DeLauro, seeking 16th term, trades jabs with opponent in dueling ads

New Haven Register (CT)

Oct. 24--A well-financed Republican candidate has made Rosa DeLauro's 16th campaign for Congress one of the toughest in her career.

Both Republican Margaret Streicker and DeLauro, the congressional 3rd District incumbent have released contentious ads against each other.

DeLauro, 77, a Democrat whose winning percentage hasn't fallen below 60 percent since her first two campaigns in 1990 and 1992, said this race reminds her of those years.

"I started with Tom Scott ... and that was a mean and really nasty campaign," she said. She won in 1990, 52-48 percent, and hasn't looked back. Her largest margin was in 2008, which like this year was a three-way contest, when she won more than 77 percent of the vote.

"This is a race ... where my Republican opponent has unlimited financial resources. She can pour into her campaign any amount of personal money that she likes," DeLauro said. "For me, that means what we have to look forward to is what we are doing about campaign finance reform."

"She's done nothing but attack ads," DeLauro said. Let me just be clear. My husband, Stan, and I inherited nothing but our education and our values, unlike my opponent, who has inherited millions of dollars."

But the attack got more personal during Thursday's debate, during a question about DeLauro's support for removing the Christopher Columbus statue from Wooster Square Park, when Streicker addressed DeLauro in Italian. In an email Friday, Streicker said her words translated as, "Wait a second Rosa. What are you doing? After everything, you've forgotten where you come from."

DeLauro, who grew up in the heavily Italian-American neighborhood, shot back, "I would ask my Republican opponent to not impugn my sense of my Italian-American heritage. You have no idea nor are you competent to discuss my roots, my community and my feelings with regard to that community."

Green Party candidate Justin Paglino stayed above the fray, urging people not to judge others without getting to know them first.

Earlier, DeLauro had said she was proud to support replacing the statue with a new representation of the Italian-American immigrant experience. "My roots are deep in the Wooster Square community," she said. "It's where I derive my values of faith, family, hard work and responsibility, my North Star as I proceed every single day."

It is those values that DeLauro says have guided her work in Congress. "I have been the leader in the Congress on issues that affect working families," DeLauro said. Anticipating a victory for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, she said, "We are about to bring big change. I am at the center of the big change, not for what I plan to do, but for what I have done."

That work has included support for women's health and reproductive rights, support for working families and child care credits. In the next Congress, she said she will focus on "equal pay for equal work for women, paid sick days, paid family and medical leave, child care. ... I championed these issues for years and increased the support for these programs at all levels."

She said she would ask Biden to make equal pay for equal work the first law he signs as president. She said there is no doubt he will beat President Donald Trump on Nov. 3.

With the pandemic forcing many to work and attend school from home, DeLauro said, "We are not going to reopen our economy if parents don't feel there is a safe place for their kids to be."

She called COVID-19 the "biggest health crisis and economic crisis that we have had in a generation." If Biden were elected, "the first thing that we need to do is really get the virus under control, and that demands central coordination, which Joe Biden has talked about," she said.

DeLauro does not support Medicare for All, the proposal for government-run health insurance that would eliminate private insurers, because, she said, "the majority of the people are not for it."

Her plan, Medicare for America, would offer a choice between being enrolled in Medicare as early as birth or staying with private health insurance. "If they choose Medicare for America, their employer will pick up the cost of coverage for health care," she said.

In addition to basic health coverage, with no deductibles, her plan covers dental, vision and hearing, she said. "It pays a percentage of income for premiums and that is capped at 8 percent. You can pay no more than 8 percent on your health insurance." It also covers mental health and long-term care and lowers prescription drug costs. She said coverage would continue at no cost if there's a job loss.

DeLauro also supports the Green New Deal, which seeks to lower greenhouse gas emissions, end reliance on fossil fuels and create a sustainable infrastructure with new jobs in clean energy.

Calling climate change "an existential threat," DeLauro said, "I'm a proud sponsor of the Green New Deal. It invests in green jobs, green technology, environmental justice. It protects vulnerable communities."

While Paglino has criticized DeLauro for not voting for a 10 percent reduction in the national defense budget, she said her votes support "Connecticut jobs and Connecticut's economy. Connecticut is a defense-dependent state and I am a leader in making sure the military is procuring American-made equipment."

She said Connecticut has been building the Marine One helicopters since the late 1950s and she brought the contract for the Air Force Aerial Refueling Tanker back to Connecticut. "Sikorsky employs 8,000 people, Pratt & Whitney 18,000, 2,400 in the 3rd Congressional District," she said. "Electric Boat, 15,000 people or more and this is not only about jobs but about the supply chain."

DeLauro said she has "worked closely with my Republican colleague, Kay Granger, in ending the purchase of Russian helicopters for Afghanistan."

DeLauro's campaign had raised $1.48 million as of Sept. 30, including contributions from labor unions and other political action committees. More than $1 million has been spent, much of it given to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee or to other Democratic candidates.

DeLauro is chairwoman of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, which has oversight of spending in education, health, and employment. She also is on the subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382

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