The last time voters in Connecticut’s 28th state senate district elected a Democrat as their state senator was in 1974, as a wave of Democrats across Connecticut and the country were swept into office in the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal.
Democratic State Sen. Joseph Schwartz, only held the 28th district seat for two years from 1974 to 1976. Voters in the district which includes the towns of Fairfield, Bethel, Easton, and Newtown, have since only elected Republicans.
Republican State Sen. Tony Hwang, represented the district for five terms after first being elected to the position in 2014. Hwang announced his retirement last March.
Democratic state senate candidate Rob Blanchard, ran against Hwang for the 28th state senate district seat in 2024 and lost.
Blanchard said he’s in a better position now, especially a year after Democrats flipped nearly 30 municipal seats across the state.
“It certainly helps,” Blanchard said. The atmosphere has shown that the choices being made by the president and the federal government are impacting our everyday costs, and that's undeniable.”
Blanchard and Democrats see a better chance of winning as anger mounts over cost of living issues.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll surrounding the gubernatorial race between Governor Ned Lamont and Republican challenger Ryan Fazio of Greenwich shows 24% of likely voters said cost of living was most important to them when compared to other issues such as the economy, taxes, health care, and immigration.
Blanchard’s Republican challenger, Amybeth Laroche, has attacked Blanchard for focusing his campaign on President Donald Trump’s impacts on Connecticut while ignoring statewide cost of living issues under Democratic control.
“Don't get me wrong,” Laroche said. “Washington does have an impact in Connecticut, I'm not going to pretend that otherwise. But Hartford has its own responsibility to its taxpayers…we have the highest costs in the country for electricity,” Laroche said.
Laroche and Blanchard both say they’re focusing their campaigns on affordability, but differ sharply on their approaches towards tackling the issue.
Blanchard said he wants to let municipalities buy electric power in bulk, and strengthen regulation for utility providers among others.
Laroche said she wants to do away with Connecticut's Public Benefits Charge on utility bills. She also said she would send quarterly questionnaires to constituents to gauge district reactions to state spending.
“At the end of the day, if I'm working hard every single day to just pay my bills, why should I have to be paying other people's bills,” Laroche said.
Blanchard, who also works as Lamont’s campaign spokesperson, said Laroche’s attacks on Democrats rings hollow. He mentioned Lamont’s efforts at cutting state income taxes, the Democratic-controlled legislature passing legislation on child care and criticized Laroche’s performance during a recent debate where Laroche appeared to struggle with answering a question regarding the UI Monopoles, a hot topic for Fairfield residents.
“If you want to just say no to everything the governor's done, then what's your alternative,“ Blanchard said. “What ideas do you have.”
Laroche has attacked municipal car taxes, which have also been criticized by both Democratic and Republican legislators over the years. Yet she herself faced criticism in a recent CT Insider article over nonpayment of car taxes over the last few years.
Laroche said the article was retracted, but an editor's note shows the article had been updated to show that two separate checks for the car tax were received by Newtown shortly after the article was originally published.
Blanchard expressed guarded optimism he could win and he’s not alone.
Fairfield University Political Science Professor, Gayle Alberda, says Blanchard is in a good position to win this time around.
“If the election were held today, Blanchard would likely win because there is, in particular, this national sentiment that is really disadvantaging Republican candidates at large, not just candidates at the federal level, and we're seeing that kind of trickle down into state and local races as well,” Alberda said.
Alberda correctly predicted Trump would win during the 2024 presidential election.
