A bright spot for Connecticut Republicans void of congressional and state constitutional seats and heavily outflanked by Democrats in the state legislature is George Logan who lost a cliffhanger to 5th District Congresswoman Jahana Hayes two years ago and is once against challenging her this presidential cycle.
Logan, a former state senator who earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Bridgeport, will be the keynote speaker April 20 for the Republican Town Committee’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner at Vazzano’s Four Seasons.
The 5th District encompasses the western portion of the state from Danbury and above with the ratio of Democrats and Republicans close enough for unaffiliated voters to heavily sway outcomes. It is the heart of Litchfield County and bleeding into Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford Counties.
Former Mayor Lenny Paoletta who served from 1981-85 will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Lincoln dinner.
Paoletta presided during a key voting era for Republicans. During the 20-year period 1971 to 1991, 10 of those years were occupied by Republican mayors, GOP candidates filled City Council seats as well as a representative number in the General Assembly. For decades Bridgeport’s Republican registration was among the highest in Connecticut with well over 10,000 GOP electors.
Voting demographics shifted heavily post 2000. When Paoletta was elected mayor the GOP registration was roughly 13,000. Today it’s about 4,500.
Logan has a nice story to tell as a product of immigrants. As noted in the video above his message is focused heavily on a dysfunctional congress with “upside down” policies loathe to independent-minded voters.
George Logan is a good man, sharing his beliefs as an American in a land of opportunity for all, in his pursuit of Congressional office. But is this example of Federal regulations more likely to come from Biden Democrats or from the Trump “radical Right” practitioners of autocracy? They claim to be the Republican party in Congress and by continuing to practice loyalty to Trump’s Big Lie fail their oath of office.
The failure of Congress to pass so little significant legislation in the recent past, with the consequent disappearance of left-center-and conservative Republicans in any meaningful number, has left us with a Red “radical right” residue of secretive big-money Libertarian planners. For several decades they have plotted and executed national governance changes that now place actual democracy at significant risk. Connecticut probably has enough folks who remember “good governance” from the practice of representatives from each of two parties who labored over legislation and made law. Perhaps Logan is appealing to that reservoir of actual democratic process and practice to win votes from former Republicans, Unaffiliated, and Democrats? All participants in elections of national import must fight the lies that have destroyed our political norms, pursue specific policy interests that benefit current and future generations, and encourage broader trust in all of the branches of government based on securing actual outcomes for all that provide justice and genuine freedom. Time will tell.