Does the Cheshire Democrat have the campaign legs to make a run for her party’s nomination in the the 5th District?
Right now, the odds look very, very long for the former state representative and town council member who has been running hard in the 41 towns that make up the district.
Chris Donovan, the House Speaker, is the hands-down favorite of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. He won a resounding victory at the Democrats’ nominating convention for the 5th District in Waterbury Monday night. Donovan — with legions of traditional, liberal Democrats in his corner – will be almost imposssible to knock off in the Aug. 14 party primary. He showed impressive muscle among Democratic delegates from the district’s larger cities, including Meriden and New Britain.
Which is why the big question is Esty and whether she can muster enough center and independent-minded Democrats to challenge Donovan. She must show she’s the one who can hold on to a Congressional seat that may be more independent and Republican than it is Democratic.
Donovan smothered Esty and Democrat Dan Roberti Monday evening, raking in 216 of the available 336 delegate votes. Esty collected 66, about 19 percent. Dan Roberti won 54, giving him 16 percent. It takes 15 percent to force a primary.
“I have demonstrated the ability to win independents,” Esty told me during a break from working the crowd Monday evening, reminding me that more than 4 in 10 voters in the 5th District are unaffiliated. “I know I can reach independent voters.”
Esty’s chances also hang on Dan Roberti, the first-time candidate from Kent, who also vows to stay in the race, despite his poor showing Monday evening. Roberti is well-financed and energetic, but not as strong a campaigner as Esty. If he remains the race, Esty probably goes nowhere.
Meanwhile, Democrats have another questions they must ask themselves. If Chris Murphy cruises to the nomination for U.S. Senate, does the party want to reject a moderate female such as Esty in the 5th? The Democrats — including Donovan Monday night — have made much of the “Republican war on women.” If so, why not nominate a Democratic woman in the 5th district?
Esty has no shortage of wealthy backers. She has led all candidates in fundraising. She has about $800,000 in cash on hand as the candidates head into three months of campaigning before the August primary.
Donovan looks more than solid, for now. The campaign, however, has barely begun.
Esty and her staff watch the convention from the back of the room
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11 Responses to Convention Question: Not Chris Donovan, But Elizabeth Esty
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The Democratic women voted for the cute guys again instead of the women? Hillary, Bysiewicz, and now Esty—-tell me some more about that ‘War on Women’ and unequal representation of women in government and all that faux inequality stuff
Don’t feel bad! The Republicans are eating their female candidates too. It’s not easy being a woman in Connecticut politics in either party.
I sat next to Elizabeth Esty for three years on the Cheshire Town Council. We talked both policy and politics often.
I expect her to win the nomination and I disagree that Roberti remaining in the race hurts her chances. That makes sense only if most CT-5 Dem primary voters know Donovan and it becomes a referendum on Donovan. My *guess* is that most voters don’t yet know him.
Tim White
Hey Tim White, please pass me some of whatever it is you’re smoking, I’d like a trip to fantasy land too!
When you come back to earth, you’ll realize that Donovan will crush them both in a primary but who knows with you, you’ve never been one to ever face reality so why start now?
You missed a big piece here, Rick. Donovan failed miserably in Waterbury. Without a strong showing in Waterbury, no Democrat will win in November.
Waterbury went for Roberti cause Mayor OLeary needed the money for his campaign.
This has got to be most ridiculous apples and oranges comparison I’ve ever seen. I can’t even comment further. As a woman business owner and a woman is seeing the rights that women have fought for for 80 years disappear piece by piece…..not worth my time. What’s worse than stupid comparison: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/929454/brownback_signs_law_that_allows_pharmacists_to_guess_if_women_are_having_an_abortion%2C_refuse_them_service/
Hey Charlie Lynch – Way to go – respond to a reasoned expression of experience with a zinger like that – wow! The fantasy is thinking we would see a cogent, thoughtfully constructed string of words that adds to the discourse in a helpful manner from you.
Team Esty is rolling and gaining momentum. Convention was a win – she accomplished more than she needed to. She’s a campaigning machine.
Electability is key… that’s why Donovan is the best candidate. Esty couldn’t win her hometown of Cheshire in the last state Election.
Well we all know a union candidate when we see one and Mr. Donovan is certainly a union owned candidate if ever there was one. So we know the unions will benefit if he gets elected, but do the rest of us benefit? Has Mr. Donovan, whose view of the world we live in has been narrowed so completely by the blinders the unions have placed on him, ever been objective? Even once? No,not in the 20 years he has been an elected official. But he sure can pull in the pork for his union voters.
Saw Donovan on TV and the first thing he says is “republican war on women” blah, blah, blah. Geez, can’t these cookie-cutter tools have an independent thought? Bysewicz has a web ad that blares, “Make Wall Street Pay!”. So a casual observer can see that the thrust of the democrat’s campaign will be to stoke division and encourage envy. Sounds like a winning combination.
http://www.theday.com/article/20120516/OP01/305169977