Diangelo Wants Fifth Congressional District To Again Swing Republican

By Scott Benjamin

SOUTHINGTON -- He was on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last March as part of a panel of American workers who had lost their jobs to foreigners entering the country through a loophole in the temporary H-1B visa program.

Former New Britain Alderman Craig Diangelo believes that his story will resonate with the 709,000 people in Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District: The insecurity of no job and no health insurance in a state that hasn’t recovered all of the positions lost during the 2008 recession.

The Republican National Congressional Committee has targeted three-term incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire even though she won the 2016 election with 58 percent of the vote. That’s a higher percentage than Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Cheshire had during his three victories in the district.

CTNewsJunkie reported this month that Esty has $1 million cash on hand – the most she has had this early in an election cycle. If she wins next year it will mark the first time since the early 1970s that a congressman captured a fourth term in the district.

“The Fifth District has always been a swing district,” explained Diangelo, who recently established a campaign committee and has begun speaking to Republican town committees in the 41 municipalities, which stretch from Newtown to Salisbury.

Republican President Donald Trump annexed 48 percent of the vote in 2016. No GOP presidential nominee has won the district since former President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Voters have elected eight congressmen since 1972 – four Republicans and four Democrats.

But since 2006 – when Murphy went door-to-door as he ousted 24-year Republican incumbent Nancy Johnson of New Britain – the district has only swung to the Democrats.

Dave Boomer, who managed Johnson’s 2002 and 2006 re-election campaigns, said when the Fifth District was restructured following the 2001 reapportionment in which Connecticut went from six down to five congressional districts, a Democrat would have to win the five cities – Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, Meriden and Torrington - by a plurality of at least 15,000 ballots.

That was a Democratic problem in 2002 and 2004, but since then the Republicans have had a “city problem.” Murphy and Esty, combined, have exceeded that threshold in the last six elections. In fact, Esty won those cities by more than 40,000 votes in 2016 against her GOP opponent – Sherman First Selectman Clay Cope.

“That’s the most difficult part for a Republican,” Diangelo said regarding the Democratic edge in the cities.

Former state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) of Goshen captured 31 of the 41 municipalities in 2012 but lost to Esty by about 7,800 votes after getting walloped in Waterbury and New Britain.

In fact, what makes it even more difficult for the Republicans is that in Litchfield County’s rural Northwest Corner – Salisbury and Kent, for example – have gone Democratic in the congressional races since disenchantment with former Republican President George W. Bush’s policies in Iraq started to surge and Murphy launched his first campaign 12 years ago.

However, there have been reports that some Democrats in the district are seeking to have a candidate from the Bernie Sanders faction challenge Esty in a primary next year. That seldom happens to a congressional incumbent in the Nutmeg state.

Diangelo, 64, said he can narrow the Democratic city advantage. He is a commissioner on the New Britain’s City Plan, spent four years as an alderman and is meeting people through Mayor Erin Stewart, a Republican whose seeking a third term this fall in the Hardware City, where Democrats outnumber the GOP nearly four to one. He said Johnson, who has the second longest tenure in the U.S. House of anyone in Connecticut, will formally endorse him later this month.

Plus there is the exposure from being interviewed by “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker about losing his job at Eversource and having to train his successor, who received half as much pay and no fringe benefits.

“ ‘60 Minutes’ has given me an opportunity to speak out as myself,” said Diangelo, who had initially declined to talk on the record following his job loss in 2014 due to provisions in his severance agreement. The “60 Minutes” segment has generated further news coverage.

He attended a rally in Washington on H-1B visa provisions recently and one of his campaign recruits from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain is editing a video for YouTube.

Diangelo said former state Rep. Dan Carter (R-2) of Bethel, who lost to Democratic incumbent Richard Blumenthal of Greenwich in last year’s U.S. Senate election, has indicated that he might enter the GOP race in the Fifth District. Regardless, Diangelo said he’ll be running until at least next May’s convention.

