Hey candidate: where were you on Jan. 6?

Can we talk? We need to. Connecticut has town officials, board of education members, and candidates who attended the Jan. 6th insurrection, and who embrace anti-science nonsense regarding the pandemic. These are people in power – or they want to be. Pretending they have a point or pretending they went to D.C. as tourists is bad strategy for the GOP, particularly in light of recent House Select Committee testimony from four traumatized police officers.

Those police officers were in D.C. that day, too. They tell a very different story from Connecticut’s insurrection contingent. For them, Jan. 6 isn’t over, and so it isn’t over for the rest of us.

This means newly-minted GOP state chairman Benjamin Proto has a ridiculously difficult job ahead. He can talk about Democrats’ miscues (Connecticut’s Democratic party can always use critique) that include, he said, the state’s slow recovery from the 2008 recession, our high tax burden and expensive housing.

These are good topics, but avoiding talk about the insurrection is like applying a Band-Aid to a sucking chest wound. The Big Lie isn’t going away, nor are the worst ideas promoted by the Other Guy -- who, by the way, still lost.

Case in point? We return to bucolic Haddam, where last Tuesday, anti-mask protesters disrupted a Regional School District 17 board of education meeting with a bullhorn, signs, and what sounded like a plea for the right to expose children to a deadly virus.

Because of pandemic protocols, the board is meeting without a physical audience, though meetings are live-streamed and posted online for later viewing. A livestream video of Tuesday’s meeting recorded loud voices off-camera, though the words are indiscernible. The board chair Suzanne Sack, began the meeting with the Pledge, and then she excused herself and went offscreen to ask protesters for quiet during a moment of silence to mark the death of a local middleschool student killed recently in a hit-and-run.

Brenda Buzzi, a school board member who is on the ballot for another term, said the commotion outside the cafeteria continued throughout the meeting, and made it difficult to hear proceedings.

Among other things, she said she heard a man outside suggest members of the board “come out with your hands up. You’re under arrest.” At another point, she said, she worried the protesters would try to break in.

“It wasn’t a fun night,” Buzzi said.

A nine-and-a-half minute YouTube video posted by Steve Wytas shows a fuller picture. The video records the group’s agitation over mask requirements and social distancing measures that require town meetings be held remotely. When Sack came out to talk to the group, a man townspeople say is Wytas’ calls her a “government scallywag” through a bullhorn. At one point,

Chris Page walked up to Sack. He held an American flag and introduced himself as a board candidate. The two bumped elbows.

At the YouTube video’s end, state police came as board members walked to their cars. I left a voice mail and reached out to Wytas via Facebook Messenger to ask if I could include a link here so you could watch, too. Within minutes, the video was made private. Fortunately, someone thought to make a copy. The Internet is forever.

Last month, Rep. Christine Palm (D-36th) issued a statement decrying Page and another candidate for Region 17’s board of education, both of whom say they attended the insurrection. Page, of Higganum, responded at a local news website that he “proudly brought my family, along with tens of thousands of others, on January 6, 2021, to see our President speak and participate in letting Congress hear our voices.”

He also wrote, “I have always thought that in America, everyone was entitled to hold their own beliefs without having to explain them to anyone. ‘Conspiracy Theories’ come in all shapes and sizes from Bigfoot and Nessie to Russian Collusion and ‘Safest Election Ever.’”

In fact, candidates must explain themselves. It’s part of the job.

Samuel Crum, chair of the Haddam Republican Town Committee also responded to the representative, and included comments from Shannon Johnson, the other board candidate who was in D.C. on Jan. 6. According to Crum’s letter, Johnson said: “On January 6, I attended the Presidential Rally in Washington D.C. with my 70–year–old mother-in-law from Holland. We walked on the lawn and watched from the tunnels. When the police allowed people to enter the Capitol, we walked up to the steps where I stood on the second step and took a video of the crowd. We turned and went back to where we had been and left. Later I was interviewed by an FBI agent who advised me that they needed nothing further regarding my trip.”

Johnson’s short video from that day (the version I watched lasts 18 seconds) includes commentary from a voice townspeople say is Johnson’s, who says: “This is the Capitol. This is the small group. On the other side is the 1-point-something million people. And as you can see, we’ve overtaken it, and we’re going in. We will enter that building.”

It’s not just Haddam. In at least two Connecticut towns, Republican town councilors have opposed resolutions that condemn the actions of Jan. 6. Early on, Mary Ann Turner, now vice chair of the state GOP who said she attended the insurrection, asked for the resignation of Rep. Devin Carney, R-23rd, who decried the insurrection. She later apologized.

Ignoring or minimizing Jan. 6 is not a winning strategy, ad the Republican party, which struggles to stay relevant in blue Connecticut, could use a win. The state benefits from strong candidates, whatever their affiliation. QAnon nonsense and sore-loserdom do not good candidates make. We need smart conservative thought and if Republicans can’t find that at a local level, let the Democrats win while the party builds for the next election. Running these flawed candidates hurts the cause, provided you’re serious about governing.

For its part, the Haddam Democratic party suggests people study their candidates’ positions. Here’s an idea, and not just for Haddam: Ask your candidates who won the 2020 Presidential race. Then ask if they’re vaccinated, and do they follow CDC pandemic protocols. And then?

Vote accordingly.