I have a hard time with the candidacy of Timothy Bowles of Preston, the Democrat running to replace Andrew Maynard in the 18th District state Senate rate.

The idea of sending a former union officer, a retired state worker with a generous pension, to Hartford to solve the state's union-fostered, pension-burdened fiscal crisis seems like madness.

On the other hand, I can't vote for someone — and I live in the 18th District — who supports Donald Trump.

Republican Heather Somers of Groton, who lost her bid in 2014 to be lieutenant governor as Tom Foley's running mate, seems to have a strong bid to win this fall in the 18th.

She lost me, though, in this week's debate in which she said she will be supporting her party's nominee for president.

At least she knew enough not to identify him by name.

There is a new grand GOP tradition in which sensible Republicans, from the Bushes on down, have made it clear they can't support the racist, misogynist, violence-inciting Donald Trump for president.

Chris Shays, the former Republican congressman, was one of the first most prominent party leaders here in Connecticut to decry Trump. He says he is voting for Clinton.

Shay's old friend and colleague, our own former congressman and now first selectman of Stonington, Rob Simmons, has been a bit more reserved, saying he is not going to endorse.

Actually, in Simmons style, he said he is going to keep his powder dry.

Another prominent Connecticut Republican to criticize Trump and withhold an endorsement, at least until now, is Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano.

Maybe Fasano will be part of a new Republican majority in the Connecticut Senate. I hope the Trump-supporting Somers is not.

I understand the anger about Hillary Clinton and her private email server. She has acknowledged the mistake and apologized.

There is no evidence of security breaches. Do we really think some terrorist hacked into her email server, learned about a planned drone strike, and scurried out of his or her hovel? We now know Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested private emails to her.

You can even hate her for it, the arrogance of it. But balance it with the real sins of her opponent, his quite bloated arrogance.

Trump's victims, on the other hand, are everywhere, from the black people he turned away from his housing projects in New York, prompting a lawsuit by the federal government, to the countless businesses he left holding the bag in his bankruptcies, as he skipped off with millions in casino profits.

There are the victims of his Trump University scam, who are still trying to get compensation in court. There are the beauty pageant contestants who claimed in a lawsuit that he groped them.

Then there are the models who say he brought them into the country illegally.

The fact that he is a scheming shyster, who cheats people and won't show his income tax returns, maybe because he doesn't pay taxes, is the least of his baggage, though.

I can't think of a candidate for president in my lifetime who seemed less able to safeguard the country. I can't imagine someone who goes into a rage over an offensive tweet having the nuclear codes.

Can this country really contemplate electing president someone who has promised to "bomb the crap" out of people in the Middle East, vowed to ban an entire religion and suggested punishing women who have abortions?

The writer who spent 18 months with Trump before ghost writing his autobiography calls him a sociopath.

One thing that especially frightens me about Trump is the fact, disclosed by one of his discarded wives, that he used to keep a collection of Hitler's speeches on his bedside table.

It's people like Heather Somers, blindly "supporting my party's nominee," who let people like Trump rise to power.

It's hard to keep track of all the things that make Trump such a vile and loathsome candidate.

A good place to start is a new cheat sheet of "The many scandals of Donald Trump" published this week by The Atlantic.

I warn you, though, to be sure to put in lots of new paper if you send it to your printer; it runs 24 pages long.

I would highly recommend it to candidate Somers.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com