Sam Gurwitt Photo
Figuratively, State Sen. George Logan was in a few different places Thursday morning before work. He was on a street corner waving to voters in the rain, he was in a meeting of the Griffin Hospital Board of Directors, and he was giving an interview … all at the same time.
Logan has been standing on street corners at dawn for the last few weeks as he makes his final appeal to voters to support his reelection to Connecticut’s 17th Senate District seat.
Thursday morning, he chose the intersection of Woodin Street and Pine Rock Avenue in Hamden. He had been at a different Hamden intersection the day before, and would go to Bethany on Friday.
He usually arrives just before the sun, at 7 a.m., and stays until about 8:30, when he heads to work at the Aquarion Water Company.
On Thursday, as he approached the intersection, he planted a few lawn signs along the street and on either side of the intersection. He carried an umbrella, still folded up, which he soon had to open as raindrops began to pour from the sky.
He had his phone in his pocket, a single earbud snaking up his jacket to his ear so he could keep one ear on the meeting about the hospital’s budget. He focused the other ear on this reporter’s questions and on the drivers who honked as they drove by.
Logan, a Republican, is running for his third term representing a district that includes parts of Hamden, Woodbridge, and Naugatuck, and all of Derby, Ansonia, Beacon Falls, and Bethany. He faces a repeat challenge from Democrat Jorge Cabrera, whom he beat by just 77 votes in 2018.
Logan held out a lawn sign to the drivers who streamed by in the morning rush, waving and smiling under his blue surgical mask. Many honked as they passed him.
“Thank you!” he shouted back. “Have a good one!”
“This isn’t the secret weapon,” Logan said of his sign waving. Rather, it’s one of a myriad of ways he tries to connect with voters in the district. He has also run ads, been on radio shows (including one interview earlier Thursday morning), canvassed since the late spring, and attended events all over the district. Logan is known for showing up to community events. He also holds coffee hours in various diners throughout the district.
Earlier in the week, Cabrera got a visit from U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy on a dusk canvass on a quiet street in Hamden. Murphy tied Cabrera’s election to many of the issues he deals with in Washington, including the possibility that the supreme court will strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Logan, on the other hand, sought to distance himself from national politics.
“I try to keep things focused on Connecticut,” he said. “I look at it as local Democrats deflecting when they talk about national issues. Of course they’re going to want to talk about anything other than the financial disaster we have here.”
On Tuesday, Murphy urged voters to vote for Cabrera because if the Supreme Court strikes down the ACA, Connecticut’s legislature would have to act to help people stay insured.
Logan did not voice the same fear. He did not say whether he would prefer to work with or without the ACA. He said he is “not wedded to one particular name” of healthcare solution. “I am more than fine with replacing the Affordable Care Act,” he said, if the replacement is better. Or, he said, “if we do it through the Affordable Care Act, I’m fine with that.”
Last year, a bill creating a public option floundered in the Senate. Cabrera, Logan’s opponent, has come out in favor of that bill.
Logan said he understands the idea behind it but does not support it. “You can’t just look at the title. You really have to look at what the ramifications will be,” he said.
Connecticut is one of the insurance capitals of the country, he said. A public option would compete unfairly with those companies, he argued, because a government plan would not have to comply with some of the rules to which private insurers are beholden. That could end up driving those companies out of the state, he maintained.
“We don’t need another big monstrosity program to handle healthcare,” he said.
Logan has said that the state needs to deregulate business to attract more companies, and workers, to the state. Read more about his view on the role of government here, and here.
“I also want to get back to Hartford to fix that anti-police bill that just passed,” he said, referring to a police accountability bill that passed the Senate in July. In particular, he opposes the limits it places on officers’ immunity from lawsuits for misconduct, the state-level version of qualified immunity. He argued it exposes officers and towns to “frivolous lawsuits,” and will end up costing towns more.
He said he supports increasing transparency in police departments. He pointed to a bill that passed last year that requires officers to detail in incident reports any use of force that is likely to cause injury or death. The bill passed the Senate unanimously, though it received opposition from Republicans in the House.
Logan said the problem is that bad cops are hard to fire. “The issue is when a police officer is disciplined, and repeatedly disciplined, their ability to remain on the force should be in jeopardy,” he said. “But we can’t throw our police officers off a cliff in the name of reform.”
As he stood under his umbrella in the rain, a neighbor walked out to greet him. He and Logan bumped elbows before the man walked back to his house. A few minutes later, Arthur Joyner strolled down the sidewalk in a black hoodie and stopped.
Logan introduced himself. “Running for reelection!” he said cheerfully.
“You won last time, right?” Joyner asked.
“Yes, two years ago,” Logan replied.
Joyner peered at Logan and squinted. “You know where I met you at? Three Brothers,” he declared, referring to the diner nearby on Dixwell Avenue where Logan hosts monthly breakfast meetings with constituents.
Logan asked Joyner if he could take a selfie for his Facebook page. Joyner agreed. Just then, a woman in a car stopped at the intersection and shouted: “Where do we vote in Hamden?”
“It depends where you live,” Logan replied. He ran out into the street to hand her one of his cards so she could call him and he could give her the right polling place.
(If you have not yet voted, click here to find your polling location. If you are voting with a mail-in ballot, the best way to ensure it arrives by election day is to bring it to a ballot drop box in your town. In Hamden, boxes are located at Hamden Government Center at 2750 Dixwell Ave. and at the Keefe Community Center at 11 Pine St. on the George Street parking lot side. New Haven’s is located outside the Hall of Records at 200 Orange St.)
When Logan returned to the sidewalk, Joyner stepped under his umbrella to pose for a photo and then kept walking along the sidewalk.
The basic fact on the national level is the same as the basic fact on the state level--a Republican candidate like this is going to represent the interests of rich people and corporations over the interests of working people. It is well and good to talk about attracting new corporations in from out of state, but working people and small businesses all need someone who will look out for their interests. Logan's effort to protect corrupt utility CEOs is just the tip of the iceberg for his misguided ideology and his disastrous approach to politics.