who amassed a record number of votes in a statewide election in Connecticut in defeating Carter last month, has called on Trump’s cabinet appointees to make their income tax returns public.

Carter, who served Danbury, Bethel, Redding and Newtown in the Second state House District for the last six years, said that many of Trump’s selections have at least two valuable attributes.

“I think these people are saying I’ve been very successful and now I want to see what I can do with this success to help my county,” Carter explained. “That’s Linda McMahon.”

Carter supported McMahon’s 2012 bid for the U.S. Senate in which she lost to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Cheshire) by a margin similar to her loss to Blumenthal in 2010. McMahon spent a combined $100 million on the two races. She contributed about $6 million to Trump’s presidential campaign.

“There were rumors that she might be considered for Secretary of Commerce,” Carter said. “I think that [the Small Business Administration] is a better place for her since she knows how to build a business.” McMahon must still be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Multiple news outlets reported earlier this month that Trump was considering CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow of Redding, who was an informal advisor during the campaign, to be the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisors. To some that is a controversial choice, since Kudlow doesn’t have a doctorate degree in economics like most of the people who have held that position.

“He’s a smart man,” Carter said of Kudlow, who formerly served in the federal Office of Management and Budget. He said he would move “the economy in the right direction.” if he is appointed.

During the campaign, he advocated Kudlow’s call for a bipartisan tax cut, similar to former President John Kennedy’s 1964 reduction, which was signed by former President Lyndon Johnson about three months after the assassination, and former President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 package.

He said in an interview that he believes the tax cut will be Trump’s first order of business. He said he would prefer a 10-year tax reduction, which was the size of former President George W. Bush’s 2001 package, than Reagan’s three-year plan. Carter said the longer tax cut would provide more predictability for businesses and consumers.

On foreign policy, Carter said he is not concerned by Trump’s comments during the transition regarding Russia and China.

“I think the press wants to make a big deal” about the president-elect’s phone call of Taiwan’s leader. “I don’t think it is a signal that he wants to be difficult with China. He wants to be a deal-maker.”

He added that he doesn’t see that Trump’s indication that he wants to have a closer relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin is compromising America’s strategic position.

Regarding his future, he said he will make a decision by the end of January as to whether he will run for a state office – possibly lieutenant governor – the Fifth Congressional District or just helping candidates from the sidelines. He noted that he just got married in June and he has two adult children from his earlier marriage, one of which is a freshman at Endicott College.

He said running for lieutenant governor might be complicated since there are 15 people at least considering a run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2018. Some of those might become candidates for the second position on the ticket as Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton did in 2010.

“The election really showed that people are catching up to what’s been going on,” Carter said regarding the Republican 2016 gains in the Senate, where they and the Democrats now each have 18 seats and the House, where the Democratic majority has been trimmed to 79-72. The Republicans have more seats than at any time since 1996. Carter indicated the current climate will probably encourage GOP contenders to enter the race for governor since Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) is expected not to seek a third term after receiving a dismal 24 percent approval rating earlier this year in a Quinnipiac University poll.

He said the lack of jobs have caused thousands of Connecticut residents to flee the state. He said he even met people age 30 who were working two jobs just so they could be able to move from Connecticut to an area with more job potential.

He said Malloy’s 2011 and 2015 tax hikes and the Democrats unwillingness to seek substantial concessions from the public employee bargaining units have been the prime reasons why Connecticut has lagged behind the rest of the country in recovery from the recession.

Carter entered the race for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate last April after the initial candidate in the race, Stamford financial services manager Augie Wolf, had struggled to raise money and maintain his campaign team. Carter easily won the nomination at the convention.

However, Blumenthal, who was noted for annexing considerable media attention during his 20 years as the state attorney general, amassed about $7 million for the race in comparison to less than $200,000 for Carter.

“The media weren’t interested in this campaign,” Carter said. “They wanted to know who was going to either for Trump or [Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton.

He said a lot of people “voted for Trump because they were tired of the establishment. We also came across so many people on the campaign trail who said they were voting for the first time.”

Carter said if he decided to be a candidate for any office he will need to start raising money this winter. “We got into it too late this last time,” he explained.

U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-5) of Cheshire easily garnered a third term this fall in a district that hasn’t elected a Republican since Nancy Johnson (R-New Britain) was re-elected in 2004. However, some observers believe Carter would be a strong contender to take the Republican nomination during the next election cycle.

Regarding the challenges of raising money to run for Congress, Carter said he doesn’t believe that departing first-term U.S. Rep. David Jolley’s (R-Fla.) Stop Act, which prohibits congressmen from making telephone solicitations for contributions, “handles the problem.” Under Jolley's bill they could still attend fund-raisers in restaurants and other venues.

Jolley lost in his re-election bid in November for former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

One co-sponsor of the Stop Act, U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.), has said both Republican and Democratic Party leaders have suggested that congressmen spend up to 30 hours a week at call centers near the U.S. Capitol. He said there was little of this activity during his first stint in Congress a generation ago.

“It’s a problem,” Carter said of the vast amount of time congressmen and challengers spend on the phone seeking campaign contributions.

However, he said the better solution would be too lengthen U.S. House terms from two years to four years. He said there also should “at least be a conversation about term limits.”

“With a two-year term, congressmen too often do everything they can to stay there,” Carter said. “Instead, it should be about incentivizing people to do the right things.”

He said he also opposes President Barack Obama’s proposal for mandatory voting. Last year, the president said it would be “transformative” and would do more than anything to “counteract” the problem of candidates having to raise huge sums of money.

CNN has reported that less than 37 percent of the eligible voters turned out nationally for the 2014 congressional midterm elections. USA Today has reported that about 25 countries have mandatory voting. The newspaper wrote that, for example, in Australia there is a 90 percent turnout and those who don’t vote get a letter in the mail and can avoid paying a $20 fine with almost any excuse.

“I think mandatory voting is preposterous,” Carter said. He said the better solution in Connecticut would be for Malloy and other state leaders to do public service announcements encouraging residents to vote.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill (D-Mansfield) said in 2013 that a review of the driver’s licenses in Connecticut indicates that about 30 percent of the people potentially eligible to cast ballots are not even registered to vote. Earlier this year, Merrill proposed that residents become automatically eligible to vote as soon as they do business with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. CT Mirror reported that Oregon and California already have such a law.