An interesting debate topic has surfaced in the current 20th District state Senate race, and it is curiously one that loomed large over the district's 2014 contest, in which Republican Paul Formica, former first selectman of East Lyme, snatched away a seat that had long been held by Democrats.

Formica handily held on to the seat in 2016, and now, having become the influential co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, faces a challenge from two Democrats.

In 2014, Gov. Dannel Malloy intervened in the waning days of the race in the 20th, dropping a bottom-of-the-ninth bombshell, announcing that Seaside, the sprawling and abandoned waterfront campus of the state's shuttered tuberculosis hospital, would become, literally with the stroke of his pen, a state park.

The surprise announcement seemed aimed at defusing criticism of Formica's Democratic opponent, a state representative who had, along with the rest of state officialdom, dithered for years while attempts to sell the huge state property in the heart of the 20th floundered.

Malloy's surprise gift of a park in the end fell flat, and Formica pulled off an upset victory as Connecticut Republicans began to claw their way to parity in the General Assembly.

Flash forward four years, and Seaside's future is once again in the spotlight in the 20th.

This time, it is Formica politicizing the shuttered sanitarium.

Just as the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was on the brink of issuing a request for proposals to find a hotel developer interested in rehabilitating and leasing the landmark historic buildings by architect Cass Gilbert — after finishing years of professional studies showing that a destination hotel resort would be successful — Formica encouraged the introduction of two bills that took aim at Malloy's park development, one suggesting it be simply sold to the highest bidder.

"I question the ability of the state to take on the long-term oversight of a destination hotel and resort property. I don't believe the state should necessarily be getting into the business of hotel ownership when government is struggling to fulfill its most basic responsibilities," Formica said in written testimony submitted for a hearing on S.B. 252, "An Act Requiring the Sale of the Former Seaside Regional Center."

Formica's floating a park sale was met with a storm of outrage, not just from park enthusiasts but those who care about the restoration of the buildings, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, according to some architectural historians, are some of Gilbert's best work.

Neither of the Formica-inspired bills made it out of committee.

And DEEP officials, who testified against the two Seaside bills, last week released the formal request for proposals to find a hotel developer for Seaside, suggesting bidders outline their plans and projections, from lease payments to the state, what remediation costs they would agree to pay and whether they would pay the state some of the cost of reimbursing the town for lost property taxes on the project, payments in lieu of taxes.

I am a big fan of the park lodge plan.

It's a winner for the state, finding a private developer to finally invest in and save the buildings, keeping the property open to the public, creating jobs and economic development and payments in lieu of taxes to the town on what will probably be a substantial investment of tens of millions of dollars.

That kind of development and the establishment of an acclaimed park resort on the Waterford shoreline will be good for the town.

I thought it was the Republicans who always were promising job creation and economic development through private/public partnerships.

I also am confident the state is going to find a lot of takers.

After all, the company that manages the acclaimed Ocean House and Weekapaug Inn in Westerly expressed an interest when another developer was trying to buy Seaside.

It is a spectacular setting on Long Island Sound, 32 acres, much of it rolling lawn spreading from the magnificent buildings down to the sandy shoreline.

Hotel development sites don't come along like that often. It certainly could be one of the finest resort hotels in New England. The state estimates developers might have to spend up to $60 million to create the resort lodge, but certainly the return would be handsome. The RFP suggests a lease could be 50 years or longer.

One interesting component of the RFP is the schedule. They hope to sign up a developer by the fall, presumably before the November election.

That means voters will know whether Formica was right or wrong in attacking the hotel park plans.

I am not so impressed yet with Formica's challengers. One is a nurse active in union politics who at one time campaigned against Yale New Haven Hospital's merger with Lawrence + Memorial. The other is a filmmaker whose recent credits include "Apocalypse Meow," a parody of the Francis Ford Coppola classic, with cats.

Still, Formica may have given them a big club with which to rattle his cage, especially if DEEP has signed up a deep-pocketed and respected hotelier by Election Day.

Then again, in the unlikely event DEEP comes up short, Formica can promise to dust off S.B. 252.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com