Although they won't be traveling to North Carolina to witness the pageantry in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, eastern Connecticut Republican delegates extolled this year's virtual GOP National Convention.

The state Republican Party’s 28 delegates for the 2020 convention, which is being held in Charlotte, N.C., with limited in-person capacity, already have cast their votes to nominate President Donald Trump. The proceedings are virtual for the vast majority of party members, as was the case with the Democratic convention, but a small number of delegates are at the Charlotte Convention Center with COVID-19 precautions in place.

Republicans and Democrats alike agreed on their respective conventions: The execution was as good as could be, given the pandemic.

While no one from New London County was chosen as a delegate this year, Congressional District 2 delegates Susan Hatfield of Pomfret and Charles Bruckerhoff of Chaplin relayed their thoughts on the convention.

Bruckerhoff, who said he has been involved with municipal politics in the past, also was a national delegate in 2016. He was a Trump supporter from the day Trump announced his candidacy for president. During the campaign, Bruckerhoff volunteered for Trump “from January in New Hampshire to November in Pennsylvania.” He mentioned that he met Trump a couple of different times and talked to him about the 2016 campaign. 

Bruckerhoff compared his experience at the 2016 convention with this year’s. “Connecticut in 2016 was placed right in front of the stage,” he said. “New Jersey was right next to us, Pennsylvania was behind us. I sat there with all of my colleagues from Connecticut, and it was a high of highs for my whole career in politics. From the first speech until the last night, when they dropped all the balloons, it was incredible. Now that was front and center personal involvement with a convention.”

Still, he praised this year’s program.

“I am totally impressed,” Bruckerhoff said. “They have speakers organized, rolling out in the evening in fine form, very timely. Monday night they finished off with Tim Scott, my god, he was wonderful. I could talk about all of them, but their stories were so gripping, based in reality, and in some cases, Trump, before he was president, helped these people.”

Hatfield, who is vice chair of the state Republican Party and also was a delegate to the 2016 convention, echoed Bruckerhoff — though she is disappointed in how this year’s convention must be conducted, she commended the Republican National Committee’s job on putting it together.

“I believe what we've seen so far strikes a nice balance between the need to conduct the party's business with the need to protect the (participants') health and the spread of the virus,” Hatfield wrote in an email. “I have been inspired by much of what I have seen thus far, most especially the speech given last night from our wonderful First Lady, which was warm, personal and deeply moving.”

Hatfield, a state prosecutor who was the Republican nominee for Connecticut attorney general in 2018, also has backed Trump since the early days of his 2016 campaign. She was elected vice chair of the party in 2019.

Former 2nd District congressman, 43rd District state Rep. and Stonington First Selectman Rob Simmons had been a Connecticut delegate to national conventions 20 years running until this year. He was not as enthused by this year's event, saying a virtual convention fails to serve its stated purpose.

“It’s hard to know if a Zoom convention, whether Republican or Democrat, is going to achieve the excitement level you need to carry forward to Election Day,” Simmons said. “I’ve been to four different national conventions. You want to get people together, you want them to interact with each other, even if they disagree on something you want them to say, ‘Hey, we’re in disagreement on this or that, but we’re all part of the same party.’ That’s the beauty of it. COVID-19 has wrecked it for the whole country.”

Simmons said he knows Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden from serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where Simmons was staff director, from 1981 to 1985.

“To have him tape record a speech is just not right. This is not what we want. We want the real person,” Simmons said. “I’ll have to wait and see how it goes with President Trump, but I want to see a real person, not some Hollywood production.”

This year, Simmons was not selected as a delegate, a decision he chafed at. He took the party and Chairman J.R. Romano to task for not welcoming ideological diversity.

“Why should a moderate Republican like me be a delegate?” Simmons asked. “I told (Romano) four years ago, 'Hey J.R., when you’re the chairman of a party that has only 25% of the electorate, you know what you don’t want to do? You don’t want to divide the party up into little bits and pieces. Republicans are conservative, they’re moderate, and lo and behold, J.R., this may come as a shock, but some Republicans are actually liberal. By and large, when it comes to the critical votes, they’re all for the party. But when you say you’re only for the conservatives, and the moderates and liberals can go to hell, it’s no longer 25% of the electorate. You’re down to about 10%, and you know what, you’re not going to win a damn thing.'”

Simmons also was critical of the party for its role in the controversy surrounding former 2nd District congressional candidate Thomas Gilmer. Gilmer had been endorsed by the party in May to challenge incumbent Democrat Joe Courtney, despite party leaders being aware of a video of him in a violent altercation with his girlfriend in 2017.

In a recount that ended last week, Justin Anderson narrowly defeated Gilmer in the primary this month to become the Republican nominee for the seat.

Despite his misgivings, Simmons said he would have adhered to the party line and cast his vote for Trump if he had been chosen as a delegate. He said he met Trump in 2019 following a conference of mayors and county commissioners in Washington, D.C. Simmons said he talked to Trump about the need to assist commercial fishermen suffering under strict regulations and the effects offshore windfarms could have on fishing. Simmons said Trump has since accommodated a request of his regarding the fishing industry.

Bruckerhoff said it has reminded him of why he initially volunteered for the Trump campaign.

“His positions on international affairs, employment, veterans, law enforcement, I could go on and on. He struck a chord with me, as I think he did with many millions of people around the country,” he said. “It’s often said Trump has deplorables, people going on about their bibles and the Second Amendment. Well yes, I am a Christian, and I have a firearm or two, but I’m a practical kind of guy.” 

The convention concludes Thursday.

s.spinella@theday.com