Politics & Government
Logan pledges to only serve for six years
Fifth Congressional District Republican says he would not endorse banning congressmen from making fundraising phone calls
George Logan Jahana Hayes Chris Murphy
Elizabeth Esty Nancy Johnson Ron Sarasin
By Scott Benjamin
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NEW BRITAIN – George Logan has launched a 100-day countdown so he can activate a six-year pledge.
Unlike most campaigns, he doesn’t occupy a headquarters, but a community center.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“This is a community resource,” the Republican candidate in the Fifth Congressional District said in an interview with Patch.com at the West Main Street operation that the Republican National Committee helped open in March.
“We’re also hosting events,” he added. “We did a successful diaper and baby formula drive.”
It also is where the campaign recently launched a canvassing operation for its 100-day countdown to the November 8 election.
Two-term Democratic incumbent Jahana Hayes of Wolcott outraised Logan by a three to one margin over the most recent quarter. She scored a 40,000-vote plurality in the district in 2020.
Said Logan, “I have a secret weapon: I’m bilingual [in Spanish].”
U.S. Census figures indicated 42.7 percent of the Hardware City’s population is Hispanic.
Statistics from the Secretary of the State’s office from last October report that there are 17,911 Democrats and 4,447 Republicans in New Britain – a nearly four to one ratio.
Since the current boundaries for the district were established in 2002 after parts of the now-defunct Sixth District merged with portions of the former Fifth District, the barometer has been that a Democrat will win by scoring a combined plurality of at least 15,000 votes in the five cities – Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, Meriden and Torrington.
First Chris Murphy, then Elizabeth Esty and then in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns, Hayes, have accomplished that. Additionally, some of the Northwest Corner towns in Litchfield County and the Farmington Valley suburbs also have trended more Democratic in recent years.
In 2012, Republican then-state Sen. Andrew Roraback of Goshen, captured 31 of the 41 municipalities, yet still lost the election by nearly 9,000 votes. Even though he had been their state senator for 12 years, he lost in Salisbury and Kent.
Logan, a former two-term state senator who lives in Meriden, said keeping the Democratic pluralities down in the five cities is “absolutely do-able,” and he also can make inroads in Litchfield County and the Farmington Valley.
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight statistical analysis rates the district as “Lean Democrat.” It stated that Hayes has a 65 in 100 chance of winning and forecasted that she would take 51.5 percent of the vote. Hayes annexed 55.1 percent of the ballots in 2020.
In late July the Sabato Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia changed its rating in the Fifth District from likely Democrat to leans Democrat.
Over the last 50 years, at least 70 percent of the campaigns in the Fifth District have been at least semi-competitive and/or interesting.
For example, in 2002, former Connecticut Post reporter Joe Musante wrote a book, “The Fight For The Fifth,” on the intense campaigns in 1998 and 2000 between Democrat incumbent Jim Maloney and Republican challenger Mark Nielsen, both of Danbury. Over those campaigns George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, John McCain and Al Gore, among others, made forays into the Fifth District.
As for the six-year pledge, Logan has signed on with U.S. Term Limits to have newly-elected members serve only three terms in the U.S. House, which was a plank in the Republicans’ Contract With America platform in 1994 when they took control of the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years.
He stated in a news release that too often veteran members of Congress gain “personal wealth and power” and lose sight of representing their constituents. The news release stated that an October 2021 Rasmussen poll indicated that 82 percent of the voters surveyed support a constitutional amendment for term limits.
Regardless of whether it becomes law, Logan said he will serve no more than six years if he is elected in the odd-shaped district with 41 municipalities stretching from Salisbury to Newtown.
In 1998 both Maloney and Nielsen signed term limit pledges.
“I hear complaints throughout the district about career politicians,” remarked Logan. “I think there should be turnover.”
There has been turnover in the Fifth District.
Since Waterbury Democrat John Monagan lost his re-election bid in 1972 after 14 years in Congress, the voters have elected nine different congressmen – none of whom have represented the district for more than six years.
Three left to seek higher office – Ron Sarasin of Beacon Falls, John Rowland of Waterbury and Murphy, who then lived in Cheshire. One opted not to seek re-election – Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire. Four were defeated while running for re-election – Bill Ratchford of Danbury, Gary Franks of Waterbury, Maloney and Nancy Johnson of New Britain.
