Combine her experience, attention to detail and work ethic and you will find no more able state lawmaker in the local delegation than Sen. Cathy Osten, the Sprague Democrat seeking a third term in the 19th District.

Does that mean we agree with Osten all the time? Hardly. A populist progressive to the core, this Democrat  rejects the suggestion that high pay and generous benefits for state workers should be reined in as part of the solution to the state’s continuing fiscal problems. This newspaper takes the view that step is part of the process of returning balance to the state budget.

Zealously protective of labor and guarding social services, Osten instead puts the focus on encouraging job growth as the way to boost state tax revenues and find sustainable fiscal footing. That’s fine if Connecticut can pull it off. The record has not been good of late.

Osten, 61, has thrown herself into that effort. She was instrumental in forming a regional economic development group that includes elected officials, business organizations, colleges and employers on both sides of the Connecticut-Rhode Island state line. Its goal is to provide the planning, training and policies necessary to support job growth within the region’s interstate and intertwined economy.

She points to an estimate provided by the Eastern CT Workforce Investment Board that more than 25,000 high-skilled manufacturing and defense industry jobs will come online in Connecticut in the next several years through expanded work at Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin and the businesses that feed their supply chains.

An Army veteran and retired Department of Correction officer, she is a no-nonsense senator who is always prepared with the facts to back her policy decisions. She was instrumental in making workers compensation available to police officers who acquire Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the line of duty. Last month, the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association presented her with its “Legislator of the Year Award.”

She is also Sprague's first selectwoman.

Showing innovation, Osten pushed through a law that could pave the way for “granny pods” by developing suggested zoning rules that would allow the temporary use of 300-square-foot, ADA-compliant, single-level housing units on a senior's own property — providing residents with an option other than moving into a nursing care facility or remodeling an existing home to meet health needs.

Osten opposed the gun reform legislation passed after the mass killing at a Newtown elementary school, reform backed by this newspaper on its editorial pages. Yet it is fair to acknowledge the senator was reflecting the opinion prevalent in the rural towns she serves. The district includes all or parts of Ledyard, Montville, Norwich, Franklin, Sprague, Lisbon, Marlborough, Hebron, Columbia and Lebanon.

Challenging her is Sprague registrar Barbara Richardson Crouch, 51. As virtually all Republicans are doing in this race, she points to the state’s lagging job growth and perpetual fiscal deficits and argues it’s time for change. Yet she sticks to broad themes, rather than detailed policy proposals, when explaining what that change would look like.

Crouch wants a government that runs better and taxes less — it's the how that is lacking.

She had job disputes when working in the finance departments in Griswold and Lebanon, bringing in question her demeanor to work effectively in the legislature. Crouch said she learned lessons from the experiences.

We are also bothered that Crouch, asked which presidential candidate she supports, refused to answer saying her role as a registrar prohibited her from doing so. The Office of Secretary of State reports no such legal prohibition.

Crouch has not made the case to replace an experienced, hardworking senator. The Day endorses Sen. Catherine A. Osten in the 19th Senatorial District.