Gilmer endorses federal spending to build highways, create jobs

By Scott Benjamin

Tom Gilmer - who is trying to become the first Republican in 16 years to win a race in the congressional district that includes both the Connecticut's Quiet Corner in the northeast quadrant and the bustling Electric Board shipyard in the southeast corridor - says the nation could enter a depression "if things don't turn around in six months."

Gilmer - who, at 29, wants to become the Nutmeg State's youngest congressman since Republican John Rowland was elected in the Fifth District in 1984 at age 27 - explained that, "There are small businesses that may not be able to recover" following the pandemic.

Since March 27 Republican President Donald Trump and Congress have approved nearly $3 trillion in stimulus.

The apparent Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, told Politico on April 26 that the country needs another stimulus bill that would be "a hell of a lot bigger" than the initial $2.2 trillion package that Trump signed on March 27.

"We don't need a federal bailout" said Gilmer of a large proposed additional stimulus for the states and municipalities.

CT Mirror has reported that the Connecticut state government has a projected $7 billion deficit between now and 2023. The annual state budget is less than $22 billion.

Gilmer, who is running the sprawling Second Congressional District, said the economic expansion - which had been the longest in the nation's 224-year history, and which he believes was at least partly due to the president's 2017 tax cut - could at least partly resume once the pandemic ceases.

"I think there is a real possibility that we could recover from this slump quickly," he said in a phone interview.

Gilmer insists the solution is to build the largest infrastructure program since Republican Dwight Eisenhower - who was rated fifth out of the 44 former presidents in the 2017 C-SPAN poll - initiated the interstate highway system in the 1950s.

"It could keep a lot of people working for a decade," he said. "It would set the country up for the future."

In the fight for the Republican nomination, Gilmer faces Justin Anderson, a 30-year Army combat veteran and retired state Department of Corrections staff member from East Haddam.

Anderson acknowledged in a phone interview that Gilmer has support in enough "political circles" that he probably will capture a first ballot nomination at the online convention on May 11.

Anderson said, "My campaign has been geared all along to win the primary [on August 11]. I think I have the support of the rank and file and I know that I have long relationships with various groups, including the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars members."

He said that in contrast to Gilmer, who grew up in Ohio, he has lived in Connecticut all his life.

Gilmer has been shuttling for a year between the shoreline, the Mystic Seaport, Thomas Dodd Stadium, Harry Gampel Pavillion, Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Ocean Beach Park, the Enfield Mall and the area near where O'Neill's Tap Room was once located. The scoreboard as of May 2 read: 2,500 homes canvassed and 2,000 phone calls in a district that cuts across parts of six of Connecticut's eight counties. Plus, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) has campaigned with him.

He became involved in Republican politics at age 12 in his native Ohio and ran for a Board of Education seat at age 18.

Gilmer moved to East Hampton in 2014, now lives in Madison and is an energy and equity management consultant.

"I think people are looking for a whole new perspective," said Gilmer in reference to U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2) of Vernon, who was initially elected in 2006.

"They are tired of the Washington hustle," he added.

However, Courtney, who only captured the district over former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Stonington) by only 90 votes in the 2006 election has garnered at least 60 percent of the ballots in every election since then. He annexed all by one municipality in 2018.

Shortly after the 2018 race, CT NewsJunkie columnist Susan Bigelow wrote, "Could this district flip? Probably not while Joe Courtney is in office. . . But if Courtney decides to leave office this district could become competitive again - fast. The votes are there, just waiting for the right Republican to come along and earn them."

Trump did surprisingly well in the Second District in 2016 - losing only 49 to 46 percent to Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. In 2018, Republican gubernatorial contender Bob Stefanowski of Madison scored victories over Lamont and independent candidate Oz Griebel of Hartford in the Middlesex, Tolland and Windham counties, according to Politico.

The Charles Cook Political Report rates it "Solid Democratic" for 2020.