“It certainly is a problem in Connecticut and in the nation,” Logan said regarding long tenures in Congress.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) of New Haven has been in office 32 years, a record for a U.S. House member from Connecticut. If U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-1) of East Hartford wins this November he would rank second all-time on the list by surpassing Johnson, who served for 24 years.
In a phone interview with Patch.com, Democratic State Central Committee member Audrey Blondin of Goshen said, “While it is true that new people should come in, it is also true that experience matters. When I was serving as a selectman [in Litchfield], I certainly was a better selectman in year 10 than in year one. . . I don’t think that term limits should be front and center in your campaign for office.’
On Tim Russert’s MSNBC show in 2000 the late David Broder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post political columnist, said the U.S. House of Representatives already has the guillotine effect through having elections each two years, and if a representative is not performing well, he will probably be defeated.
“’Probably,’ but not ‘necessarily,’” said Logan. “In many heavily Democratic districts, whomever is the Democratic nominee is going to get elected.”
In 1998, Nielsen spent $121,000 of his own money on the campaign and told The Brookfield Journal that it equated to the spending that he would make to start a small business. At the time, Maloney was still paying off debt from his initial campaign from four years earlier.
CT News Junkie recently reported that in the neighboring Fourth Congressional District, Republican contender Michael Goldstein lent his campaign $149,000 for the primary.
When candidates make those sacrifices how realistic is to expect them to only stay in office for up to six years?
Logan said that is “mixing apples and oranges.” He said after completing six years in the U.S House the representatives can embark on other public service ventures.
However, what about the value of having an institutional memory? Do you need to have veteran congressmen who can raise objections at a committee hearing when a cabinet secretary is not properly implementing the program that was signed into law 14 years earlier?
Matt Corey of Manchester, who was the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and previously ran in the First Congressional District, said as congressmen move up in seniority they often “sell out their constituents” because they’re trading political favors in Washington.
Corey said in a phone interview with Patch.com that he would support a four-term limit for U.S. House members.
How important are term limits to voters?
“It depends on who you’re talking to,” said Corey.
“For Republican voters it is probably a top -range issue,” he explained. “It is probably a fourth or fifth issue after inflation, jobs and affordability. Democrats don’t seem to be as interested.”
Hayes’ campaign apparently did not reply to an e-mail message regarding her position on term limits.
What about instituting congressional reform through the Stop Act?
In 2016 Norah O’Donnell on CBS’ “60 Minutes” did a segment on the proposal by then-U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a Republican from Florida, who introduced legislation that “would ban members of Congress from personally asking people for money. The proposal prohibits federal officials from directly soliciting political contributions. They could still attend fundraisers and speak to donors; but they would not be allowed to personally ask for campaign donations.”
“60 Minutes” showed a sheet - initially reported by the Huffington Post – that was provided to first-term Democratic congressmen following the 2014 election suggesting they devote four hours a day to calling for contributions.
“I would not,” Logan said when asked if he would endorse the Stop Act.
“Fundraising is an aspect of the campaign,” he explained. “You need to have resources to do it. To acquire support, you do it through calls, through events.”
Why couldn’t a consultant do that?
Remarked Logan, “That is another expense.” Also, “People who are supporting the campaign, they want to hear from the congressman or the candidate.”
“It is up to the candidates to gain the support of the community,” he said. “You do that through fund-raising.”
“It’s another way for me to stay in touch with my constituents and people supporting the campaign,” Logan commented.
In an August 2018 phone interview with Patch.com when she was seeking the Democratic nomination in a primary, Hayes endorsed the Stop Act.
"We shouldn't spend so much time raising money," she said.
"We shouldn't have to spend 30 hours a week" making phone calls for contributions, Hayes declared at the time.
On another topic, regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 vote in the Dobbs v. Jackson case that restricted abortion access, Logan said, “Overturning Roe v. Wade does not affect Connecticut” as a result of the state laws.
“I support a woman’s right to choose,” he said. However, he added that he is, “Adamantly opposed to late-term abortion.”
Logan said he supports “parental notification of minors” seeking an abortion, noting that all parents that he has spoken with want parental notification for “any major procedure.”
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https://floridapolitics.com/archives/207780-60-minutes-david-jolly-stop-act/
