Deja-vu All Over Again
The Race in Connecticut's 5th
Congressional District

October 20, 2000 -- Many Connecticut fifth district voters have a sense of deja-vu this election season. After losing by less than 2,500 votes in 1998, Republican lawyer and former state Senator Mark Nielsen is once again trying to unseat Congressman Jim Maloney.

Pundits assumed that once Vice President Al Gore nominated Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, the top of the ticket would give Maloney a distinct advantage. Polls suggest that the Democratic ticket is strong in the state. A Hartford Courant/University of Connecticut poll released on October 4 gave Gore a 48 percent to 32 percent lead over Bush. In a poll released by the same organization on May 13, before Lieberman was nominated, the two candidates were in a dead heat, with each attracting about 40 percent of the vote.

But when it comes to polls for the fifth district Congressional race, even they are disputed by the candidates. On September 26, Nielsen released the results of an internal poll reporting that he was trailing Maloney 44 percent to 33 percent with 19 percent still undecided. Maloney quickly denounced Nielsen's poll, sighting an internal poll the Democrats released 6 weeks prior to Nielsen's in which Maloney led Nielsen 53 to 28 percent.

While the lack of independent polling makes it difficult to ascertain how close the race is, the amount of money the candidates are spending on the campaign points to a race whose outcome is far from certain. Maloney is set to break the nearly $1.8 million spending record for a house seat in Connecticut. Maloney, who recently ran ads during "60 Minutes" and the Olympics, is on track to spend over $1 million on television advertising alone. Nielsen, helped in part by a fundraising visit by Sen. John McCain, has raised about $1.2 million.

With much of the campaign spending in this race going to advertising, it's no surprise that both have been using the medium to attack their opponent. One Nielsen ad portrayed Maloney as a puppet whose strings were pulled by his contributors, specifically the teacher's union.

Maloney has countered with attacks of his own. One of his ads accused Nielsen of opposing bills that would lower prescription drug costs for senior citizens. Nielsen responded by saying that he voted for a budget that increased funding of the state's prescription drug program, although not as much as Democratic proposals.

Nielsen, who friends say has always dreamed of becoming a congressman, has not limited his attacks to negative ads. He frequently shows up at Maloney campaign events to provide instant responses to Maloney's speeches. His guerilla tactics included using a friend's ticket to attend a Maloney fundraiser featuring President Clinton.

Nielsen has also accused his opponent of violating federal campaign finance laws. Maloney's brother plead guilty to reimbursing his employees for their nearly $44,000 in campaign contributions, a violation of federal campaign finance law. U.S. Attorney Donald Stern said that he found no evidence implicating Jim Maloney in his brother's wrongdoing. At a press conference, Nielsen asked, "How hard did he look?" Maloney responded by arguing that Nielsen's accusations are "the repetition of a lie that he has attempted to foist of both the media and the America people."

With both candidates fighting tooth and nail to win in a district whose voters have no strong party loyalty, the accusations show no signs of dying down before the election.