Politics & Government
MacGuffie attempts to drive to primary victory
Fan of the Chevy Camaro, Tom Seaver faces Goldstein in Fourth Congressional District Republican race
By Scott Benjamin
SHELTON – Bob MacGuffie stands proudly in front of a red Chevrolet Camaro as his wife, Adrienne, takes a photo.
“I bought a two-year-old Camaro in 1969,” he says while campaigning at the 14th annual Ross Jenacaro Memorial Car Show in the parking lot of a corporate center.
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Remarked MacGuffie, “I always saved the cash gifts that I got for my birthday and Christmas, and I was able to buy the car pre-owned. My grandfather said, “ ‘Good, you saved your money.’ ”
MacGuffie, a former financial executive from Fairfield, captured the convention endorsement in May on the second ballot by eight delegate votes over Michael Goldstein, a physician and attorney who is a member of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting. They will now face off in an August 13 primary in the 17-municipality district, which stretches from Greenwich to Shelton to Oxford.
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U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Greenwich is running for a ninth term. He has annexed about 60 percent of the ballots in recent elections.
Generating a turnout during beach season is difficult.
MacGuffie said some Rotary Clubs in the district will no longer invite candidates to speak. He said he admires the state legislative candidates who canvass 5,000 homes in their district. He said that he plans to knock on some doors with GOP legislative candidates in Fairfield, but he can’t personally canvass across a congressional district with more than 700,000 people.
He said the social media is a valuable resource.
“You try to organize the base,” remarked MacGuffie in an interview with Patch.com. “It is mostly the staunch conservatives. They should be attracted to my candidacy.”
Bill Stephens of Trumbull appears to be a likely supporter.
“I’m with the Republicans on everything,” he said.
MacGuffie began speaking to Republican Town Committees in March of last year and believes being the convention-endorsed nominee will make a difference. He said some Republican leaders in the district are “annoyed” that Goldstein decided to run a primary after defeats at the nominating conventions in 2020, 2022 and 2024 and a loss to former Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson in the 2022 primary.
No Republican has prevailed in the district since 2006 when Chris Shays of Bridgeport captured the last of his 11 terms.
MacGuffie was an organizer of the Tea Party in Connecticut and has been challenging Himes’ issue positions at his public forums since 2009, when the congressman took office.
He co-authored a book - “The Seventh Crisis: Why Millennials Must Re-establish Ordered Liberty” – which indicates that the under-40 generation needs to stem government growth re-establish trust in public institutions.
If elected, MacGuffie has pledged to join the Freedom Caucus, the Republicans who have threatened to not raise the debt limit until there are spending reductions. It organized the ouster last year of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California.
Government Professor Gary Rose of Sacred Heart University, who wrote a book on the Fourth District in 2011, told Patch.com last year that MacGuffie is “waging a bare-knuckle campaign” that has been “provocative.”
Erica E. Phillips of CT Mirror wrote that MacGuffie delivered a “fiery” acceptance speech at the nominating convention in Fairfield.
However, MacGuffie, wearing a tan campaign baseball cap, easily engages in polite conversation with the spectators at the car show as he distributes campaign literature and business cards. Adrienne writes names and contact information into a spiral notebook and takes photos for the campaign social media.
Michael Cascella of Fairfield tells MacGuffie the first responders and the military personnel need support.
“We have to have strong public safety,” MacGuffie replies. “I support the veterans. I also am a supporter of the Second Amendment.”
He told Patch.com that the most frequently-mentioned topic is border security.
“There are 11 million more illegal immigrants” since Democratic President Joe Biden took office three and half years ago, MacGuffie said.
Since John McCain’s and Ted Kennedy’s immigration reform efforts nearly 20 years ago, there have been comments that it would be difficult to get all of the illegal immigrants out of the country.,
“Whatever it costs, you have got to do it,” MacGuffie exclaimed. “We have to secure the border. The taxpayers are absorbing costs for services that are provided to them.”
In a recent book, “What Went Wrong With Capitalism.” Financial Times columnist Ruchir Sharrma stated that, “When the price of borrowing money is zero, the price of everything else goes bonkers.”
MacGuffie agreed, saying, “Money should cost something. You can’t be giving it away the way we did of a dozen or more years [after the Great Recession]. Businesses, that otherwise would have failed, went forward on cheap credit.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has criticized Democratic former President Bill Clinton for delinking American trade policy from human rights in China in 1994. He has called for repealing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China and establishing Most Favored Nation trade status attached to human rights standards.
MacGuffie supports that legislation.
“China has taken advantage of us economically,” he said. “Too many of our important products are manufactured in China.”
In a New York Times column, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has called for warning labels to be placed on social media. It needs congressional approval.
“I would support that,” said MacGuffie. “There is a lot of nasty stuff on there. In particular, it is an issue for children. No one seems to be able to get their foot on it.”
What is the distribution of Red Sox, Yankee and Met fans in the Fourth District
“I don’t think there is too much Boston,” MacGuffie said. “It is mostly the New York teams.”
More Yankees, or more Mets?
“I really don’t know,” said MacGuffie, who hails from Queens and has been a Mets fan since Casey Stengel managed the team.
Growing up, his favorite player was Tom Seaver, who lived in Greenwich. MacGuffie was among the 59,000 fans at Bill Shea Stadium on July 9, 1969 when Tom Terrific hurled eight-and-a-third innings of perfect baseball before the Cubs Jim Qualls looped a single to center field to break up Seaver’s bid for 27 up and 27 down.
MacGuffie praised the current television broadcast team of Gary Cohen, who lives in Ridgefield, and former Met standouts Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez.
He commented, “Keith is intelligent enough to be a manager, but he might not be disciplined enough.”
Resources:
Interview with Bob MacGuffie, Patch.com, on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-9-1969-tom-seavers-near-perfect-game/
https://ctmirror.org/2024/05/20/ct-gop-conventions-congress-election-logan-hayes/
https://chrissmith.house.gov/n...
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/What-Went-Wrong-with-Capitalism/Ruchir-Sharma/9781668008263
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/opinion/social-media-health-warning.html
