Speaker John Boehner becomes bogeyman in Connecticut House race

TORRINGTON, Conn. — In a closely contested House race here, Democrat Elizabeth Esty is summoning the name of an unusual Republican bogeyman to draw voters away from her opponent: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Esty is struggling to fend off Republican state Sen. Andrew Roraback in a battle for an open Democratic seat in western Connecticut. A longtime legislator with a history of working across party lines, Roraback has made inroads by pitching himself as a centrist who won’t bow to pressure from conservative party leaders.

In response, Esty drops Boehner’s name as much as she does Mitt Romney’s or Paul Ryan’s.

She argues that as centrist as Roraback might be, the only vote he’ll take that matters for the district is the one in January that could reelect Boehner as the House Speaker. That first vote, she said during the candidates’ first debate, would empower a conservative agenda whose policies on the budget, the environment, women’s rights and other issues are at odds with the views of people in Connecticut’s 5th District.

“People need to understand that whatever his personal vote may be, once he has selected a Speaker who has made that the agenda, who will continue to call up those pieces of legislation, then his voting against them is fairly meaningless, because he would have empowered that agenda which is against our interests in this district,” Esty told reporters after the debate.

In a statement, Boehner spokesman Cory Fritz dismissed Esty's argument as a distraction from the bread-and-butter issues in the race.

"It's not surprising that Elizabeth Esty would prefer to try and shift attention from her support for [House Democratic] Leader [Nancy] Pelosi and President Obama's failed economic policies that have buried middle class families," Fritz said. "This race is about jobs and the economy, and Andrew Roraback is a strong, independent voice for common-sense solutions to stop reckless Washington spending, reform our broken tax code, and get government out of the way of American job creators."

Esty’s strategy mirrors the one Republicans used with success to oust centrist Democrats in 2010, when they hammered them for supporting then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) even though the Democrats had voted against much of their party’s agenda.

Yet Boehner is neither as well-known nor as polarizing as Pelosi, a liberal who had been the subject of Republican attacks for years before they finally appeared to work in 2010. Democrats in other nearby races have sought to link their opponents not to Boehner specifically but to the Tea Party and the broader House Republican budget authored by Ryan (R-Wis.), the GOP vice presidential nominee.

And Roraback doesn’t appear fazed — he has appeared with Boehner and accepted fundraising help from the Speaker on a swing through the Northeast earlier this month.

“I’m going to vote for a Republican for Speaker. I’m a Republican,” Roraback told The Hill. “For her to suggest that that’s the most important vote that I’m going to take I think reveals how different our approaches are. Because to me the most important votes I’ll cast are the votes that will solve this country’s very serious problems.”

Roraback is one of several House and Senate candidates seeking to resurrect the brand of fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republicanism that defined the GOP in New England for years before 2006 and 2008, when Democrats swept most of them out of office in wave elections. 

In Massachusetts, former state Sen. Richard Tisei (R) is vying to defeat Democratic Rep. John Tierney to become the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress. And businesswoman Linda McMahon in Connecticut and Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts have run on similar centrist messages.

Roraback has run to the middle after winning a primary in August, and he has said he would not have supported the Ryan budget. He opened the debate on Tuesday night by saying he had “the courage to be independent” over the course of 18 years in the state legislature.

“Party loyalty has its place, but in my judgment, party loyalty has begun to erode what has made this country great,” he said. “My commitment is to always be faithful to the people I work for, and never to bow to party pressure to do something that's not the right thing for the people I represent.”

Roraback and Esty are competing to replace Rep. Chris Murphy (D), who is running for the Senate after three terms in the House. 

For Democrats, the tight race defending the district is emblematic of their uphill battle to gain the 25 seats they need to re-take the House majority. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent nearly $800,000 on the race so far and plans to spend at least $1 million before Election Day, money the party would no doubt have preferred to spend going after Republican-held seats.

An Ohio-based Republican super-PAC, the Government Integrity Fund Action Network, also plans to spend $1 million in the race to defeat Esty.

While Democrats retain a small party registration edge and Esty has led in fundraising, the district is the most closely divided of the five in Connecticut, a blue state that President Obama is expected to win handily. Each side has released internal polls showing their candidate ahead, and both Republican and Democratic operatives following the campaign expect it to remain close for the final three weeks.

Esty, 53, is a lawyer and advocate who served a single term in the state House of Representatives before being defeated in 2010. She has used the experience to tout her independent streak in the current campaign, arguing that she lost her seat because she voted against the death penalty just a few years after the brutal murder of a family in Cheshire, Conn., stunned and outraged the local community.

While Esty has sought to nationalize the race and link Roraback to Washington Republicans, Roraback has gone after Esty over campaign donations, questioning money she accepted from a company that has business before a state agency that her husband heads. “It’s not right. We shouldn’t accept it,” Roraback said in a tense moment of what was otherwise a civil debate on Tuesday.

“Andrew, this is the 21st century,” Esty shot back. “I’m married. My husband also works in public service, and I would hope you would focus on my record and my achievements.”

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