5th District Contender Bill Stevens Opposes Kasich Due to His Position on Immigration Reform

Second of a four part series written by Scott Benjamin

Fifth Congressional District Republican contender Bill Stevens of Newtown said the party would benefit from a primary since it “would give more voters a chance to hear what the candidates have to say.”

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury said usually primaries leave the winner with too little money and too few friends to build a winning organization in the three months until the election.

Maloney won a primary in his first bid for the seat in 1994 but lost by about 12,000 votes in the general election to Republican incumbent Gary Franks of Waterbury.

The Fifth District has elected eight congressmen since 1972, seven of which served in the General Assembly before ascending to Washington, including two-term incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire.

She initially captured the seat in 2012 by 7,361 votes over then-state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-Goshen) and subsequently thwarted Greenberg by 15,786 votes in 2014.

Republican candidates have struggled over the recent elections to limit Democratic pluralities in the five cities – Waterbury, New Britain, Danbury, Meriden and Torrington. First, Chris Murphy of Cheshire, now a U.S. senator, and then Esty have been able to amass margins of 15,000 or more in the cities, which is considered the threshold for a Democratic victory.

Esty also captured Salisbury and Kent in the Northwest Corner of Litchfield County in the last two races and added New Milford, Newtown, Simsbury and Sharon to her ledger in the 2014 election.

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield said the Democrats usually have a bigger advantage in a presidential election year since the turnout is larger. The Democratic presidential candidate has captured the Fifth District each time since 1996.

“But this year the million dollar question is whether if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate if she will be able to assemble the Obama coalition,” he said. “He got a higher number of African American and Latino voters. Plus she might not have the support of some of the most fervent Bernie Sanders supporters who think that she’s too connected to Wall Street. That could impact turnout in the Fifth District.”

Still, Harding, who is supporting Sherman First Selectman Clay Cope’s bid for the nomination and worked on Roraback’s 2012 campaign, said Esty is a “formidable” incumbent.

He said she is more likeable than her critics think and has been able to raise large sums of money.

However, Harding said he believes there is a disconnection between her bipartisan image and her voting record.

“She didn’t mention the names Obama or Malloy during her last campaign,” he declared in reference to the president and the governor. “She knew that they weren’t popular in the district. But I think she supports the president more than the people in her district would like and she is more in support of Malloy’s policies than people would know.”

Stevens, who first started thinking about running for the seat last fall, said one of the most striking statistics is that there are 100,000 unaffiliated voters in the district.

“I suspect many of them are disaffected Republicans,” the candidate said, noting that as the most conservative candidate in the field, he could garner a number of votes from that constituency.

Stevens, who served in the Army and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara, said he could support either U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of New Mexico or real estate mogul Donald Trump of New York in the April 26 Connecticut Republican primary.

He said he opposes Ohio Gov. John Kasich because of his position on immigration reform.