Esty Talks About Health Care; Comments On RNCC Ad

Congressional candidate Elizabeth Esty held a press conference about health care reform Thursday.

Democrat Elizabeth Esty held a press conference in Farmington Thursday to talk about health care reform and its importance to women.

Esty supports the president’s health care law.

Esty, a one-term state representative, cited her 2009 vote in support of Sustinet, the affordable health care plan that was passed by the state legislature, as a reason why 5th Congressional District residents should vote for her. She also said she has a history of fighting for women’s rights.

“I have a record quite unmatched by him,” Esty said, of her opponent, Republican Andrew Roraback.

Esty was not alone in calling for the preservation of the affordable care act. She was joined Thursday by two state residents, a Representative from the National Association of Social Workers, state Comptroller Kevin Lembo and state Sen. Terry Gerratana, D-New Britain, who chairs the legislatures’s public health committee.

After the formal press conference, Esty answered questions from the media.

In regard to an ad released Thursday by the National Republican Congressional Committee, Esty said she hadn’t seen it yet, but had heard about it.

The ad talks about how Esty has received congressional campaign contributions from corporations or lobbyists who are regulated by her husband’s state agency.

Her husband, Dan, is commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“This is what you say when you don’t have any policy issues,” Esty said. “It’s throwing mud.”