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| Nast Tammany cartoon |
The question “Why do Democrats win elections in Connecticut?” is intimately bound up with the question “How do Democrats win elections in Connecticut?”
It helps a great deal to have a 400 pound gorilla in your
corner.
What shall we make of the proposition that we have the kind
of government we have in Connecticut, left of center and increasingly
progressive, because we have the kind of media we have in Connecticut, left of
center and increasingly progressive?
The media, as a political campaign amplifier, is not
unimportant in campaigns. If you have a message and do not have a media to
relay it objectively, you are at a considerable disadvantage. The media may not
be
the message, but you cannot present yourself adequately to voters if your
message is damagingly edited by a media that has, in effect, chosen sides.
Is this the case in Connecticut?
The answer to the question is – maybe.
There has got to be some reason, other than superior
numbers, why there has not been for many years a Republican sitting on
Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional Delegation. It is true that registered
Democrats in Connecticut outnumber registered Republicans roughly by a ratio of
two to one, and there are in the state slightly more unaffiliated than
Democrats. But that was the case as well when the distribution of Republicans
and Democrats within the U.S. Congressional delegation was more or less even.
Money remains important in campaigns. Incumbents, of course,
are always able to out-finance challengers, even though challengers in
Connecticut may, provided they are willing to abide by stringent regulations,
garner money for campaigns through tax dollar contributions. Self-financing of
campaigns is also an option, limited, we are told, to the sort of people who
own yachts and do not worry overmuch about the price of beef and gas.
Increasingly, the Democrat not the Republican Party is
becoming the party of the rich and the disenfranchised poor. The usually
productive Middle Class is the real orphan of postmodern politics.
According to IRS Data, Democrats have now become the party of the wealthy, a turnabout when it was the party of the poor and middle class decades ago. “In 1993, the last time a president asked Congress to vote in a significant tax hike,” Bloomberg reports, “the typical congressional district represented by a Republican was 14% richer than the typical Democratic district, according to household income data from the Census Bureau. By 2020, those districts were 13% poorer… Democrats now represent 65% of taxpayers with a household income of $500,000 or more, according to pre-pandemic Internal Revenue Service statistics.”
Still, the amount of money poured into campaigns is not alone decisive. Linda McMahon self-financed a campaign in which she had spent $50 million, and yet she was not successful in overthrowing a popular Democrat, Dick Blumenthal, also a millionaire. Many regard this as a hopeful sign, indicating that elections cannot be bought.
Ah, but we know they can be bought, usually by incumbents
whose campaign bank accounts are flush, swelling with about a million in cash even
before their campaigns have officially begun.
U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, also a millionaire, has
consistently out financed and outspent all of her Republican opponents. Such is the distribution of forces in DeLauro’s
3rd District that DeLauro likely need not spend a single campaign
dollar to win against any Republican challenger. That rule holds true in
Congressman John Larson’s gerrymandered 1st District as well. Exceptions
that prove the rule, such as McMahon’s campaign against Blumenthal, do not
invalidate the rule. And the rule is: majority incumbent Democrat politicians,
moderate or otherwise, tend to rule. Money and political entropy win elections.
In the land of steady bad habits, elections lie in the hands of those disposing
of superior political force, mostly incumbents, and de-energized opposition voters.
“Stefanowski to put $10 million into bid,” the front page, above the fold story
in a Hartford paper announced. That
would be $40 million less than was spend by McMahon on her campaign against
Dick Blumenthal for the U.S. Senate. And Stefanowski’s contribution to his own
campaign will be dwarfed by the money Lamont will deploy in his own campaign,
the insuperable advantages of incumbency, and Connecticut’s 400 pound media
gorilla, no mean advantage. The endorsements of the 2022 gubernatorial campaign
likely have already been written.
Comments
When I came to Connecticut right out of Engineering school in 1979 my employer at the time, Combustion Engineering had 5000 people in Windsor. Today it's successors have less than 300 there. The old corporate campus is now apartments and assisted living.
This is true all across the state. The Mohegan Sun casino used to manufacture nuclear reactors for Electric Boat. These are now built in Virginia. This may change as new retirees find they need to go south or west to be financially comfortable in retirement.
The old "you can't leave CT because of the great quality of living" argument has failed as more people move to the Carolinas or Florida. This helps prop the democrats up but the relationship between the rich, woke group and others is fraying.
check into the candidates work record.. They have discovered they can get free benefits, and they want you the rich, to pay your share. They are ignorant to the truth of what they really pay and pay iquite a chunk of their income. If they don’t wake up and quit looking to government is not their daddy and mom.
I blame the people that won’t check to see the consequences of their vote. I’m so disgusted that some will sell their vote. I have gotten to the point where I believe that only people that own property should vote. If you are on welfare and healthy, you don’t have standing to vote! Been watching this for many years and people that work and own property are paying higher and higher taxes because the others vote for the ones that has promised them free stuff so they can continue getting monthly payments and food stamps. They should not be allowed to vote unless they work and own property. That’s may be the key that will get different parties in office. There is way to much graff and buying of votes. This has got to be addressed. Government people really should be audited every so often. Thanks for letting me speak Don. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸❤️🙏🙏🙏