Paul Bass Photo
Martha Dean arrived in a New Haven coffee shop and ordered a Nirvana bottled water. On the campaign trail her tastes have run more toward tea — as in “Tea Party.” Both she and her opponent for Connecticut attorney general say that works in their favor.
More than any other statewide race this year, the contest for attorney general pits two candidates with up-front, divergent political philosophies and visions for running a government office.
The election will also test the question of whether the tea party movement that has changed politics this year in states like Delaware and Nevada (and maybe even New York) is gaining traction in the Land of Steady Habits.
Republican candidate Dean (pictured above) said she’s confident it already has, and that she’ll ride a wave of support from grassroots groups aligned with the unofficial, decentralized movement. Independent tea party groups throughout the state have pledged support for her campaign. She called the movement “an incredibly important and viable force in American politics.”
“Pragmatic” politics is giving way to demands that candidates stand for something, Dean argued. She is scheduled to keynote a tea party-oriented rally at the state Capitol Saturday.
“The people who are involved with the tea party are well educated. They read a lot. They learn. They educate elected officials. They’re motivated to work. The politics of the past — of being pragmatic and standing for nothing — doesn’t work anymore.”
Democratic candidate George Jepsen said he’s just as confident that tea doesn’t sell in general elections in Connecticut. He concluded that his candidacy received a boost when Dean ousted a mainstream GOPer, Ross Garber, in a party primary last month. He called the tea party movement marginal in Connecticut.
“I don’t think Connecticut is a tea party state. It’s too nihilistic for Connecticut,” Jepsen argued. “It’s about tearing down. The tea party is like the Know-Nothings in the 1850s. They’re just lashing out. I don’t think they’d get anything done; governing is really hard.”
The Post-Blumenthal Era
Jepsen, who’s 55 and pro-choice, previously served as State Senate majority leader and state Democratic Party chairman. He calls himself a wonk who loves diving into policy and negotiation; he coauthored, among other gun-control laws, the state’s assault weapons ban, which current Attorney General Richard Blumenthal successfully defended before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dean, a pro-life and Libertarian-leaning private lawyer and ardent gun-rights advocate, was born in 1959 — the last time Connecticut had a Republican attorney general. She talks a lot about the need to eliminate “corrupt career politicians” in office as well as “pragmatic” Republicans pushing the party to the center.
The two candidates made the above remarks during separate one-on-one interviews at Bru Cafe on Orange Street in New Haven. Neither spoke in sound bites or ducked questions. (Yes, they are running for public office.) From abortion to guns to eminent domain, they revealed stark differences — and a distinct choice for voters this Nov. 2.
For instance: Jepsen said he would not join attorneys generals and AG candidates in other states promising to seek to reverse President Obama’s health care reform law in court. He said he supports the law.
Dean promised to challenge parts of the law such as the requirement for individuals to buy insurance. That requirement violates the 10th Amendment and the Commerce Clause, she argued. “You’re born. You sit on your land. You breathe air. You never go to a hospital. You believe in self-help and alternative medicine. They’re going to make you buy insurance? One thing America stands for is the right to live our lives without being forced to buy a product.”
The candidates presented divergent visions for the direction the attorney general’s office should take in the post-Blumenthal era. Blumenthal is leaving after 20 years running the attorney general’s office, which handles civil (not criminal) cases on behalf of the state government. During that time, Blumenthal built on the strategy pioneered by predecessor Joe Lieberman: taking a once-sleepy office and turning it into an investigation and lawsuit machine targeting polluters, financial hucksters, abortion demonstrators, gun manufacturers, tobacco companies, even Craigslist. Blumenthal expanded the office’s reach, put it squarely on the side of liberal activist groups, and earned non-stop press coverage.
Both Jepsen and Dean said they’d seek to mediate and settle more disputes before filing lawsuits. “Litigation should be a last resort,” Jepsen said.
Otherwise, Jepsen endorsed the approach Blumenthal has taken. He promised to continue, if refine it.
“I tremendously admire Dick’s work,” Jepsen said.
“I will not sue and ask questions later” the way Blumenthal has, Dean said.
On taking the lead in state lawsuits against tobacco companies, Jepsen said it was a credit to Blumenthal and the office.
“There was no legal basis for it,” demurred Dean. “Trial lawyers joined together with attorneys general and got them to hire their trial lawyer friends to bring an industry to its knees.”
The Blumenthal crusades against Craigslist (now expanded to Backpage.com) and social-networking sites like MySpace? “There is a role for that,” Jepsen said. “That’s part of the job. The challenge is getting it right.” Dean: If prostitution is taking place through Craiglist, that’s a criminal matter for the state’s attorney to handle; the attorney general shouldn’t get involved. “I think [Blumenthal] took it on as a political issue. He wanted brownie points.”
State legal action against pro-life demonstrators accused of harassing women at abortion clinics? Jepsen promised he, too, would be “vigilant” in the same way if elected. Dean said alleged harassment is primarily a criminal matter, again, suited for the state’s attorney’s office to handle.
Blumenthal’s office has accumulated an outrageous 36,000-case backlog, Dean said. She said she’d immediately review those cases to put them in three categories:
• cases based on misunderstandings by individuals or businesses about state law, which she’d settle quickly and have the government issue “guidance” to inform people better about regulations;
• cases the office has no business filing, which she’d drop.
• remaining instances of “serious violations of clear-cut laws where there’s actual harm to the state or to citizens or to the environment.” Dean said she’d add time and money to press those cases harder.
Jepsen said he, too, would be “more likely to resolve conflicts through mediation” than Blumenthal has been.
Tea Leaves
Tea party advocates have pledged their support to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon (who’s running against Blumenthal), as well as to Dean. The McMahon support is a tactical choice rather than a love match: Organizers consider her far more in line with their views than Blumenthal. Dean, on the other hand, is one of them.
Jepsen argued that Connecticut doesn’t have so many of them to determine the fate of a general election. They did gain Dean the Republican nomination in the August party primary. But registered Republicans — those eligible to vote in the Aug. 10 primary — comprise only 20 percent of the state’s electorate. And only some 30 percent of those registered actually turned out to vote in that primary, meaning right-leaning tea party, NRA and pro-life activists had a disproportionate impact, since ideologically driven supporters tend to turn out in greater percentages for both parties in primaries.
Dean looks at the numbers differently: She won more votes in the August primary than any other Republican candidate on the ballot. The results in her race were indeed a repudiation of old-line, moderate, Yankee, Greenwich-style Republicanism. Indeed, the Greenwich Republican Party defied the results of the state convention’s endorsement of Dean and supported Garber in the primary; Dean won Greenwich anyway.
“This politics of the past — of being pragmatic and standing for nothing — doesn’t work” anymore, she declared.
The deciding bloc of voters in Connecticut general elections is independents, not Republicans or Democrats. Where they land in this race — as well as the governor and senator contests — will bear out Jepsen’s or Dean’s read on whether the Nutmeg State has veered into a new direction.
Previous Bru Cafe campaign interviews:
• Tom Foley
• Dan Malloy
• Denise Merrill
• Ned Lamont’s tracker