Today in Connecticut Chris Donovan officially ended his campaign for congress, taking his name off the Working Families Party ballot line and endorsing his primary opponent, Elizabeth Esty.
The Working Families Party quickly followed suit, endorsing Esty.
After a divisive primary, some progressives, including some on this site, were deriding Esty as a Joe Lieberman clone, and some urged Donovan to remain on the ballot as the candidate of the WFP.
I understand that there is often anger after a primary, and I certainly understand that Donovan had earned a lot of progressive loyalty. I am very glad, however, that calmer heads prevailed. Donovan and the WFP have seen that there is more that unites them with Esty than divides them from her. Moving on from primary rhetoric, she is a true progressive and deserves our support.
Elizabeth Esty Supports progressive taxation. She supports preserving Social Security and Medicare. She supports investments in education and Job training. She supports unions rights to organize. She supports paid sick leave. These are the stances of a fiscal progressive who will support working people.
On social issues, of course, her credentials are impeccable. She strongly supports the rights of anyone, including her gay brother, to marry. She supports choice. She would not compromise her opposition to the death penalty, even when she was running for re-election while her opponent campaigned with the widower who survived the tripple murder of his wife and two daughters in her district. (She lost by 100 votes).
You can check her out at her campaign website.
Elizabeth Esty will think for herself, and will vote as she believes is right, rather than always voting the party line, but as someone who has followed her closely for four years, I can tell you that she will be working hard, for us, every day.
Let's work for her.