Republican Party Chairperson Ben Proto talks about how he sees the final 48 hours leading up to Election Day.
Mike Hydeck: So let's start with the U.S. Senate. Leora Levy facing off against the most well financed, most well known politician in our state, Richard Blumenthal. But as we looked at her in the primary, she had support all across this state in a bunch of different pockets in Connecticut. Do you think she still has a chance?
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WATCH HEREBen Proto: I do. I think, you know, she had a debate the other night on another station, where she did very well. I think Dick showed that he's lost a lot off of his fastball. I think Leora is well versed in the issues. She's been really out meeting and talking to people across the state since the primary. She's, I call her the Energizer Bunny, she is everywhere. And I think she's doing a great job. And I'm very optimistic for the outcome for the U.S. Senate race on Tuesday.
Mike Hydeck: Your Democratic counterpart, Nancy DiNardo, said she hasn't seen or heard that Levy was out on the campaign trail. She is as far as you know, right now?
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SIGN UP Ben Proto: As far as I know, she is out there regularly. She is out there talking to people. She's at the fairs, the festivals. She's at meetings, she's at breakfasts, she's doing events across the state. And look, I understand Nancy's position, Democrats tend to hide, so they won't be seen out there. So if they're not out there, they're not going to see who is out there. Because when they're out there, people want to know how they have screwed this up so badly. How have they taken this economy where it was so good, just 20 months ago, or so and have completely destroyed it? And since Joe Biden became president in January of 2021, they want to know why crime is on such a rise. Why we can't close our border, why fentanyl is coming across. So yeah, they don't tend to be out much. So they're not going to see the Republicans out because we are out talking to people every day and the Democrats are hiding.
Mike Hydeck: All right, if we jump in all the issues, you and I could go back and forth all morning. Let's stay with the candidates. So what's going right with George Logan to make the Fifth District race for Congress a toss up at this point against the incumbent, Jahana Hayes? She won handily last time.
Ben Proto: Well, I think couple of things. One, she didn't win relatively handily last time. She won. And against a tremendously underfunded candidate. That's not the case this time. And we have now a case where we have George Logan, who is one of the nicest guys you're ever going to meet. Everybody who meets George likes George. They like talking to George. He's very good on the issues. He understands that district very well. He understands the hard working men and women in that district. And he's visible. And Jahana Hayes simply is not visible. She's not there. She's never in that district. She can't hold staff. People who, mayors and first selectman, state legislators in her district have a very difficult time getting to her. She's simply not delivering. And on the other side of that, as a member of AOC's squad, you know, she has pushed far left progressive policies that are not…
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Mike Hydeck: She pushed back against the AOC thing and being in the district. I don't want to fight you on that one. Let's go to let's go to the next.
Ben Proto: She always pushes back, Mike, that doesn't mean it's not true. And in fact, I can send you the Rolling Stone cover where she's happily with AOC and Nancy Pelosi and Ilhan Omar, who quite frankly, has compared America to the Taliban. So yeah, that's who she is. I know she doesn't like it. But that's who she is.
Mike Hydeck: We'll agree to disagree. All right, so next question, we now know that...
Ben Proto: Do you think she's not? If you want to get into this, we can have this conversation. Do you think she's not part of the AOC squad? She doesn't align with Nancy Pelosi and AOC on almost every vote?
Mike Hydeck: I've got about 90 seconds. I want to get to two more questions. So we know the 2017 budget set the stage for the way we're paying down debt here in Connecticut. It was bipartisan, everybody championed it on both sides of the aisle. But that means you need to get more Republicans in state seats. How do you do that?
Ben Proto: Winning elections, promoting solid strong ideas on tax structure, on spending, on crime, on parental rights, all of which Republicans are strong on Democrats have proved to be weak on. Remember just this time last year was the Connecticut Democrat, Senate Democrats who put out a tweet with a meme comparing parents to villainous, murderous monsters. That's what the Democrats think of parents, that they're bad people. They're monsters for wanting to protect their children. So yeah, I think the way you do that is you go out and you talk to the parents, you talk to the people. Look, we're the highest taxed state in the country. We have among the highest electric rates in the country. We're one of the most unaffordable states in the country. We have among the highest credit card debt in the country, among the lowest savings rates in the country. Home heating oil is approaching $6 and will probably surpass $6 before the end of the year. That's all on the Democrats. They cannot hide from that. They control Washington. They control Hartford. It's all on them. People are tired of paying it. They can't pay their bills. And when they can't pay their bills, they look for change.
