Marcia Chambers Photo
UPDATE — Ted Kennedy Jr. went on the attack against his opponent Bruce Wilson Jr. Thursday night — for attacking him. Click here to view the debate.
The gloves came off in the final debate between the two candidates for the open 12 State Senate District seat, as Democrat Kennedy accused Republican Wilson of negative campaigning for his repeated criticism of Kennedy’s fundraising tactics.
The two men were ready, even eager for the question posed by Carole Fanslow who came to the Branford Fire Headquarters last night from Bridgeport to moderate the debate on behalf of the League of Women Voters: “Connecticut has some of the strongest campaign finance laws in the country. If elected, what would you do to strengthen those laws and keep money out of politics?”
A feisty exchange ensued between the two candidates, an exchange that provided the context for Kennedy’s decision to accept public financing along with funds from the Democratic Party. Kennedy and family members also donated funds to the state’s Democratic Party before the party sent money back to the campaign. Wilson filed a complaint with the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC) early in October decrying Kennedy’s action. He filed a second one after more money flowed in.
Wilson has called on Kennedy to return $93,600 in public funds his senate campaign received given the fact that he also accepted a total so far of $207,000 in separate “pass-through” money from the state Democratic Party. Kennedy has said no. Kennedy and his family have so far donated $94,500 to the Democratic Party. (Click here to read about the issue.)
While a number of other questions pertaining to seniors were asked and answered, this was the main issue of the debate, and both candidates knew it. Wilson has a television ad ready to roll out this weekend in which he says Kennedy is buying the election. Kennedy is running no television ads in the campaign, preferring to hold local events. On Sunday, Jim Calhoun, former UConn men’s basketball coach, is scheduled to join Kennedy for a “Get Out the Vote” Rally at 3 p.m. at the Guilford VFW Hall.
Before more than 100 people in the audience Thursday night, Kennedy decried Wilson’s attacks. But then he added a twist: “By now this has been so reported on by so many people thanks to your negative attacks, that everybody in this room knows my campaign is in full compliance of the law.” Kennedy repeatedly said it was wrong for Wilson to run so negative a campaign in which he has constantly “attacked me personally, relentlessly with the issue of campaign finance.” Wilson also participates in the state’s public-financing program.
“Look, I knew I was going to get heat for this,” Kennedy said. “I’ll be honest with you. You know we have millions of dollars right now flowing into our state. Right now. As we speak by outside organizations, millions of dollars, unlimited, undisclosed organizations. And two years ago we had the Yankee Institute and a number of other organizations dump over $1 million in State Senate races and state rep races around this state.” The state’s political parties, he observed, “had no ability to respond to that.” As a result, the legislature changed the law to enable state parties to give funds directly to campaigns and to raise the cap for public giving from $5,000 to $10,000.
“I know I am a sitting duck. I need to be prepared in my campaign,” Kennedy said. After the debate Kennedy told the Eagle: “I am a magnet. I can’t take the chance to have some outside organization or the state Republican Party spend money to try to destroy me in the last week of the campaign. I have nothing to hide. Everything is in plain sight. Everyone with a computer can look up the donations I made to the party and what the party has made on behalf of all the candidates. It is not just me. It is Lonnie, Sean, the governor, everybody,” he said referring to Lonnie Reed and Sean Scanlon, Democratic state representative candidates from Branford and Guilford.
Kennedy told Wilson that he owed “the taxpayers an explanation of why you have chosen to use their dollars in a relentless series of personal attacks against me.” Kennedy said the citizens election program is important and the state is lucky to have it: “I’ve been criticized because the state Democratic Party has chosen to expend resources in this district, which they are perfectly entitled to do.”
Wilson: Not So Fast
“We took an oath” to “keep elections clean,” said Wilson, who has also received public financing. He accused his opponent of “polluting” the election instead by doing an end-run around the rules.
Wilson went on and did not hold back: “Let’s be clear. This has always been about a man who made a promise in the press to abide by the regulations of campaign financing and to live within the limits. He signed a document attesting to that with the state. He pledged to his supporters he was going to raise all the money he needed in this community. At the same time he was moving money through friends, family and employees into the Democratic Party and back out to his campaign.
