I will confess that I've enjoyed The Day's series of election debate videos so much that I've watched some of them more than once.

I know. I know. It is, as Donald Trump would say, sad, very sad.

Honestly, though, they are an invaluable tool to assess the candidates you may be voting for. You hear not just their answers to important policy questions, but, over the course of an hour, you also get some sense of the intellect, temperament and general demeanor of each candidate.

Based on all those things, especially the policy answers, my favorite candidate around here this election season is by far Norm Needleman, once dubbed by his kids, according to one newspaper profile, as "Mr. Fizz" for his presiding over a company in Essex that is the largest national producer of effervescent products, like Bromo-Seltzer.

In addition to his job as CEO of Tower Laboratories, a 250-employee company he co-founded in 1979, he is also the first selectman of Essex.

He is a busy volunteer, too — a community service contributor on steroids.

The son of a Brooklyn grocer, Needleman got his start in the medical manufacturing business with a job offer from a fare in the New York cab he was driving, after he complained he wasn't doing anything with his mathematics degree.

Based on my second watching of his debate with Sen. Art Linares, R-Westbrook, I hope the 65-year-old first selectman — I am tempted to use another Trumpism here — soundly defeats the 27-year-old Republican incumbent.

In fact, I hate to sound ageist here, but I was especially offended by the snarky treatment the young senator sometimes gave his gracious challenger, sniping at one point: "You should probably study that," when Needleman clearly knew what he was talking about.

Indeed, the senator from Westbrook seemed at times to be almost as rude, dismissive and bombastic as the presidential candidate at the head of his ticket, whom he heartily endorsed.

I think I most enjoyed the Needleman debate performance because it was a relief from the Trump test box I've put myself in this election season.

I would like to see Connecticut Republicans do well because I believe Democrats, in control of both the House and Senate, have become way too cozy with unions to get on with the hard business of spending cuts in Hartford.

At the same time, I can't imagine voting for any Republican candidate who won't renounce the racist, misogynist, thin-skinned egoist at the head of their ticket. Some have. Not enough.

Then along comes Mr. Fizz, who seems to me just the kind of Democrat that Connecticut needs — sensible, caring, honest and pragmatic.

Once he beats Sen. Linares in the 33rd Senate District, I'd like to see him set his sights on the governor's mansion.

Although you might wonder who would want that. That's what I thought the day of Obama's first inauguration, as he walked down Pennsylvania Avenue: Who would want that job, getting the country out of the deep ditch George Bush drove it into?

Mr. Fizz was at his best in the debate with Linares when he talked about Connecticut's spending problem, how the status quo of legislators packing treats for their constituents into the budget must end.

"We have a spending problem in the state of Connecticut," he said. "It's got to stop."

I also liked his answer to a question about the ballooning costs of state pensions.

Needleman said he would put everyone with a stake, including the union leadership, into one room and bring in the best bankruptcy attorney in the country to read everyone the riot act.

"The 'Come to Jesus' moment has to happen," he said. "We either solve it together or we go down together."

Of course it also helped me that Linares failed the Trump test miserably, indeed in hypocritical Trumpian fashion.

Here's someone who has built a successful business with help from both federal tax breaks for renewable energy and assistance from the state of Connecticut, which arranged favorable electricity purchase rates for his solar farm, endorsing the No. 1 climate-change denier.

Linares, like Trump, wants more tax cuts for himself.

He's our own Trump Lite.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com