Harding says COVID-19 surge appears to be due to colder weather

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD -- Has the cycle completed a 360-degree circle?

In Connecticut in late November the number of COVID-19 cases was the highest since last spring.

Patch.com has reported that U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Greenwich attributed the high number of COVID-19 cases in the early spring to Connecticut's proximity to New York City. He said New Jersey had the same issue.

In October the congressman praised Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) for taking precautions by gradually phasing in the re-openings.

But now the bulk of the Nutmeg State is on red alert, although Patch.com has reported that Lamont said on November 30 that Connecticut has the "fifth or sixth" lowest positive test rate in the country.

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield said, "The feedback that I'm getting is that this was somewhat of an expected surge as the weather got colder."

Danbury, which hasn't even been able to open its schools for hybrid learning, has seen a large surge.

"I think it is still a very similar situation from us being near a large population - New York City," said Harding, whose district covers all of Brookfield, the Stony Hill section of Bethel and a slice of northern Danbury.

However on November 26 the fine for not complying with the pandemic regulations was increased from $500 to $10,000 for state businesses.

"We need to ensure that the social distancing regulations are being complied with," Harding exclaimed.

"We also need to be cognizant of the economic impact as well," he added. "Restaurants on are on the edge as far as the amount of business that they now have."

A Connecticut Hearst Media editorial stated that "a fine of this size should be limited to those who would not be forced out of business by incurring it."

Said Harding, "For the most part [Lamont] has been cognizant of allowing businesses to operate."

"I applaud the governor's strategy on the schools," said Harding, who garnered a fourth term on November 3 with 57.9 percent of the vote against Brookfield Democrat Kerri Colombo.

"He has allowed the local districts to do what is best for them," he added.

However, Patch.com has reported that Bob Stefanowski of Madison, the 2018 Republican gubernatorial nominee, has criticized Lamont's lack of response to the state's nursing homes during the early stages of the pandemic.

Harding said, "I think that's a multiple state (issue). I don't want to put the blame solely on Gov. Lamont."

Congress approved the $2.2 trillion CARES Act stimulus on March 27 but has grappled since May on a second package with some benefits having already expired and others set to end in late December.

Republican President Donald Trump's negotiators and the congressional Democrats had discussed figures of close to $2 trillion. However, the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate has only offered $500 billion.

University of Chicago economics professor Austin Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under former President Barack Obama, told CNN that Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and the congressional Democrats "should potentially take less now and push for more down the line."

Harding said, "I think that is logical. I still hear it from individual residents and from businesses. The states and the municipalities also need help."

However, how can the federal government spend more money when it had a record $3.1 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended in September?

Plus, The Wall Street Journal reported on November 21 that, "The U.S. government stands to lose $400 billion from the federal student loan program which is "'approaching the size of loses incurred by banks during the subprime mortgage crisis" of 2007-2008.

Declared Harding, "We need to address one issue at a time. I think there is more stimulus needed."

"We have only been growing our deficit for 20 years now and after the pandemic is over we need to seriously address that," Harding said. "We need to get on the good side of this for good because it could be unsustainable."

Former Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson has stated that since 1964 all but five of the annual federal budgets - fiscal 1969, '98, '99, 2000 and '01 - have run deficits.

The state Office of Fiscal Analysis, the General Assembly's budget arm, has projected a $4.3 billion deficit over the two-year fiscal cycle that starts next July.

Lamont has noted that the state has a record $3.1 billion rainy day fund.

Said Harding, "I don't think that we should use all of it" to address the projected deficits.

"I think that we need to work with our state employee unions and get some concessions," he added.

However, union leaders have said that a report from the state Office of Policy & Management, the governor's budget arm, has indicated that the unions will be saving taxpayers $24 billion in concessions from 2017 to 2037.

"I respect that," Harding said.

"However, there are not many places where you can go to trim the operations in our state," he said. "Small, minor changes in the union contacts can go a long ways toward balancing our budget."

"We cannot afford another tax increase," Harding added.

