Billboard brands Greenberg as tea party candidate for Congress

Contributed photo

Contributed photo

Two billboard-owning brothers from Milford are once again giving new meaning to the phrase: right exit.

Republican Mark Greenberg is the target of a billboard towering over Route 8 southbound in Waterbury, which brands the 5th Congressional District challenger as a tea party candidate, a moniker that doesn’t exactly play well in deep-blue Connecticut.

The billboard, owned by Barett Outdoor Communications, reads: “Mark Greenberg Congress? Too Far To Be Right.” It shows a photo of a tea bag with the label “radical right.”

Greenberg is running against House Democratic freshman Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire in the 5th District, which stretches from Danbury to the Farmington Valley and includes Litchfield County, Meriden and New Britain.

Brothers John and Bruce Barrett, under the name Brothers for Intelligent Government, have put their family’s billboard business to use against Republicans in the past, including thwarted Senate contender Linda McMahon.

“It is not surprising that our opponent and her supporters would initiate a negative campaign because her record is a record of failed policies and Esty does want to talk about that,” Bill Evans, Greenberg’s campaign manager, told Hearst Connecticut Media Thursday. “The polices she has voted for and supported have hurt Connecticut families and businesses and kept our economy in the doldrums. The billboard confirms that Esty wants to avoid talking about the issues or her record and instead wants to engage in name-calling to distract attention from the disaster she has imposed on the 5th District with Obamacare, profligate government spending, and of course, higher taxes.”

Esty’s campaign said it was not responsible for the billboard, while concurring with its message.

“After running two failed bids for Congress over the last six years, Mark Greenberg should know full well that we have nothing to do with this billboard,” Russell Griffin, Esty’s campaign manager, told Hearst. “It’s just once again a desperate attempt by Mark Greenberg to distract from the issues that matter, like the fact that he plans to privatize social security and slash seniors’ benefits, all the while offensively calling it a handout. Elizabeth proudly runs on her record of supporting middle-class families. All Mark Greenberg has to show is personal attacks and his Tea Party values that are too extreme for Connecticut.”

 

Neil Vigdor