Most notably, there’s the task of raising $1 million to $2 million to become competitive.

In 2012, when the district was an open seat for the first time in 22 years, Republican Lisa Wilson Foley of Simsbury went to prison for making arrangements through her husband’s company to illegally pay for campaign consulting from former Gov. John Rowland of Middlebury, who had been the congressman in the Fifth District for six years. Rowland is currently in prison for those actions.

The campaign manager and finance director for then House Speaker Chris Donovan of Meriden, who won the Democratic convention in 2012, also went to prison for seeking fraudulent campaign contributions.

Diangelo said in an interview that federal office-holders should be prohibited from making telephone solicitations for campaign funds, as is outlined in The Stop Act, which U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) and former U.S. Rep. David Jolley (R-Fla.) have sponsored.

Jolley has said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for example, has distributed a flier recommending members devote four hours a day to calling potential contributors. Both parties have call centers within walking distance of Capitol Hill.

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury, who served from 1997-2003, has said that he usually spent 20 hours of an 80-hour congressional work week on campaign-related activities.

Under the legislation, which only has a tiny handful of co-sponsors, U.S. House members could still hold fund-raising events and meet with prospective donors in person.

Diangelo said he supports those provisions.

Diangelo said he would make his income tax returns public as long as he did not have to disclose his Social Security number. Murphy and his Republican opponent, Linda McMahon of Greenwich, now the federal Small Business Administration director, disclosed their returns during the 2012 U.S. Senate race.

He also said, if elected, he would seek a seat on the House Center Aisle Caucus, which Murphy formerly chaired. The caucus which has an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, holds weekly social events to discuss issues.

Dingelo says in divided Congress he would like to foster the goodwill that has lingered from his tenure as a New Britain alderman. He says he’s still friendly with former Democratic Mayor Lucian Pawlak and the other Democrats that he served with.

The candidate said he is disappointed that Trump has devoted considerable time defending his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey and his son’s meeting with a Russian attorney who reportedly had damaging information on Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign.

“It’s been a deterrent,” said Diangelo, who wants the administration to devote more attention to revising health care, tax cuts, creating jobs and making infrastructure repairs.

On health care reform, he said he and some residents in the district had better coverage and lower premiums before the Affordable Care Act was signed seven years ago by former Democratic President Barack Obama. Yet, he said he opposes repealing the current program without a substitute plan being ready for adoption. Diangelo insisted that any plan should maintain current Medicaid funding for the states, which has been a chief concern of the governors.

Diangelo, a longtime information technology specialist, says he believes that there will be growth in high-tech positions in the district. But he laments that many recent area college graduates have left Connecticut for positions in such innovation hubs as Silicon Valley, Seattle, New York City and the Route 128 Corridor near Boston, where jobs are more plentiful.

He said he supports Gov. Dannel Malloy’s (D-Stamford) financial incentives to defense aerospace manufacturers Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney in East Hartford and Lockheed Martin at Igor Sikorsky in Stratford, noting that they are expanding their operations. Several residents from the district work at those sites.

Diangelo applauded University of Connecticut economist Fred Carstensen’s proposal to have the school develop an aerospace engineering hub, noting that it would boost employment. He noted the aerospace manufacturers hire many high-paying engineers and scientists.

On other issues, the candidate said to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security he would support having more than the first $127,200 of income be subject to Social Security taxes.

Diangelo didn’t have an exact figure, but said the higher threshold should be far less than the $250,000 that Obama proposed during his 2008 campaign.

He added that there should be no reduction of benefits, even for the wealthy.

Regarding fiscal issues, Diangelo said Congress should re-establish the Pay As You Go budget controls that were enacted in 1990 as part of an agreement with H.W. Bush when he increased taxes. To increase spending, Congress would have to raise sufficient taxes or make reductions in other line items to offset the expense.

Diangelo said that step would create more budget discipline. The Pay-Go controls lapsed about 15 years ago.