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Three courageous men have stepped up to the plate to battle well-entrenched Democratic incumbent Jim Himes. On May 20, approximately 150 delegates will meet to nominate a candidate. Those delegates should choose Dr. Michael Goldstein.
Full disclosure. Mike is a fellow ophthalmologist and a close personal friend. Nonetheless, I will try to assess all the candidates objectively before giving my reasoning.
Dr. Michael Goldstein.
Mike still works at his office in Manhattan and does surgery. Yet he finds the time to campaign endlessly. Unknown in 2022, he is one of the few people to petition onto the Republican Congressional Primary in recent memory. He literally did this by standing at town garbage dumps obtaining voters’ signatures. Then he knocked on thousands of doors and personally met 35,000 voters – one fourth of the district. Mike garnered 40% in the primary against the polished and charismatic Jayme Stevenson, the former First Selectman of Darien – a remarkable accomplishment. Mike has recently been elected to the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting where he serves on the Health and Human Services Committee and as an alternate to the Finance Committee. He has built up and maintained a strong grassroots support network.
One of Mike’s opponents is Bob MacGuffie, a solid conservative, a friend and a good man. Bob is a member of the Fairfield Republican Town Committee and has helped numerous Republican candidates by volunteering for their campaigns. He was a founding member of the Tea Party movement, a push back against Obamacare and the taxpayer bailout of the banks and Wall Street in 2008. His book, The Seventh Turning, chronicles his world view that history follows cycles called turnings, cataclysmic events (e.g., wars, revolutions, depressions) and that we are due for another turning in the next few years. He has been challenging Jim Himes at public events, in his articles and will work tirelessly to defeat him if he is the nominee.
The third candidate is Daniel Miressi. I have never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I am sure I would like him. After all, he is a paisan. A former hockey star, Dan is a resident of Norwalk and worked in the post office. According to his web site, he was forced to resign this job because of the Hatch Act (which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity) when he unsuccessfully challenged Democratic State Senator Bob Duff in 2022. He is a solid conservative and Trump fan, even attending a Trump rally when Trump met with construction workers in New York City.
The brutal fact remains that none of these three men has a good chance to beat Himes. Himes already has seven figures in his campaign coffers courtesy of his pals from his former employer, Goldman Sachs. None of these gentlemen will come close to raising that amount of money, although Goldstein was able to self-finance and run a reputable campaign in 2022.
So why should Goldstein be the nominee? The reason is that of the three, he is the most moderate. This will be crucial in what is called “the coattail effect” in local elections, meaning candidates at the top of the ticket help elect those under them.
President Trump is not popular in Fairfield County. In fact, in the Republican primary, he only received 67% of the vote even though he had no opposition (Nikki Haley had dropped out of the race.) In Darien, he received only 56% of the vote. And keep in mind that Connecticut – unlike most other states – does not allow Democrats or Independents to vote in primaries. If 33% of Fairfield County Republicans aren’t Trump fans, how does the rest of the county feel?
Two State Senators, Tony Hwang and Ryan Fazio, won their last elections by the skin of their teeth, less than 1%. A Democratic State Assemblyperson of Fairfield, Sarah Keitt, won the last election by a mere 14 votes. Republicans have a great candidate to challenge her, Melissa Longo.
Fazio and Hwang have done yeoman’s work successfully fighting liberal Democratic legislation. Their losses would be devastating to the Republican Party and our state.
These races will be won door-to-door. And it will be much easier for these candidates to distance themselves from Trump if Goldstein is at the top of the ticket rather than MacDuffie – a founding member of the Tea Party - or Miressi, a MAGA Republican. Both of Fazio’s and Hwang’s opponents are strong candidates and will make the case that Fairfield County Republicans are MAGA Republicans if either MacGuffie or Miressi are the candidate.
MacGuffie or Miressi would be excellent candidates if we were in Texas, but we are not. MAGA and Tea Party Republicans do not sell here. Hwang, Fazio and Longo will have a much more difficult time winning their elections downstream on the ballot if either of these two gentleman is nominated.
Furthermore, Goldstein’s Jewish background will highlight the recent antisemitism among some liberal factions of the Democratic party. Moderate Fairfield County Democrats and Independents have been appalled by this.
But to whomever wins the nomination, hats off. Even he doesn’t defeat Himes, this courageous individual will be able to tell his grandchildren that he fought to defend our freedoms – which the Democrats are slowly chipping away at.
