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Although I’m taking a break from political blogging, I couldn’t resist posting on State “Birther” Senator Mike McLachlan’s latest attempt to avoid defending his horrible record with challenger Jason Bartlett

PRESS RELEASE:

For the second time in as many weeks Senator Michael McLachlan has decided not to attend a debate against opposing candidate Jason Bartlett. Former State Representative and State Senate candidate Jason Bartlett had accepted an invitation to debate Senator Michael McLachlan in an event to be hosted by Naugatuck Community College. The debate was slated to take place at the Palace Theatre in Danbury, on October 25th at 8 pm.

Bartlett has accused Senator McLachlan of failing to advocate for local and state issues, instead attempting to legislate extreme policies that appeal to the far right wing of his national party.

“During the January 2011 session,” Bartlett said, “Connecticut’s unemployment was 9.3%. Instead of working on jobs, McLachlan was introducing his ‘birther bill’ questioning President Obama’s citizenship as well as a bill requiring invasive ultrasounds for women seeking to terminate their pregnancies. He is hiding his record of radicalism from the people of the district and needs to be held accountable”

In light of Senator McLachlan’s absence from a previous debate held by the Danbury chapter of the, Bartlett has expressed deep dissatisfaction that the senator has chosen to avoid another debate.

“An honest, public debate is essential for voters to be informed on where their candidates stand on issues they care about. I’m appalled Senator McLachlan thinks that he has a better chance of winning by hiding his record.” Bartlett said when the news of McLachlan’s refusal came.

The Naugatuck Community College event was the second planned debate for the 24th District State Senate seat this election season. It would have been the first public debate that Senator McLachlan ever participated in as a candidate for public office.

Below is a transcript of the email exchange between the parties.

From: michael@mclachlan2012. com [mailto:michael@ mclachlan2012.com ]
Sent: Monday, October 15
To: Longcore, Matthew J
Subject: RE: McLachlan vs. Bartlett debate at The Palace Danbury

Dear Matt,

Thank you for your kind invitation but I regret I am unavailable. We have less than three weeks remaining in this campaign and my schedule is completely full through Election Day.

Perhaps in the future you can provide the candidates more lead time for planning purposes to assure we can properly schedule your event. As an example, the Realtor’s candidate forum scheduled for 10/18 has been on my calendar for two months. I encourage you to host debates in the future as I would enjoy meeting the NVCC students at such an event.

Regards,

Mike McLachlan

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UPDATE With less than eight hours to go until the start of the debate, McLachlan chickens out…I guess he thought he would have a hard time explaining his birther nonsense to the crowd.

Tomorrow, Jason Bartlett and Mike McLachlan will participate in a State Senate debate.

The debate is sponsored by the Greater Danbury NAACP will take place tomorrow at 12:30 at the Danbury Public Library and is open to the public.

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CT Mirror breaks down the staged fest that happened in Danbury yesterday.

But neither of the former congressmen was exactly on message. Simmons said nothing about McMahon from the podium, and he and Shays offered her the thinnest of praise, calling her the obvious choice of GOP voters.

[...]

Shays dodged the question of whether he now believes McMahon is qualified.

“I think that she’s the candidate, and I think that Chris Murphy is incredibly vulnerable,” said Shays, who lost an Aug. 14 primary to McMahon by a ratio of nearly 3-1. “I think she can win this race.”

Simmons offered a similar assessment.

Asked if McMahon had improved as a candidate since their 2010 contest, Simmons said, “She spoke without notes, which I think is a positive development.”