"For the past eight years that my opponent has been in Congress, I have watched my clients lose their homes, lose their businesses, lose their jobs, lose their health care."
Lori Hopkins-Cavanagh
Four-term Democratic congressman Joe Courtney faced his Republican challenger in the second district in a debate hosted by WNPR and The Day newspaper.
Lori Hopkins-Cavanagh, the owner of a local real estate business, said she got into politics largely because she sees the economy being mismanaged.
"The second district is devastated," Hopkins-Cavanagh said. "It has not recovered from the housing collapse. I call it a depression. We have record foreclosures -- in 2013, record foreclosures. For the past eight years that my opponent has been in Congress, I have watched my clients lose their homes, lose their businesses, lose their jobs, lose their health care; and it has to change."
"This election, in many respects, is not about, necessarily, Republican versus Democrats. It's about people whose approach to the job is focused on getting results, and getting a real outcome."
Rep. Joe Courtney
Courtney defended his record in the district, touting his work to bring more jobs to Groton shipyard Electric Boat.
"This election, in many respects, is not about, necessarily, Republican versus Democrats," Courtney said. "It's about people whose approach to the job is focused on getting results, and getting a real outcome. If you look at the time that I've been in Congress, I came at a time when [Electric Boat]'s workforce was shrinking. I went on the committee where the job had to happen first, in terms of sea power, and we have managed to increase the work force by 20 percent from early 2007. There are 366 job openings today."
Courtney also defended his vote, alone among Connecticut’s delegation, to arm Syrian rebels, saying the U.S. should not consider committing ground troops in the Middle East in the fight against ISIS. Hopkins-Cavanagh called U.S. foreign policy "a mess," and said the U.S. may not have a choice but to put boots on the ground.
She also addressed her recent use of the terms "fascism" to describe Democratic policies, and her charge that President Obama is a "racist."
"I refuse to silence my speech," Hopkins-Cavanagh said. "The term fascism is placing race over nation... we have a justice system that should be blind, but it's no longer blind, and we have an administration that wants social justice in a way that we have never seen before, and that I am opposed to."
Courtney responded by saying he sees an irresponsible tendency in Washington to try to demonize people. He said people should be able to engage in vigorous debate, while "at the end of the day, being able to recognize that we are all Americans, and the other guy isn't goose-stepping around Washington D.C., just because you don't agree with his position."
Hopkins-Cavanagh outlined her concerns about property rights, citing the use of eminent domain in Fort Trumbull, the action that spurred the Kelo v. New London case at the U.S. Supreme Court. "We are a country of property owners. When that is taken away, we're a different country," she said.
Courtney made an impassioned defense of the Affordable Care Act, citing the stories of people in the district who have gained insurance coverage because of the legislation. And he took Hopkins-Cavanagh to task for her assertion that it needs to be repealed. "Not once, in either the Senate or the House, has the Republican leadership come forward with a repeal and replace program... You can talk about that you don't want to see pre-existing conditions, but you've got to restructure the market to actually do that."
Two other candidates are also on the ballot in the Second District. They are Dan Reale, who is running as a Libertarian, and Bill Clyde of the Green Party.
