Attorney General Facing A Conservative And Radical Liberal In General Election
HARTFORD - The last time a non-Democrat held the office of attorney general in Connecticut was 1959. The current Democratic occupant, George Jepsen, was all of five years old back then.
In this election, Jepsen is being challenged by opponents who occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum and have very different approaches to the campaign.
Republican Kie Westby is a conservative lawyer from Thomaston who believes Connecticut must drop its "anti-business attitude" that he claims has driven companies out of the state and hurt job growth. He's also an NRA member opposed to new state gun controls passed after the Sandy Hook killings, and a harsh critic of "Common Core" educational standards.
Green Party candidate Stephen Fournier is proudly "to the left of the other two" in the race. He considers the federal government an "enemy of the state of Connecticut," and wants to investigate its role in the 9/11 disaster. Fournier thinks many voters out there are as angry as he is with big government and big business.
Jepsen's challengers are leaving the incumbent a lot of room in the political middle. Like his predecessors in the attorney general's office, Jepsen casts himself as a champion of consumers and a defender of personal privacy.
Tried-and-true formula
It's a tried-and-true formula, and a recent opinion survey by Public Policy Polling indicates it may well be working again: the poll gave Jepsen a 15-point edge over Westby and a 36-point advantage over Fournier.
Both Jepsen and Westby are planning on using the state's public campaign finance system, which would give each more than $812,000 in taxpayer money to spend on this election. Fournier isn't seeking any public election funding, and expects to spend less than $1,000 on his third-party candidacy.
Jepsen last week put up his first TV campaign ad of the race. Westby, who only recently made his formal application for public financing, is hoping for a quick approval so he can respond with his own TV commercials.
In 2010, Jepsen won his first attorney general contest with 53.7 percent of the vote. Republican Martha Dean another GOP conservative pulled 43.6 percent, while Fournier got 2.9 percent of the ballots cast.
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Attorney General Facing A Conservative And Radical Liberal In General Election