CT Hearst business columnist Dan Haar has stated that former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex), Lamont's immediate predecessor, slashed the full-time state work force by 13.1 percent over eight years.

Harding declared, "I think in some areas it can be done. But there are some of the front line workers who are working with resident every day" that we have to keep.

On another topic, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has written that due to the pandemic once we return to business as usual there will be an increase in remote operations - even to the point that "some long-established institutions, like universities, [will] disappear."

Harding said he believes that the public colleges in Connecticut "will probably have more online learning."

However, online learning was one of the key objectives in the state Board of Regents Transform CSCU 2020 plan that was introduced six years ago and met solid opposition from the faculty and never got approved.

"I think online learning is looked at differently now than at the onset of the virus," Harding said. "It can be especially valuable for working parents to get their college degree. It can make that dream possible."

Patch.com has reported that Sacred Heart University Government Department Chairman Gary Rose said that in 2018 the Republican Party in Connecticut lost its bid for the governorship and saw its membership in the state House and Senate decline in what should have been "a change" election since Malloy was departing office with low approval ratings.

He attributed that to voter opposition to Trump and a shift in more suburban women voting for Democrats.

According to Patch.com, Southern Connecticut State University Political Science & Urban Affairs Professor Jonathan Wharton and state Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury indicated in January that Lamont's mishandling of proposals to enact highway tolls could become the "watershed" issue in the 2020 balloting.

Apparently as a result of the governor's response to the pandemic that did not happen.

Granted, the applause for Lamont has not been that side of Paul McCartney at the Hollywood Bowl.

However, the Hartford Courant has reported that the Great Blue Research poll done for Sacred Heart University in October showed Lamont with a 53 percent approval rating, up from 41 percent in April. Polling during 2019, his first year in office, had Lamont with one of the lowest approval ratings of any governor in the nation.

The Republicans entered the 2018 race with an 18-18 standoff with the Democrats in the state Senate. In the state House the Democrats held only a 79 seats to 72 seats for the GOP.

In 2020, after gaining two seats in the state Senate, the Democrats now have a 24-12 majority and following an addition of six seats in the state House, the Democrats now hold 97 seats to 54 seats for the Republicans. The Democratic state House caucus is larger than the other three caucuses combined.

Harding said, "It's hard to get a Republican majority with the voters statewide."

The Republicans have not held a majority in the state House since the 1984 election, when Republican President Ronald Reagan campaigned in Waterbury and captured a second term in a landslide and M. Jodi Rell of Brookfield would win her first term in the state House in the 107th District, which led to a six and a half year tenure as governor from 2004 to early 2011.

Should the Republicans let unaffiliated voters participate in their primaries?

"I'm open to that idea," Harding said. "I think that would be a way to engage some unaffiliated voters."

Former George W. Bush White House Political Director Karl Rove wrote recently in his Wall Street Journal column that despite an ambitious Democratic campaign in Texas, Trump won the Lone Star State, in part, due to Republican voter outreach.

He said one effort employed "Big data, technology and volunteers" and netted 212,972 new Republican registrants at a cost of $7.90 per voter. The other drive had 200 paid workers canvass neighborhoods and stand outside state Department of Motor Vehicle offices and annexed 105,617 new GOP registrants at a cost of $70.10 per voter.

"Outreach is important," said Harding, who would encourage a similar Republican canvass in Connecticut.

"However, it is more than just that," he added. "I think the Republican Party offers a message that is different from what has happened in Connecticut over the last 30 years."

He said, if it is constitutionally possible, the GOP should consider holding a less expensive remote convention and utilize more of its resources for voter outreach.

Departing Republican state Chairman J.R. Romano told Patch.com in 2019 that the party spends $80,000 on its state conventions, which in recent years have been held at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville.

A primary has been held in each of the last three gubernatorial election cycles to determine the party's nominee.

Harding said, "I don't necessarily see the need for an in-person convention. I think the money is better spent reaching out to voters."