Esty Cites Endorsement In Latest TV Ad

With less than two weeks to go before the Aug. 14 primary, Democrat Elizabeth Esty is taking praise from The Torrington Register-Citizen onto the airwaves.

Esty’s campaign released a 32-second television ad that will air throughout the district starting Wednesday. It highlights parts of the Register-Citizen’s endorsement of Esty in the Aug. 14 primary, in which she will compete with House Speaker Chris Donovan and public relations executive Dan Roberti.

In Wednesday’s ad, titled “Backbone,” Esty again voices her support for middle class workers and says that it one of the reasons that the newspaper endorsed her.

“They’ve increased they’re bottom lines by cutting jobs in this country and shipping them overseas,” Esty says, without specifying who ‘they’ are. “American workers can compete with the best if we have people in Washington who understand that and make sure we have a level playing field.”

The Register-Citizen did heap lots of praise on Esty, a former state representative from Cheshire, calling her “smart, deliberate, articulate and intellectually curious” and saying she  “stands head and shoulders above the rest of the field.”

But it also said that the paper made the endorsement it did because of reservations about the convention-endorsed candidate, Donovan and about Roberti.

The paper noted that general election candidates will have to court many independent voters, who might have been turned off by Donovan’s strong pro-union positions, even before federal investigators began arresting former members of his campaign staff. Were Donovan to win the nomination, Republicans would likely use the ongoing investigation as a constant point of attack.

“[T]here’s more to representing the 5th District than casting votes. And first one has to get elected,” the endorsement piece says. “[T]he taint of corruption surrounding Donovan makes it impossible for him to win in November.”

The paper also criticizes Roberti for having no previous government and says he would become a “personal congressman” for his father, Vince Roberti, who is a powerful Washington lobbyist.

“We are committed to the middle class,” Esty says near the close of Wednesday’s ad. “All they need is a good partner in Washington and that’s what I want to be.”