The front page, top of the fold headline in the Hartford Courant reads, “Dam breaks in primary field.” U.S. Representative John Larson, who has held Connecticut’s First District since 1999, is being besieged by Democrat primary challengers, among them former mayor of Harford Luke Bronin, regarded by most serious political commentators as Larson’s most serious challenger. The First District has been in Democratic hands without interruption since 1957, and for all but six years since 1931. For the mathematically challenged, that is a span of 94 years. The 1 st District castle, it would appear, is impregnable to Republican Party assault. Chris Powell, longtime managing editor and editorial page editor of the once independent Journal Inquirer, now retired from the paper, pops the relevant question: Why now? “In the 2nd District, eastern Connecticut, Kyle Gauck of East Hampton, another unknown, wants to wrest the Democratic nomination from...
go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you;
may your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"
--Samuel Adams