GOP focuses on Lamont instead of Trump
Protest hovers over annual Prescott Bush Dinner
STAMFORD — As a 30-foot balloon depicting President Donald J. Trump as a baby bobbed above Interstate 95 in Stamford, nearly 400 Republicans were unphased as they gathered for the 41st annual Prescott Bush Awards Dinner 100 yards down the road at the Hilton Hotel.
“Today is the Prescott Bush Dinner and they’ve been notably silent about the behavior of the president,” said Rick Melita, a director for the Service Employees International Union, which organized the small protest. “We’re here to say he’s unfit for office.”
Inside the dinner, the conversation steered largely clear of the president. The featured speaker was Congressman James Baird of Indiana, who took to the stage for a “fireside chat” with state party Chairman J.R. Romano, to tell stories about his service in Vietnam as well as in Congress, and praise the donors in the room for their contributions to the party. Romano tried to stoke the flames of controversy with a question about Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but Baird didn’t bite.
“I think you have to keep focused on what’s important in this country. I think those high-profile issues grab the attention of the media sometimes, but it’s important to stay focused,” Baird said. “I’m more interested in how successful our country is.”
For the rest of the night speakers, including House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, stuck to their script of focusing on issues in Connecticut. Rather than speak about the president and the state of national politics, Klarides slammed Gov. Ned Lamont and Democrats in the legislature for a recently implemented tax on prepared foods and their insistence on tolls.
“I’ve never seen a group of people who are so surprised by something that they did,” Klarides said, giving Lamont an
F-minus for his first year in office.
“Part of me feels bad for him because he’s not a jerk, but he can’t do the job,” Klarides said. “Where he’s gotten us in less than a year is a state that is less affordable, there’s less transparency and less trustworthiness.”
The party, for the first time, awarded its highest honor to a woman for the second year in a row. Leora Levy, was named the winner of the Prescott Bush Award, the highest honor of the Connecticut Republican Party, at the party’s
annual fundraising dinner Monday night in Stamford. Klarides was given the honor in 2018.
Levy, a Republican National Committeewoman for the state of Connecticut, has raised millions of dollars for the party, and contributed nearly $800,000 on her own.
Romano said the party raised around $125,000 from the dinner, with contributions ranging from $250 to $10,000. Congressman Brian Mast, of Florida, was unable to speak at the event as planned due to a death in his family.