Himes, Obsitnik to debate in Wilton

Republican Steve Obsitnik and Democratic Rep. Jim Himes will debate on Sunday, Oct. 28, the League of Women Voters in Fairfield County announced.

The faceoff between the two 4th Congressional District opponents will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Clune Performing Arts Center at Wilton High School, 395 Danbury Road/Route 7 in Wilton.

The debate is free and open to the public.

The debate format includes questions submitted from the audience and those prepared by league members. The debate moderator is Stamford’s Kay Maxwell, a former president of the League of Women Voters of the United States and now executive director of the Stamford-based World Affairs Forum.

Voter registration will be available at Wilton High School beginning at 3 p.m. prior to the debate.

MURPHY URGED TO GET TOUGH

Add Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to the list of Democratic politicians urging U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy to be more aggressive when hit with attacks by Republican Linda McMahon in the U.S. Senate race.

“I think you know you’ve gotta fight back,” Malloy said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Hartford Thursday morning, reported the CTNewsJunkie.com website.

Hartford Courant columnist Colin McEnroe put it more bluntly last week, saying Murphy and his aides reminded him of the pacifist Amish subjected to taunts by local bullies in the movie “Witness.”

“Right now, Chris Murphy and his campaign are a gaggle of Amish people sitting calmly in their buggies, backed up on the Gelassenheit Freeway while the McMahon campaign squirts ketchup and mustard on their beards and snaps their suspenders against their nipples.”

FEC COMPLAINTS

The Connecticut Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding a joint fundraiser for Obsitnik and Andrew Roraback, the Republican candidates in the 4th and 5th Congressional Districts. The complaint says, among other things, that the invitation for their Sept. 18 event failed to note who paid for solicitation materials or will get the proceeds.

Spokesmen for the Roraback and Obsitnik campaigns have said the invitations were changed to bring them up to snuff and that the complaints are not only groundless but only designed to distract voters from more important matters.

As is the case with complaints filed with the FEC during this time frame, there is little chance it will be resolved, or dismissed, prior to the election. What that means is this: If there is a legitimate campaign law violation, the offender gets off until way after the election. And if the complaint is a frivolous one, the party or candidate who made it can reap the publicity from its filing, secure in the knowledge it won’t be tossed in the trash until way after the election.