Bysiewicz Eyeing Lieberman’s Seat

For former Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, it’s about proper pacing.

“How do you eat an elephant?" Bysiewicz said Wednesday night. "One bite at a time."

As such, a visit to the Easton Democratic Town Committee was another course on the campaign trail menu. Bysiewicz visited the committee as part of her bid to win Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s soon-to-be vacated seat. A trio of issues — jobs, energy and veterans — are her campaign’s main ingredients.

Bysiewicz told the committee members she decided to undertake what she calls “this very large challenge” primarily because of Connecticut’s job situation.

“We are dead last in job creation — 50 out of 50,” Bysiewicz said. “We need 90,000 jobs just to get us back where we were before the recession,” Bysiewicz said, seated at a table in the Easton Public Library.

Bysiewicz said her 12 years as Secretary of State taught her the importance of small business.

If elected, Bysiewicz said she would work to ensure small businesses had access to credit and capital. She wants to expand opportunities for small business, increase micro lending and push for more women-owned business.

“If we’re serious about job creation we need to send leaders to Washington who understand small business,” she said. “As the wife of a small business owner I know about that. Before my head hits the pillow every night I get an earful about small business.”

Bysiewicz will face Rep. Chris Murphy (D-5) and state Rep. William Tong (D-147) in a Democratic primary for the nomination next year. She has so far raised $1 million. Murphy leads in fundraising with $2 million. Tong has so far raised $550,000.

While Republicans have yet to campaign with the same intensity as Democrats, there are no shortage of opinions regarding the race for the open Senate seat.

"Susan Bysiewicz's bid adds little color to the race,” said Al Alper, Chair of Wilton Republican Town Committee. “With virtually no daylight between the current field, it will prove to be a fight over who will tax and spend more — or who will mount the strongest campaign of class(less) warfare."

Calling the United States a country without a national energy policy, Bysiewicz said its time to end foreign oil dependence. She linked the lack of a policy with the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I support the president in his call to bring home 30,000 troops from Afghanistan,” Bysiewicz said. “But I called for all the troops to come home as soon as possible. Every week there it costs $2 billion on our national credit card.”

That’s money better spent on infrastructure and job creation, she said.

The daughter of an 89-year-old Word War II veteran, Bysiewicz said she feels strongly about veteran’s issues. She said she’s particularly concerned about those who have served multiple deployments.

Citing a June 22 New York Times editorial, Bysiewicz told the committee more must be done to help reduce suicide among troops who served multiple tours. According to the editorial, 347 troops died in combat in 2010 compared with 381 troops who committed suicide.

“We have a lot of work to do to take care of our veterans,” Bysiewicz said.

The former Middletown state representative also told the committee her work in the state legislature proves she can deal with Washington. She said she and Sen. Richard Blumenthal once fought President George Bush on an executive order that would have barred veterans from registering to vote inside veteran’s hospitals.

Bysiewicz was referring to a May 2008 Department of Veterans Affairs policy directive regarding registration drives at federally funded veterans’ facilities. However, it appears there never was an outright ban on voter registration drives for nonpartisan groups. Rather the directive was aimed at VA employees.

Moreover according to the directive, requests from non-partisan groups to run drives were never forbidden but instead needed to be reviewed on individual case.

Bysiewicz also spoke about her involvement the General Assembly’s passage of a law banning gifts from lobbyists to legislators.

Stepping out into the summer night, Bysiewicz said she’s prepared to make her case committee-by-committee, person-by-person.

“I’ve been campaigning for about six months now,” Bysiewicz said. “The race will definitely be decided by our party. No Republican of stature has announced yet.”