{news} CT Post Dist.3 Candidates face tough incumbent

[Green Party-CT]

      Dist.3 Candidates face tough incumbent        FRANK JULIANO fjuliano at ctpost.com
Connecticut Post Online        The 3rd Congressional District race is not, to put it mildly, the marquee matchup on the Nov. 7 ballot.   But the two candidates trying to prevent U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, from winning a ninth term are doing their best to mount a challenge to the incumbent — widely perceived as the overwhelming favorite — based on what they see as her shortcomings as a legislator.   "Rosa has never met a defense budget she didn't like," said Dan Sumrall, the Green Party candidate. "She has never held a job that wasn't in some way political."   For Joseph Vollano, the Republican challenger, there are clear differences between what the liberal DeLauro wants to accomplish and his platform.   "Our biggest difference is on immigration," said the 29-year-old Branford resident. "She is totally for open borders, and I'm not. On energy, I'm all for off-shore exploration-look at the discovery of oil this week in the Gulf of Mexico.   "We need to rely more on
 ourselves instead of going to the Middle East," he said.   DeLauro has advocated increased support and incentives for alternative fuel sources, including wind and solar power.   Sumrall and Vollano will have to build name recognition in the 3rd District, which covers most of New Haven County and Stratford. Their opponent, it seems, is on a first-name basis with her constituents who refer to her as "Rosa."   DeLauro said Thursday the campaign is about "the issues important to Connecticut's families — the war in Iraq, the economy, gas prices, the rising cost of health care and the preservation of our environment.   "I know families are financially pressed and I am working to make sure that families come first," the congresswoman said.   But her opponents believe the incumbent's agenda is not in the district's best interests. "I'm the only anti-war candidate in the race," said Sumrall, 30. "Vollano is toeing the party line and Rosa isn't even thinking about weaning the state
 off of its addiction to defense spending.   "I am one of the few candidates who would work to give the working poor a chance at economic equality," the Green candidate said. One of the ways he would do that is by ending "predatory lending practices, the loading up of people who can't afford it with credit card debt.   "I would also work to limit and control check-cashing places, the legal loan sharks who feed like vultures on a slowly dying community," he said.   Vollano said that DeLauro's views are more liberal than those of the people, many of them blue-collar workers who she represents.   DeLauro is in no danger of losing her seat, said Southern Connecticut State University political science professor Arthur Paulson, and will likely garner 70 percent or more of the vote, as she has in most of her elections.The Green Party candidate may do better than in the past, possibly even outpolling the Republican in New Haven, said both Paulson and House Speaker James Amann.  
 "The Republican in this district typically gets in the 20s [percent of the vote]," Paulson said. "One reason for the argument that it might drop off this time is that voters may jump off the Republican line when they get to the Senate race to vote for [Joe] Lieberman.   "But then you'd have to assume that they'd vote for the Green in the congressional race, and I don't think that's going to happen," the professor said.   "Rosa is a strong candidate and she will win by a huge margin," said Amann, a fellow Democrat.   DeLauro grew up in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, which her mother Luisa later represented for many years as a New Haven alderwoman.Shegraduated from Lauralton Hall in Milford, from Marymount College and Columbia University, earning degrees in political science. DeLauro also attended the London School of Economics.   Married to Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, she was an aide to U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., before being elected to
 Congress in 1990.   Vollano lives with his girlfriend and their 1-year-old son, and says the couple may get married in the future. "Of course, people can say what they want, but we are together, we love each other and our child.   "I grew up with a single mom. My parents divorced when I was 5, and I think my situation is more typical of the people in the district," he said.   Sumrall, who grew up in Wisconsin and lived in Virginia for a time, has a master's degree from the University of Notre Dame. He is an adjunct professor of English at Manchester Community College. He and his partner Michelle live in New Haven while she pursues a doctorate at Yale. "We'll be here six or seven years at least, but if I'm elected, I'd serve my term and put my name in nomination again. Then I'd move on," Sumrall said. "It wouldn't be my career."   While the Green Party candidate would like to win, his goal is more modest. "If I can draw 1 percent of the vote, it maintains the automatic
 place on the ballot and means another year that people will have a choice," Sumrall said.
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