Rodriguez applauds Trump's outreach to Puerto Rico 'quake victims

By Scott Benjamin

WATERBURY – Congressional hopeful Ruben Rodriguez says after recently touring some of the homes, businesses and electrical grids devastated by a series of earthquakes in the southwest section of his native Puerto Rico, he’s gratified that President Donald Trump provided $1 billion in immediate assistance.

“It has been a difficult time for the island,” said Rodriguez of Waterbury, who is in a three-way race for the Republican nomination in the Fifth Congressional District.

The Caribbean nation of 3.2 million people – even fewer than Connecticut – had been pummeled by two hurricanes since 2017.

Rodriguez, who was one of the founders of the Latino National Coalition of Connecticut, said the heartbreak has been felt throughout the Nutmeg State.

In an interview, Rodriguez said that per capita there are more Puerto Ricans coming to Connecticut than anywhere else. He said that there have been surges in three cities in the Fifth District – Waterbury, New Britain and Meriden. They rank first, third and fourth in population among the 41 municipalities in a configuration that stretches from Newtown to Salisbury.

U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-5) of Wolcott, who captured the congressional seat in 2018, has stated that there are 300,000 Puerto Ricans living in Connecticut, the sixth largest such population in the country.

Rodriguez said he is pleased that Trump has appointed U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Peter Brown to be the White House’s liaison with Puerto Rico.

“He is making sure that the money is spent correctly,” said Rodriguez.

Hayes voted recently in support of a $4.7 billion emergency supplemental appropriation that was approved in early February in the House and is now before the U.S. Senate.

“Our friends and neighbors in Puerto Rico urgently need our help after being once again displaced from their homes, forced to rebuild flattened schools and reconstruct --roads and infrastructure,” the congresswoman stated in a news release.

Rodriguez, who is a water meter technician for the city of New Britain, faces David X. Sullivan of New Fairfield – the apparent frontrunner – and Ryan Meehan of Litchfield, a graduate of West Point and the esteemed Joseph Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, in the race. Delegates will be selected in early March and the convention is scheduled for May. If necessary, a primary would be held in August.

Hayes, who is noted for her interpersonal skills, was named teacher of the year in 2016. She was recruited to run for the Democratic nomination by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, formerly of Cheshire, and convincingly won the party primary about three months after she formally entered the race. In November, 208 she easily defeated the Republican nominee, former Meriden Mayor Manny Santos.

It became an open seat in early-April 2018, when U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-5) of Cheshire announced that she would not seek a fourth term after an outcry from some elected officials that she should immediately resign after a harassment scandal involving her former Chief of Staff was reported by Hearst CT.

By early February, Sullivan, a retired Assistant U.S. Attorney, has been endorsed by seven Republican Town Committees and dozens of current and former elected officials.

Rodriguez has garnered endorsements from three New Britain municipal officials.

Sullivan also had raised more than $100,000 by the end of 2019, while Rodriguez said he had raised about $5,000 by the end of January of this year.

Meehan formally entered the race in early January, noting that he was the only candidate in the field with military, business and foreign relations experience.

At the end of 2019, Hayes had $975,292 cash on hand– the most of any of the five U.S. House members from Connecticut.

The district has not elected a Republican since Nancy Johnson of New Britain captured a 12^th term in 2004.

Patch.com has reported that Sacred Heart University Government Department Chairman Gary Rose, who has written a collection of books on Connecticut government, said the demographics of the district have changed.

Rose has told Patch.com that it is no longer a swing district after seven consecutive Democratic victories and larger share of the suburban women’s vote going to the Democratic nominees.

Shortly after losing in 2002 in the first race in the revised district – which includes parts of the former Fifth Congressional District and the defunct Sixth Congressional District - former U.S. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury told The Litchfield County Times that he thought that the new configuration favored the Republicans very slightly, and more so in the gubernatorial years when there was less turnout in the cities.

However, 12 years later, Mark Greenberg, of Litchfield the 2014 Republican nominee in the district, told Patch.com that he thought that based on participation that the Republicans were down 20,000 votes to start with in the district.

Can the Republicans annex more votes from Latinos in November?

Rodriguez said that Latinos and African-Americans have benefitted from the president’s tax reform, which has resulted in the lowest unemployment in more than 50 years.

“People are looking at the economy,” he explained.

However, gross domestic product in 2019 grew at 2.3 percent in 2019, less than the president’s goal of 3.0 percent and the lowest figure since 2016.

Also, the Congressional Budget Office reported last year that under current conditions there will be a projected increase of $12 trillion in accumulated debt during the decade of 2020s.

Rodriguez said he supports the president’s recent announcement at the Davos economic summit to seek a middle class tax cut by April.

“That would help sustain the economy,” he said.

Rodriguez said he believes that Trump and the congressional Republicans will also seek a major infrastructure program in the near future, which would be a boon for Connecticut, which is trying to rebuild a crumbling transportation system.

In an interview with Freakonomics radio, Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, who was the director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama, has said with low interest rates over the recent years, the federal government has been delinquent in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.

Rodriguez said he believes that nationally Trump can capture 34 percent of the Latino vote in November, up from 28 percent in 2016.

Former Republican President George W. Bush had the highest percentage in recent years, securing 40 percent of the Latino votes in his 2004 re-election campaign. Wikipedia.org has reported that W. Bush tallied 49 percent of the Latino vote during his successful 1998 bid for a second term as governor of Texas.

During a February 2013 talk at Western Connecticut State University, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said that according to the Pew Research Group, the Latino population wants what everybody else is seeking: good-paying jobs, quality schools, and a place to party and a place to worship.

Rodriguez said he agrees with that evaluation, and that the reason so many Hispanics have flocked to Connecticut over the last generation is because it has a high quality of life.

Connecticut was ranked by Wall Street 24/7 last November as the fifth best place to live in the United States.

According to another survey, the state ranks 14^th nationally and first in New England in racial diversity.

Regarding issues, Rodriguez criticized Hayes for supporting the articles of impeachment against Trump.

He said none of the accusations against Trump had merit.

Rodriguez added that Trump submitted information on his interaction with Ukraine.

Rodriguez, though, said in the aftermath, steps need to be taken to reduce the friction in Washington.

He said if he is elected, he would become a member of Center Aisle Caucus, which has an identical number of Republican and Democratic embers. The congressmen seek bipartisan solutions to issues.

Murphy was a co-chairman of the Center Aisle Caucus during the latter stages of his tenure as the congressman from the Fifth District.

Said Rodriguez, “We have to change stop the bickering going on in Washington.”

Also, should congressmen spend more time on Capitol Hill and less in their districts?

Former U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, wrote in his 2018 book, “The Right Answer” (Harry Holts & Co, 240 pages) that based partly on his discussions with former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.), who served from 1975 to 1981 and again from 2013 to 2019, the U.S. House should revert back to the schedule of a generation ago when there were more weeks when the body was in session from Monday at 9 a.m. through Friday at 5 p.m.

Delaney stated that, "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 added. "These days our time is so limited that all we can do is pop in and out of meetings."

Rodriguez stopped short of endorsing Delaney’s premise, saying that there should be a balance between congressional sessions and district work periods.

With delegate selection just weeks away, Rodriguez said he believes he can win the convention this spring.

But he said his “team” still hasn’t decided if he will seek a primary if he doesn’t take the convention yet still receives at least 15 percent of the delegates, the threshold to automatically qualify for the August ballot.

However, Rodriguez said his inclination would be to not run as a challenger in a primary.

He said, “To me, it’s not healthy.”