McMahon and Murphy finally talk about the issues.

Who would've guessed that on a late Sunday morning in October the Senate race in Connecticut would really begin? WFBS hosted the first televised debate with Dennis House moderating and featuring a  well respected panel of  journalists that included Angela Dias, of WTIC Radio, Mark Pazniokas, from the Connecticut Mirror and Fran Schneidau from WCBS News Radio 880. As of  this last week both candidates are in a dead heat.

Photos courtesy of WTNH

 

The debate on Sunday was an all out barrage of policy differences, accusations, and rhetoric but for the first time in this campaign Connecticut voters actually got to see the two candidates speak on their own and challenge each other and answer the panel's questions.One of the most compelling questions was from Pazniokas. This having to do with press access to both candidates and the transparency of their campaigns when it comes to providing press conferences or even the candidates daily schedules, which neither post on their web sites.This issue being one of the most disheartening aspects of this Senate race. McMahon began by defending the structure of her campaign and stated  she  enjoys the face to face meetings she has with voters on a daily basis. In this response we heard one of McMahon's most revealing statements when she said this about her wanting to run for the Senate. "In a Congress where we have so few people who come from the public sector."  It might be news to McMahon but now more than  half of the members of Congress are now millionaires. In Murphy's response he committed his first pivot of the debate by not answering the question, instead using his time to drawn contrast between him and McMahon. Pazniokas had to ask Murphy  once again to answer the question in which he said he does work with editorial boards and often answers questions from the media.

What  followed next was Murphy's unabashed accusation that McMahon's plan on her web site is simply not her own by saying "Entire paragraphs and entire sentences" were "lifted from the House Republican website, the Cato Institute,". He went on  to say  "It's a plan that was essentially written by people in Washington who have ideology as their primary concern." McMahon clearly stunned turned  directly to Murphy and pushed back hard " Congressman Murphy shame on you. You have just  accused me of  plagiarizing my plan." McMahon then when on to say "You know very well that my plan is my own. I have sought the expert opinion of those outside to get the brightest and the best, and every word of that has been cited, either in the online plan or in print."

 For may Connecticut voters, and the writer of this blog, when you have checked McMahon's plan in the recent past on her web site none of her plan was cited at all.
 Later in the day this story exploded into a even bigger issue as it was being reported that the McMahon campaign had earlier in the week released the edited text of an email exchange with a Huffington Post reporter and Cory Bliss of the McMahon campaign. This in reference to the McMahon plan not being properly being cited on her web site. The information is now cited.What was omitted in the released email was the previous un-cited web pages that reporter Amanda Terkel included in her original email to Bliss.

One has to just ask McMahon with her tens of millions of dollars she has already spent on her race, how could citations be over looked?  Coincidental McMahon  vast wealth afforded her the opportunity to place full color full page ads in numerous Sunday morning papers.The ad in sarcastic details compares Ferrus Bueller's Day off to Chris Murphy's six years off in Congress. Ironically none of the committee attendance records from three different Congresses are cited at all in the print ad.
Are we seeing a trend here?
This is a copy of the newspaper ad on McMahon's Facebook page.

 

The debates did provide  plenty of details,contrast, and zingers between the two candidates and is worth watching here. Connecticut voters need to determine what is more important for our state. Candidates controlling the narrative and ignoring the issues and the  press in possibly the worst Senate race in Connecticut's history or do the voters want bothMcMahon and Murphy to honestly talk abou the issues and prove to  voters who will be a greater advocate. The one who will go to Washington and be a partner with our other sitting Senator to work and fight for all the residents of our state.
The next four weeks will be one wild roller coaster ride here in Connecticut.
Hopefully the  voters will demand more in this race from each of the candidates in both substance, action and simply telling voters where they will be appearing each week.