As of April 21, Courtney has amassed $595,104 in contributions this election cycle. Gilmer had raised $67,162 and Anderson had garnered $50,699.

Simmons held the seat for six years and later made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in 2010 - the first of two elections in which Trump appointee and now campaign operative Linda McMahon carried the GOP laurels. He served starting in 2015 for one term as first selectman of Stonington.

Former U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Bozrah) held the seat for 20 years - 1981 to 2001 - the fifth longest tenure in Connecticut history. However, he won in photo finishes in 1992 and 1994 and then lost, even thought he was the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, in a year when the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman Democratic ticket was sweeping Connecticut. The Hartford Courant has reported that some observers thought there was a disconnection between Gejdenson and the voters.

Former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-East Haddam), now one of the four chairmen of the vice presidential nominee selection committee for Biden, was the congressman from the Second District from 1975 to 1981.

On the national race, the Associated Press reported that Scott Reed, the senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has said the 2020 presidential campaign will be about "Trump versus the coronavirus and the recovery. Biden is a sideshow."

Gilmer credits Trump with doing a "good job" in addressing the pandemic.

"He has reduced the red tape for the medical industry and has cut the costs for medications and prescriptions," he explained.

On issues, Gilmer said the Second District is still suffering from the 2008 Great Recession.

"Eastern Connecticut has regained only 80 percent of the jobs lost during that financial crisis," he said. "Massachusetts had recaptured 300 percent of its jobs."

Regarding the regional economy, Gilmer noted that with 14,000 employees in Groton, Electric Boat is a major fiscal engine.

"Eastern Connecticut relies on a strong defense budget," he explained.

Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson has reported that defense comprised 52 percent of federal spending in 1960 but only 15 percent in 2018.

Should more of the federal budget be devoted to defense?

"I would argue yes," said Gilmer.

Courtney has stated that he has had a role in getting two submarines constructed per year at Electric Boat.

Gilmer said that he supports Trump's 2018 announcement to have America's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies pay more of the global defense costs

On another topic, he said he agrees with Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council under Trump, who has estimated that two-third to three-quarters of the current job openings nationally don't require an advanced college degree.

Cohn was quoted in former Obama Administration Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg's recent book, "Trade Is Not A Four Letter Word" (Avid Reader Press, 299 pages), as saying, "The problem we have is that we're sending too many kids to college."

Said Gilmer, "We're ending up with too many college graduates with too much student-loan debt, with terrible credit scores that are living with their parents at age 32. You can get a technical high school education and shortly thereafter have a $90,000 job with no debt."

The congressional candidate also endorsed the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, the president's trade pact with two neighboring countries that has been approved in the U.S. House and would update the provisions from the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which was initially proposed by former Republican President Ronald Reagan, negotiated by former Republican President George H.W. Bush and signed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The USMCA reportedly would, among other things improve labor and environmental regulations.

Gilmer said that the USMCA is "about getting the ball back into America's hands and getting more businesses back in Connecticut."

On a separate subject,former U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who sought his party's presidential nomination during the current cycle, wrote in his 2018 book, "The Right Answer" (Henry Holt and Co., 240 pages), that former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Md.), who had a truncated career in which he served from 1975 to 1981 and again from 2013 to 2019, had told him that years ago the House was more regularly in session from Monday at 9 a.m. until Friday at 5 p.m. and there were fewer district work periods.

Delaney stated: "We have persuaded our constituencies that they should expect us to function like mayors, going to one event after another, shaking hands, giving speeches and cutting ribbons. But that ought to be the province of local government officials."

"Would you rather have your U.S. representative spend time shaking hands at the country fair or working in Washington to gain grants for community colleges and secure funding for improving highways?" Delaney wrote. "These days our time is so limited that all we can do is pop in and out of meetings."

Should congressmen be spending more weeks in Washington?

Said Gilmer, "I could argue yes."

He said he definitely would support that there be more weeks in Washington that extend from from Monday through Friday instead of Tuesday through Thursday.