“He voluntarily opted into the citizens election program. He didn’t have to do that. If he had used his own money, quite frankly I would have been helpless; there would have been no way for me to compete. I entered this campaign knowing how sensitive we are in this state to politicians who game the system. Soon we are going to sentence a former governor of this state for gaming the system and being dishonest in elections,” he said, referring to former Gov. John Rowland. “I don’t want to be that guy; I can’t be that guy. I think too highly of you; I think too highly of myself to be that guy.
“And I promise you I will never be that guy that says one thing, does another and then says it’s legal so it is okay. Wrong is wrong. I know it, you know it and I think you know it Mr. Kennedy but you are just afraid to say it.”
Kennedy told the audience “it was difficult for me to sit here day after day and get attacked by my opponent and other people are telling me to give it back. You know what. I am just not going to do that. I want to run a positive campaign. I want to run an issues-oriented campaign. And nothing I have said or done has been critical or attacked my opponent and he’s spent his time and money to attack me. He is not talking about a single thing he wants to do in the 12th District. It is all about trying to take me down. Look it has been hard to listen to that, but I think by now people understand what he is doing.”
Who’s “Polluting”?
Kennedy said he was determined to take the high road. “Negative campaigns are not a strategy for the 12th Senate District. They pollute our political environment, they make it hard to get along, they increase the animosity. I am not going to engage in any kind of negative campaign. I have never said in all of my mailings one negative thing about my opponent. Not one.”
He then referred to one of Wilson’s campaign flyers, the one that says “Connecticut is Broken,” asking, “Now how many jobs do you think that message is going to create in the 12th Senate District?”
Kennedy said that at a debate between the two in Guilford Wednesday night, Wilson said “he would tell his own children not to live in Connecticut. I disagree. I tell my kids I want them to live in Connecticut … I hope they find a great job here in Connecticut. This is not the kind of negativity we need in our state.”
The Impact of Citizens United
Kennedy noted that in the aftermath of Citizens United decision in 2010, in which the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment barsd the government from restricting political expenditures by corporations, the nation is engaged in a new political process defined by mysterious funds that may arrive from anywhere at any time.
“As long as we have Citizen’s United and other groups that are able to come in and alter my position, and attack me personally, I need to be able to protect myself,” he said. “So I am proud of the campaign I have run. It is a clean campaign. At the end of this campaign I hope and expect to be able to work with everybody: Democrats, Republicans and Independents. And I know I am not going to be able to do that if I am engaged in a negative campaign.”
In the end neither candidate actually answered the question posed by Moderator Fanslow. Readers of our story earlier this week were asked a similar, “True Vote” question: Should candidates who receive state party money also receive public financing? So far the majority who responded said no.
Each candidate was then given time to sum up. Kennedy thanked the league and the AARP, a co-sponsor of the event, saying, “I think it clear from this discussion that in order to be successful we need to work together as a team. I like to build consensus because I like to get things done. I am a survivor. When you have a near death experience you change your perspective on things and I know I can never be ahead by attacking someone I don’t agree with. He was referring to his battle with cancer, which began at age 12 when his leg was amputated. I am not running against Bruce Wilson. I am running for the people of the 12th District. I would be honored to serve as your next state senator and I ask you for your vote.”
Wilson thanked the audience for attending the debate, saying “you being here is the height of civic engagement. I want to be the guy that brings change to Connecticut. I need to pay back a debt to this community. I know that I have the skills. I know how to bring jobs here. I know what our public school systems need,” he said. “I have been preparing for this job my whole life; I just didn’t know it. Please give me the opportunity to pay back this debt to you. Elect me as your next state senator. My name is Bruce J. Wilson, Jr., and I ask you for your vote.”
The moderator said that the video tape of the debate will be sent to the six towns that make up the 12th District, Branford, Guilford, North Branford, Madison, Durham and Killingworth. She also asked the audience to familiarize themselves with a statewide ballot question that seeks to expand how residents may vote in elections.
“Above all, be sure to vote. Make it social. Take a neighbor or friend with you” to the polls, which will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4. “On behalf of the League of Women Voters of the East shore and the AARP, thank you for attending,” Fanslow said as she ended the one hour debate.
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