Bysiewicz, Murphy Spar Over Wall Street

NEW BRITAIN — Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Chris Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz sparred in their first one-on-one debate Thursday morning, with Murphy saying he’s the guy with the experience to get things done and Bysiewicz portraying herself as the outsider unafraid to shake up the established political order.

But after listening to both candidates for more than an hour, Ned Lamont, a Democrat who ran for the U.S. Senate himself in 2006, observed that “there’s not that big a difference between you guys on the issues.”

Bysiewicz is “trying to turn this guy into the next Gordon Gekko,” Lamont said, referring to the greedy villain of the movie “Wall Street.”
“And Chris, you’re saying she can’t find her way to the ladies room in Capitol Hill and she doesn’t have the experience you do,” Lamont said.

Yet despite the common ground, differences did emerge between Murphy, currently a congressman representing Connecticut’s 5th District, and Bysiewicz, the former secretary of the state. The 90-minute debate at Central Connecticut State University was organized by WNPR’s public affairs program, “Where We Live” and broadcast live; it was the first formal debate between the two, with none of the second-tier candidates present.

Murphy, the frontrunner in both fundraising and public opinion polls who received the endorsement of Democrats at the state convention earlier this month, said he’s not suggesting that experience is the key difference.

“Frankly, Susan Bysiewicz has been in government much longer than I’ve been in government,” he said. “The question is really who’s put their actions where their voice is…Susan Bysiewicz seems to have found religion on Wall Street reform in the last year and a half and mercilessly attacks me for taking contributions from the exact same groups she’s taken contributions from. I’ve walked the walk on these issues.”
Bysiewicz continued hammering Murphy on what has been one of her main lines of attack throughout the campaign: That he has failed to stand up to powerful Wall Street interests because he has accepted campaign contributions from big Wall Street firms.

“You’ve taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in [political action campaign] money from all the bad actors in the financial crisis,” she said, “and then you vote to keep the hedge fund loophole open. It seems to me there’s a [connection] there.”

But Murphy accused her of “hypocrisy” and said she, too, has accepted Wall Street money. “Secretary Bysiewicz seems to have a problem with the contributions that I’ve taken but when she takes contributions from AIG doesn’t seem to have a problem with those,” he said, saying her stance smacks of a “political double standard.”

And, Murphy noted, Bysiewicz’ efforts to run to the left of him on financial regulation have not netted her the support of traditionally progressive groups in the state, such as the Working Families party and the Connecticut Citizens Action group, both of which have endorsed Murphy.

When asked how they would reenergize the U.S. economy, Murphy said he’d back a large federal investment in public works projects.
“Costs for construction are the lowest in a generation,” he said. “You can get great deals today…on building new roads, bridges or rail lines. In addition, we’ve got the highest construction unemployment in the country…we should be making a massive investment in roads and bridges and infrastruture.”

Bysiewicz said the economy will not fully recover until the housing crisis is dealt with. She favors a plan to charge a small tax on every securities transaction. Such a charge would generate $150 billion annually; she said she’d use the bulk of the money to provide mortgage relief to middle class homeowners. The rest would be invested in renewable energy projects, she added.

Murphy said he also supports a transaction tax.

The two candidates were asked about national defense and whether they backed a return of the draft. Bysiewicz did not directly respond, but she said she doubted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would have dragged on as long as they did had there been a military draft in place.

Murphy was unambiguous, calling the reimposition of the draft “a dangerous idea.” Instead, suggested a war tax as a way to ensure every American has a stake in the battles the U.S. engages in overseas. “If you want to go into an engagement that’s going to cost your country trillions of dollars…then let’s pay for it as a nation,” he said. “When was the last time you heard of a Victory Garden?…We didn’t do that over the last 10 years so it was just easy to put blinders on while other people fought those wars.”

Even though Murphy received the endorsement of delegates at the convention, Bysiewicz netted enough support to qualify for a primary, which will be held on Aug. 14. The winner will face the Linda McMahon or Christopher Shays, who are vying to become the Republican nominee. The U.S. Senate seat is held by Joseph Lieberman, who is not seeking reelection.

Bysiewicz noted that she would be the first female senator from Connecticut and invoked the names of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachsetts, who is seeking to unseat Republican Scott Brown in an intensely fought race.

When asked why they are undertaking the rigors of running for U.S. Senate, both Murphy and Bysiewicz invoked their children–and McMahon, the wealthy former CEO of WWE, a wrestling and entertainment company.

“I just couldn’t allow somebody like Linda McMahon to buy this election,” Murphy said.

Added Bysiewicz: “I’ll be darned if I let someone who sells sex and violence and pornography for a living be our next United States Senator…. We have to send the right woman to Washington.”