The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Esty still avoiding public eye
Victim seeks legislation to protect D.C. staffers as part of #MeToo movement
A week after news of an office harassment-and-abuse scandal led her to end a bid for a fourth term in Congress, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty is nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, the victim in the center of the scandal — Anna Kain — has made a public appeal for passage of a #MeToo bill in Congress.
Esty has canceled public events and turned down requests for comment from reporters, while the story of the toxic culture in her office dribbles out and a steady stream of potential successors — Republican and Democrat — talk about taking her 5th District seat.
“She will be back to her regular schedule when the House returns to session next week, where she has a very aggressive agenda for the time she has remaining in office,” Tim Daly, Esty’s chief of staff said. “She intends to do all the things that she has always done when the floor is in session … including meeting with her constituents.”
Esty, a Democrat, has stayed out of the public eye since March 29, when Hearst Connecticut Media reported the alleged harassment and physical abuse of Kain by Tony Baker, the congresswoman’s former chief of staff.
While Esty issued a written apology for not taking action to protect her staff from Baker, she has not taken any questions on the matter, which only gets murkier as more details become available. A copy of the separation agreement that Hearst obtained contradicts Esty’s statement that she fired Baker in 2016.
The nondisclosure agreement makes no mention of a dismissal, but instead says Baker was required to submit a letter of resignation, and was given a $5,000 severance award and forgiveness of his student loans.
Even when Esty announced on Monday that she would not seek a re-election as a result of the scandal, the news was delivered via news release.
On Thursday, Esty canceled planned appearances at a town hall-style meeting in Newtown on one of her signature issues — gun law reform in Newtown — and at a government class at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, where she was to speak about the law-making process.
She has been staying close to her Cheshire home during the end of Congress’s two-week spring break, which ends on Monday. Friends of Esty said Thursday that she is determined to fill out the remainder of her term, which ends with the swearing-in next January of the next Congress.
But as Esty retreats, Kain has gone public with an appeal to the Senate to pass a bill to give sexual harassment protections to congressional staffers.
Kain, who worked for Esty until 2015 and said she was screamed at, punched and threatened with death by Baker, posted on Facebook that she is part of a group called “Congress Too.”
“The halls and offices of Congress are bursting with wide-eyed young people who are excited and honored and amazed to have the privilege to do that work in that place. But the power dynamic and prevalence of harassment and abuse of all kinds on the Hill is unique, and there is no real place for these staffers to go for support when they need it most.”
“That needs to change.”