Cabrera, Logan on the campaign trail.
George Logan didn’t bring his guitar to his latest performance, but he did bring a refrain: His opponent tells “only half the story.”
Logan, a Republican state senator with a side gig as leader of a Jimi Hendrix tribute band, repeated that refrain throughout a 90-minute debate with Democrat Jorge Cabrera, who is seeking to unseat him on Nov. 3 in the region’s most hotly contested legislative race.
Cabrera, a union organizer, had a refrain of his own: Logan has let down working families in his votes in Hartford on crucial bills.
The Hamden-North Haven League of Women Voters and the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted the 90-minute debate. Logan and Cabrera sat in the back room of the Playwright Irish Pub in Hamden, spaced apart at separate tables, while a camera streamed their exchange live on Facebook.
The candidates, who are running for the 17th State Senate District seat, invoked their refrains when, for instance, moderator Steven Ciardiello asked what each candidate would take from the Black Lives Matter protests this summer.
Logan replied that the state needs to attract more jobs. Jorge Cabrera turned the question to the main theme of his candidacy, and his main attack.
“There were two very important pieces of legislation where the senator had the opportunity to tackle exactly what he just said last year,” he said: paid family medical leave and increasing the minimum wage.
“Again, my opponent with half the story,” Logan shot back.
Thursday night’s debate.
Logan fought off a challenge by Cabrera by only 77 votes in 2018. The district includes parts of Hamden, Naugatuck, and Woodbridge, and all of Derby, Ansonia, Bethany, and Beacon Falls.
Their second-question exchange on the minimum wage and paid family medical leave bills set the themes that both candidates would hammer throughout the debate. Cabrera highlighted his work as a union organizer, and wherever he could, focused his answers on the need to create better working and living conditions for families in Connecticut. Logan defended his record by explaining that bills have unintended consequences, and by arguing that the solution is not more, but less regulation, which will encourage businesses to come to the state.
“I don’t vote on a bill based on a title,” he said at the beginning, something he later accused Cabrera of doing.
Cabrera, who is a business representative for UFCW Local 919, frequently referred to the $15 minimum wage bill and the paid family medical leave bill that passed the legislature last year. He has fashioned his campaign around his work as a union organizer, arguing that the state needs to do more to help workers.
Logan at a community meeting last week.
Logan said he does support paid family medical leave — just not the bill that passed the legislature last year. He said he supported a version of the bill that would have made it an option for workers. They could opt into a paid leave program, but would not be automatically enrolled. He said he does not support the bill that passed because it automatically enacts a .5 percent payroll deduction to cover the cost of providing leave.
Later in the debate, he called the minimum wage bill a “job-killing bill.” He said it artificially raised the minimum wage, and would make it harder for employers to afford workers, encouraging them to leave the state.
Those themes resurfaced again and again throughout the debate, as they have throughout this campaign season.
When asked about how to increase the amount of affordable housing in the state, both candidates began with statements about the importance of doing so. Logan said he would not, though, support forcing changes on places like Woodbridge, which is currently the subject of a campaign to make it allow multi-family housing.
“Owning a home is the bedrock of the American dream,” Cabrera began. He said it is essential to promote affordable housing, and to acknowledge the systemic injustice that has led to the state’s lack of housing. He then pivoted to wages.
“When someone has a good-paying job… they will be able to afford that home,” he said.
Cabrera canvassing in August.
Logan picked up on the theme of history, but a very different history. The last few decades of Connecticut politics have been dominated by Democrats, he said.
“The issue here is that we need to go in a different direction. We need a vibrant economy here in Connecticut.” That means making the state more affordable so more people have an opportunity to work, he said.
“Well, one of the ways you make Connecticut more affordable is by giving people a raise, which Sen. Logan opposed,” Cabrera shot back.
Logan had a chance to flesh out his stance in the next question, which asked about equity and environmental justice.
The state has spent a lot of money cleaning up old industrial sites, he said. What those sites signal to him is that because of extensive regulations, high taxes, and the consequently high cost of doing business in the state, businesses have left and don’t want to come. “We need to prove and show them that we are not just going to increase the cost by raising taxes,” he said.
In a question about how to increase state revenues, Logan made a pitch for smaller government. “The most significant strategy we can do is not to increase the size of our state government,” he said. “We need smaller government here in Connecticut. We need to stop raising taxes. If we do that businesses will want to stay here.”
Cabrera replied that the state needs to focus on having good schools that will attract residents and on training programs to create job growth.
Logan, apparently, did not buy it.
“Yes, Mr. Cabrera continues to talk about the importance of manufacturing and business and jobs, but just about every idea that he supports is only going to make it more expensive for us to live here in Connecticut. It’s only going to discourage businesses from wanting to expand here,” he said.
Cabrera doubled back on a familiar theme. “In order for Connecticut to grow, you have to invest in people,” he said.
Cabrera repeated that theme later, in his closing statement. “You’ve heard tonight a lot of excuses about why things can’t happen. The fact is when you invest in people, you’re investing in the economy,” he said.
Cabrera extended that theme not just to private sector workers, but also to state workers. In a question about how to cut state costs, he said that when thinking about how to make government more efficient, you have to strike a balance. The state’s workforce has decreased, he said, driving overtime costs.
Logan countered that “clearly Mr. Cabrera is not the individual who is going to shrink government.” He said the state needs to find wherever it can to cut, and should try to have more public-private partnerships.
“He’s not talking about people anymore,” Cabrera responded. “These are people who plow our streets when we have a snow storm. These are people who teach our children…”
Watch the video of the full debate below.