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Connecticut voters have heard a lot lately about “resentment & division.”
Attorney General William Tong has been telling Republican candidates that they should denounce President Donald Trump. But in a video I recently reviewed, his message went considerably further. Tong said, “I’m gonna stop calling you guys Republicans. ’Cause you’re not Republicans. You’re not conservatives. You’re MAGA.”
He then challenged Republican candidates: “Do you stand with Donald Trump, or do you stand with us?” And he went so far as to say that candidates who stand with Trump are “disqualified from serving in office in this state.”
Those are his words.
That raises an obvious question:
When did the Attorney General’s job become telling voters who is—and who isn’t—a Republican or a conservative?
Tong certainly has the right to criticize President Trump and to oppose his policies. But Connecticut voters should also recognize what happens when political discussion continually turns toward Washington and Donald Trump.
It can make it easier to overlook what is happening here at home.
While voters are being encouraged to focus on whether Republican candidates will denounce Donald Trump, Connecticut families are dealing with some very real problems right here in Connecticut.
Take the electric bill.
Every Eversource and United Illuminating customer pays a mandatory Public Benefits Charge. PURA says the charge funds programs including energy efficiency, renewable energy and assistance for vulnerable customers.
That may sound benign until Connecticut families look at their electric bills and ask a simple question:
How much are we paying, where is the money going, and are these programs delivering value for the people who are required to pay for them?
And then there is the broader question of taxpayer-funded programs involving noncitizens.
Connecticut has made policy choices involving immigration, benefits and public resources. Attorney General Tong has made immigration policy a significant part of his public role, including issuing statewide guidance on immigration matters and challenging federal immigration policies.
Some may feel these are legitimate policies to debate. But Connecticut taxpayers deserve the same level of scrutiny when their own money is being spent.
What about parents?
There is another issue that deserves attention because it involves something even closer to home: parents and their children.
In 2023, Attorney General Tong joined 15 other state attorneys general in an amicus brief supporting a Massachusetts school district’s policy concerning transgender students. The policy allowed school officials to withhold information about a student’s transgender or gender-nonconforming identity from the student’s parents unless the student consented to disclosure. Tong’s office said he supported the effort as a matter of student privacy.
Reasonable people can disagree about how schools should handle sensitive issues involving children.
But parents can reasonably ask a simple question:
Should a public school be making decisions about how it communicates a child’s gender identity to that child’s parents—or should parents be part of that conversation?
That is not a question about Donald Trump. It is not a question about Washington.It is a Connecticut question about parents, schools and the role of government. And it is precisely the kind of question that can get lost when political attention is continually redirected toward national politics.
That is the point.This isn’t about Donald Trump. It isn’t about MAGA. And it isn’t about whether someone likes or dislikes William Tong.
It is about priorities and accountability.
If the Attorney General wants Republican candidates to answer for the words and actions of a president in Washington, Connecticut voters should be equally willing to ask Connecticut’s elected officials to answer for what is happening in Hartford.
Why are Connecticut residents paying some of the highest costs in the country for energy?
Why do mandatory charges continue to appear on electric bills?
How are taxpayer dollars being allocated to programs involving people who are not citizens?
What safeguards are in place?
Who is auditing the spending?
What role should parents have when schools are dealing with sensitive issues involving their children?
And when government programs or policies fail, who is held accountable?
Those are not partisan questions.
They are taxpayer and parent questions.
Ironically, continually telling voters that the other side is the problem can become its own form of political division.
If every Republican candidate must first prove their loyalty—or disloyalty—to Donald Trump before discussing Connecticut’s problems, then national politics has once again succeeded in drawing attention away from the issues affecting Connecticut families every day.
A candidate’s position on Donald Trump is ultimately for Connecticut voters to judge.
So is the record of Connecticut’s government.
The real question isn’t whether Republicans will denounce Trump.
The real question is: What has Connecticut’s government done to make life more affordable, protect taxpayers, respect parents and restore confidence in the people who are supposed to be watching the money?
Let’s talk about that.
And let’s leave the Trump Derangement Syndrome at the door.
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