The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘I can beat the top two’
Bysiewicz claims poll reveals she can best GOP candidates
TORRINGTON — Susan Bysiewicz, the former threeterm secretary of the state and Democratic
House member from Middletown, claims that a poll she commissioned indicates she alone can defeat potential Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Tim
Herbst of
Trumbull and Danbury
Mayor Mark Boughton.
Speaking late during a Thursday night forum before Northwestern Connecticut Democrats, Bysiewicz, an attorney whose lack of experience in legal practice resulted in a court ruling against her bid for attorney general in 2010, said she is well-positioned to win in November.
“I am unique among the candidates here because I am the only one that has won statewide three times before, and our polling shows that I am the strongest both in a primary, and the only Democrat that can beat the two top Republicans, Mr. Boughton and Mr. Hersbt,” Bysiewicz told about 180 people gathered in City Hall for the three-hour event.
She likened herself to the late Gov. Ella Grasso, of whom she once wrote a biography, and who upon taking office in the mid-1970s, was confronted with a thenmassive $500-million state budget deficit.
In response, Herbst said Friday afternoon that Bysiewicz “has been complicit
over the last eight years about the job-crushing, tax-hiking agenda of Gov.0 Malloy and his insider allies.” Herbst described her as “Dan Malloy on steroids,” who has not recovered from her 2012 primary loss to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.
“She will stop at nothing to win and Republicans need to decide who is best equipped to take her on,” Herbst said. “Her campaign is all about the past, while mine is about a generational change in leadership.”