State Rep. Lemar at WNHH FM.
Roland Lemar has advice for Kamala Harris for her big presidential campaign debate next week: Stay the course.
Let the “ho” digs and name-calling and other insults slide by. Keep smiling. Stand above it. Let her opponent, Donald Trump, look small.
“I think what she has done over the last few weeks in response to Trump’s attempts to rile this up, to drag it down into the gutter the way he’s done in campaigns past, has been perfect. I would have her stay the course right now, which is smile, casually, brush it aside and move on to being smart on policy, hitting to her key talking points, making sure she’s policy focused.
“Because that act of Trump — people are familiar with it. They’re tired of it, and they’re mostly just waiting to see if you take the bait. So avoid taking the bait; laugh it all off. Let him say whatever he’s gonna say, and be the grownup in the room. I think that’s what people are excited to see. ..
“This is going to stay a tight race until the end. There is not going to be an October surprise that swings this election one way or the other. And if you watch Trump, and the experience of him in debates really just standing up and talking as if he doesn’t think he has the crowd, he reaches for it. And if he doesn’t get the response out of you that he thinks he’s going to get, he’ll push further and harder, and he starts to lose it all.”
Lemar isn’t in the loop for the Harris campaign. But he has decades of experience in the room for debate preparations and other strategy sessions for local and state campaigns — including his own. The Democrat is currently running for an eighth two-year term representing the 96th state General Assembly District in Hartford. The district covers New Haven’s Wooster Square, East Rock, and Fair Haven neighborhoods. Lemar faces a challenge from Republican and Independent Party candidate Andrea DiLieto Zola. (Click here to read/watch an interview with Zola about her campaign.)
He offered the elevator pitch for his reelection bid during an appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven program: “New Haven’s future is bright. We’re going to make investments in our city, in our schools, in our transportation, in our housing” to get there.
He spoke in more depth about accomplishments he’s proud of during his recent tenure in the legislature, where he co-chairs the Transportation Committee. He completed a 12-year quest to bring traffic cameras to New Haven (and other cities). He helped obtain money to begin plotting bus rapid-transit to the Grand and Dixwell Avenue routes. He noted state funding approved for improving Wilbur Cross’s athletic fields and redesigning Foxon Boulevard, Whitney Avenue, State Street, and the Boulevard with pedestrian safety in mind.
If reelected on Nov. 7, Lemar said, he will work next term to adjust the state “fiscal guardrails” to free up money to fully fund the state education-aid formula and build more affordable housing. He vowed to push ahead with electrifying CT Transit and public school bus fleets while taking into consideration concerns some critics have raised. He supports ranked-choice voting in Connecticut, as well increasing marginal income tax rates for the wealthy.
Click on the video below to watch the full conversation with State Rep. Roland Lemar on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.