US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will stump Sunday in Greenwich for Obsitnik, raise $ for Roraback. Himes, Esty, weigh in.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia will join Republican 4th District candidate Steve Obsitnik in Temple Sholom on East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich on Sunday morning at 9:30 for a meet-and-greet with the congregation and invited guests. The event will not be open to reporters, although Cantor may speak outside afterwards. “Eric’s coming to support Steve and give him a push in the final few weeks and especially in light of Steve achieving ‘young gun’ status from the Republican National Congressional Committee,” said Amanda Berger, Obsitnik’s spokeswoman.

Cantor will also participate in fundraising events for Republicans, including one in Greenwich for state Sen. Andrew Roraback of Goshen, the GOP candidate for the 5th Congressional District of northwestern Connecticut.


Justin Myers, campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, said Friday that Cantor’s visit tips Obsitnik’s hand.

“For nearly a year, Obsitnik has failed to take a position on Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as we know it and still hasn’t articulated a single policy to help our nation out of the jobs crisis, leaving Fourth District voters to wonder what type of Representative he would be.  Now we know,” said Myers in a statement. “Obsitnik’s teaming up with GOP far right mastermind Eric Cantor speaks mountains to the kind of representative he would be, another minion for a radical agenda that is wrong for Southwest Connecticut.”

Jeb Fain, spokesman for Elizabeth Esty, the Democratic 5th District candidate, said that Speaker of the House John Boehner, who spoke in Hartford at a Roraback fundraiser, must have reported back favorably to Cantor. “The House GOP’s two highest-ranking leaders, along with several Republican-front groups, are investing in a candidate they know would vote for their shared right-wing economic agenda instead of the needs of Connecticut’s middle class families,” Fain said in a statement. “Andrew Roraback likes to call himself a moderate, but he has made it clear that he shares the economic agenda of John Boehner and Eric Cantor – backing more tax breaks for millionaires, vowing to repeal health care reform, and repeatedly leaving himself open to voucherizing Medicare and privatizing Social Security benefits. There is nothing moderate about Senator Roraback’s economic agenda.”