5/4/10: Your Voices Must be Heard Over the Party Bosses if You Want Reform in DC!

Yesterday, one of the candidates in the 5th District race sent out a personal plea to another to ignore the votes of tens of thousands of Republicans in the 5th District of Connecticut. In his letter, he pleaded that one GOP candidate agree that he would abide by the votes of a couple hundred politically connected delegates at a closed convention, and promise to not run in a primary in August that would allow ALL Republicans in the 5th District to choose OUR nominee! This smells of politics as usual, despite the reasons the first candidate uses in his letter.

Since I officially entered the race last November 7th, I have worked on walking the streets of the 5th District and talking to everybody I meet. That includes Republicans, Democrats, and Independents…all of which will be needed by our party to beat a well funded incumbent like Chris Murphy. I have said repeatedly at forums across the district that all of the delegates to the GOP convention will most likely be voting for whichever candidate wins the primary in August, so it is more important that people outside of this circle know why I am running for Congress and what I will do differently than the others in the race. I have talked with hundreds of small business owners, their employees, and their customers over the past several months and like me, they are sick of politics as usual from BOTH parties.

I have to say that I am disappointed with one candidate and his attempt to silence the voice of the GOP voters in the 5th District with his letter to another. While I have disagreed with both candidates on occasion during this race, I believe that they are both men of principle despite the fact I believe that I am the best candidate in the race for Congress in the 5th District. Because of my true outsider status, I will be able to really change how Washington, DC operates because I will owe my victory to the citizens of the 5th District and nobody else!

A campaign is hard work and requires a lot of time and energy which is why I have great respect for the other four men in this race. Anybody who knows me will attest that I have never walked away from hard work or doing what I believe needs to be done. To that end, we will be gathering the required number of signatures to be on the August ballot in the GOP primary. Because of the rules of the GOP, this will have to be done in a short time, but with the help of so many volunteers, we will be able to get it done. It is not the easiest way to go, but my parents always told me the most rewarding things in life were sometimes the hardest!

At the end of the primary vote in August, if the majority of voters in the 5th district choose another candidate to run in November against Chris Murphy, I will work just as hard for him as I have for myself. HOWEVER, please let your voices be heard over the party bosses, special interests, and insiders, so that all of us are heard and the best candidate emerges after August. You can do this by making sure all of the candidates get on the August ballot and not just the one the insiders choose. Competition is not only good for consumers in our society, but also in politics so we need to make sure that the best candidate emerges to face Chris Murphy.

I have left the names out of this article because it is not my intention to make any candidate look bad in our race. However, I feel that it is a disservice to not only our party, but also the voters in our district, for the first candidate to request the second candidate to step aside from something they have worked so hard to accomplish over the past year. Worse than that, I feel that if the second candidate actually does give in to the party bosses, it will send a strong signal to the voters just how little he trusts the voters in our district!

Bill Evans