State Republicans in need of a clean break
The resignation of J.R. Romano as chairman of the Republican state central committee comes at an inauspicious time. Top Republicans in the state are currently being forced to do what they enjoy least — answer for the actions of the president. That’s to be expected in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, egged on by the president himself with an apparent goal of disrupting the count that made official Joe Biden’s presidential victory. The president and anyone who supported him have a lot to answer for.
That puts state Republicans in their worst possible light. President Trump lost Connecticut badly in November, and his party suffered at the state level in 2018 and 2020. The more the focus stays on the president, the harder it is for the party, including 2022 gubernatorial hopefuls, to make a case for their own leadership.
That makes Romano’s decision to step down this week, months before the end of his term, all the more puzzling. Republicans would appear to need stability more than anything, but now even that is lacking. The only way forward is a true break from the past.
That doesn’t mean Republicans can’t support traditional conservative principles. They will no doubt continue to campaign on issues such as low taxes, cutting regulations and bringing more businesses to Connecticut. But they must firmly move away from Trumpism and all it entails.
That means no more specious arguments that election fraud was rampant and may have turned the 2020 election. It wasn’t and didn’t. There are always ways that elections can be made to run smoother, but the lie that the election was stolen from Trump was one of the drivers behind last week’s attack on the Capitol. Anyone who pushed those falsehoods should be reprimanded.
It means no more fiascoes like Romano’s plan last November to raise an “army for Trump” to watch polling places and sniff out fraud. This was more about voter intimidation that anything else, and helped contribute to misperceptions that the vote was “rigged,” as Trump repeatedly said. It wasn’t, and helping to push the notion that the election was unfair was incredibly damaging.
It means no more disasters like the scene in the Second Congressional District last fall, where a Republican candidate was charged in an alleged domestic assault just before the Aug. 11 primary, and Romano was criticized because he reportedly knew of the allegations in the spring. The party was going to have trouble in the state’s five congressional races under any scenario, but this only made matters worse.
It’s healthiest for the state’s political culture to have two functioning parties, with real give and take. The end of the Trump administration could allow for an actual debate on the issues facing Connecticut to again take center stage, but only if party leaders are willing to truly put this era behind them.
Whoever takes over as head of the state Republican Party should keep that in mind. There can still be wins for them, even in a deep blue state. But it will only happen by putting Trump and Trumpism in the past.
The end of the Trump administration could allow for an actual debate on the issues facing Connecticut to again take center stage, but only if party leaders are willing to truly put this era behind them.