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Another Free Ride for DeLauro
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Business New Haven
6/1/1998
By: BNH
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What conclusions are to be drawn from the fact that, once again, Third Congressional District Republicans have failed to mount a credible challenge to the re-election campaign of Democratic U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro?
In a state with a long and rich Republican heritage, presided over by a popular Republican governor headed for re-election, DeLauro's free ride to a fourth term seems, at best, counter-intuitive.
If DeLauro is somehow regarded as invulnerable, it is difficult for us to see why. She is no friend of business, as her intractable opposition to NAFTA and lockstep alliance with big labor attest. Her district office is repeatedly assailed by constituents for its lack of responsiveness. She fears and distrusts the media, and it shows. On the stump she is shrill and screechy. She is the teachers' lobby's best friend, in a district which houses the state's second-worst public-school system. For better or worse, she is a dyed-in-the-wool Clintonista.
One would think that, among the above traits, a determined foe could find some ammunition to work with. But, again as in 1996, no GOP figure of any stature is willing to go toe-to-toe with the three-term incumbent, whose voting record marks her as one of the most predictably liberal members of the House.
GOP leaders such as State Rep. Chris DePino, the state party chairman, talk about restoring their party to greatness one building block at a time. When the party failed even to challenge the re-election campaign of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. last fall, DePino said it made more sense to focus on capturing seats on the city's 30-member Board of Aldermen. Today, the Republicans hold precisely one seat. And the mayoral election was marked by the sorry spectacle of DeStefano's “opponent,” Republican Ann Piscottano, forsaking her own party's banner on her way to an Election Day wipeout. How shabby.
Still, considering the 10-1 edge in voter registration Democrats enjoy in the city of New Haven, we can at least understand, if not agree with, that decision to demur. But the Third District comprises much more than the city of New Haven, whose electorate is dominated by ethnic groups who vote Democratic as a natural reflex.
The Republican Party does not lack for potentially attractive candidates. DePino himself is media-friendly and -savvy, pays union dues, and enjoys an ethnic base to neutralize DeLauro's Wooster Street roots (although the congresswoman herself, along with her husband, Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg, has long since repaired to cushy Huntington Street, and will not soon be spied standing in line at Sally's). Branford State Sen. William Aniskovich is another young Republican presumed to enjoy a bright future.
But for now, DePino, Aniskovich and others like them seem content to sit back and watch DeLauro tighten her grip on what must by now be considered one of the Democrats' safer House seats.
It needn't be this way. But to change the scenario will require courage and risk-taking on the part of a yet-to-be-determined candidate unafraid to have his nose bloodied - plus the full weight of the state and national GOP to unseat the Beltway insider.
Hooray for Rosa DeLauro, we suppose, for so intimidating potential rivals that she can look forward to another November walk-through. But shame on Third District Republicans for once again cheating us of the fruits of the democratic process.
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