Connecticut Local Politics

“Landslide Joe” Courtney won the narrowest congressional race in the country last year. He’s been busy making sure that doesn’t happen again in 2008.

First, a stroke of luck: Rob Simmons decided not to run again, instead becoming a high-profile business advocate for the Rell Administration, the first the state has had. That left Courtney without a high-profile Republican opponent. Indeed, the only one willing to take on the freshman representative is former Groton Sub Base commander Sean Sullivan, whose fundraising numbers have gone from anemic to barely passable over the past year. Those two events alone may have cost the GOP the seat for 2008.

But second, and maybe more important, Courtney has succeeded where Rob Simmons didn’t: he secured funding for a second submarine to be built at Electric Boat. This is precisely what Rob Simmons said wouldn’t happen should Courtney win: A Courtney win, Simmons said in the fall of 2006, would mean that we’d “run the risk of losing our two submarines a year,” (Zaidi).

Not so now, obviously. Simmons could never get appropriations to approve the money, although he deserves credit for his efforts, and for laying a lot of the groundwork. But Courtney did succeed; with help:

That victory, widely considered a strong boost for the vulnerable Democrat, stemmed in part from a decision of several powerful lawmakers to push Courtney’s cause.

Courtney disputes that stars aligned for him this year, but he can’t deny he has a formidable lineup of supporters: Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee; Murtha’s Senate counterpart, Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii); House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.); and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee. (Tiron)

As the article says, Courtney did the work of bringing a reluctant Murtha to Connecticut to see the facilities for himself, and make his case. It worked, in the end. So why does an extra submarine matter? The map knows:

Courtney was strong in the northwestern part of the district, dominated by the big towns of Enfield and Vernon, as well as the liberal-friendly UCONN campus. Simmons’ strength has always been in the southeast, home to military families, submarine bases and construction facilities, and an economy that always seems on the brink.

But now New London County has good reason to support Courtney next year; his efforts have resulted in Electric Boat being able to keep jobs:

The Navy currently contracts for one submarine a year, costing about $2 billion. The work on the submarine is split between Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman’s Newport News yard. Electric Boat has already eliminated about 1,400 jobs at Groton, mainly because of the failure in past years to secure a contract for a second submarine. This year, the company could have put as many as 2,000 more jobs on the line if it did not receive assurances it could build the additional submarine. (Tiron)

If the 2nd District race does come down to pocketbook issues, as Chris Healy suggested it would stated in an article in The Day a few days ago, then Courtney could be in very good shape indeed come next November.

The one variable is the much-heralded split nature of the district. But it’s worth pointing out that even Sam Gejdensen had a couple of pretty big wins along with his much better known squeakers. Sometimes the district is close, and sometimes it isn’t. Joe Courtney is likely hoping it’ll be the latter, and in his favor, in 2008.

Sources
McGinley, Morgan. “Sullivan Knows He Faces Long Odds For Congress.” The Day 16 December, 2007.

Zaidi, Huma. “Battle for the House.” MSNBC 18 September, 2006.