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The CT-05 is the least Democrat CD in the state, but Santos will need a stiff wind in his back to be able to unseat Congresswoman Esty.

This is all erstwhile RINO Congresswoman Nancy Johnson’s fault. She insisted on her (overwhelmingly Democrat, and with a population of over 70,000, large enough to make a difference) hometown of New Britain being placed in the new CT-05 in 2002 instead of being added to the safely Democrat, Hartford-based CT-01, which would have made the most sense both politically (getting rid of New Britain would have made the new CT-05 a fairly GOP seat) and geographically (New Britain is in Hartford County). While Johnson managed to win the incumbent-vs.-incumbent battle against Democrat James Maloney in 2002, and held on in 2004, she got blown out by one of those obnoxious Murphys (this one was Chris) in 2006, and the seat has been Democrat since. New Britain was kept in the CT-05 in 2012 (the Hartford-based CT-01 looks like a backwards C in order to accommodate the gerrymander), so Nancy’s selfish move from 16 years ago still hurts us today.

BTW, a very similar act of selfishness occurred with RINO Congressman Chris Shays. Overwhelmingly RAT Bridgeport should have been sent tp the New Haven-based CT-03 in 2002, which would have given the CT-04 some GOP turf from Maloney’s old CD, but Shays, who had moved to Bridgeport, insisted that the working-class, heavily minority city be kept in what was largely a white, upper-class (and, at that time, still Republican-majority) district. Shays went on to lose the seat in 2008 despite carrying 14 of 17 towns, with Democrat Congressman Himes’s margin of victory coming entirely in—you guessed it—Bridgeport, which gave the RAT 83% of the vote on huge turnout (with blacks turning out in record numbers to vote for Obama). We haven’t come close to regaining the CT-04, with Bridgeport serving as an insurance policy for the Democrats even if the GOP candidate manages to win the historically Republican towns in the district.

Republicans in CT, which had a lot of influence on 2002 redistricting despite being in the minority in both houses of the General Assembly (Republican John Rowland was governor, and he used his veto threat to ensure that the General Assembly approved a map that didn’t sell out Republicans), should have told Nancy Johnson and Chris Shays to go pound sand and to move to another part of their district that wasn’t 70% Democrat. Rarely does drawing a congressional district based on the home of an incumbent pay off in the long run.

So I wish Mayor Santos luck in his race against Congresswoman Esty; he’s going to need it.