Voters will have the same choice to represent the 38th Congressional District they had in 2018.

On the one hand is incumbent Republican state Rep. Kathleen McCarty, who is seeking her fourth term as representative. On the other is Democrat Baird Welch-Collins, who lost to McCarty in 2018 by about 350 votes. The 38th state House District encompasses all of Waterford and part of Montville.

Welch-Collins decided to run after taking a trip to Washington, D.C., about a year ago, when he was at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History looking at the Star-Spangled Banner.

“It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘How could you not say, Of course I’m going do to this?'” Welch-Collins said. “I’ve got a good shot, and it’s something I can contribute to my community.”

McCarty said she is running in part to finish ongoing projects she has in the legislature.

Welch-Collins, 25, and McCarty, 70, recognize their age difference, which, in some ways, guides their respective campaigns. Youth is a catalyst for fresh ideas, something desperately needed in Hartford, according to Welch-Collins. And experience is crucial, according to McCarty.

“I won’t use the Reagan quote — ‘I won’t hold it against him’ — but I do believe life experience should matter. I’m a grandmother, I have grandchildren in the schools,” McCarty said. “With youth, there are some ideas, but anyone can come out and say, ‘Oh, let’s do this, let’s do that.’ It’s about actually being able to implement it and to work with differing factions to get something accomplished.”

Welch-Collins chafes at the idea that he’s new to politics. He was reelected to the Waterford Representative Town Meeting in 2019, and he serves on various RTM committees. He was appointed to the town’s Long Range Fiscal Planning Committee in 2018 and the Flood & Erosion Control Board in 2016. He’s a third-generation Waterford native and works as a social studies teacher. He graduated from Connecticut College, where he studied government and education, in 2018.

McCarty taught French at Wilton High School for 13 years and later served on Waterford's Board of Education for 20 years, she said. She earned a bachelor's degree at Sacred Heart University and holds a pair of master's degrees: in teaching French from Fairfield University and in medieval studies from Fordham University. A former business owner and longtime prolific volunteer, McCarty, like Welch-Collins, is ingrained in the district.

McCarty gained her advantage over Welch-Collins in Montville in 2018. He attributed her success to name recognition, something he’s been trying to build since his loss two years ago.

“I wouldn’t characterize Montville voters as more conservative necessarily, but Montville voters like people they’re familiar with,” Welch-Collins said. “I think one of the struggles for me is to become a familiar face to Montville voters since I live in Waterford. I think Kathleen has had six years now to build that reputation and that communication with them; that’s something, as a newcomer in politics, ‘newcomer’ being a relative term, that’s hard to do.”

Issues

Though McCarty and Welch-Collins both painted themselves as people willing to compromise with those with whom they disagree, they find themselves at odds on several issues, most prominently the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant.

McCarty touts her work helping to secure the existing agreement between Millstone and utility companies as one of the actions she’s most proud of as a representative. She’s glad Millstone didn’t have to shut down prematurely, as the agreement saved Waterford’s tax base $30 million as well as saving 1,500 jobs, she estimated. 

But some blamed Millstone for Eversource’s mid-year rate adjustment, which caused much consternation among residents and public officials. Millstone points to Eversource’s increased transmission service rate charge as the reason for the increase. 

“There was some initial conversation that your electric bills went up because of Millstone — that is so spurious, so disingenuous,” McCarty said. “If you consider the 10-year contract, it’s supposedly going to save us $2 billion. I stand strongly by that legislation, and it’s one of the reasons I should be back in Hartford, to protect it.”

Welch-Collins thinks lawmakers need to shift their focus toward planning for Millstone’s eventual shutdown. He said in the future, utility companies will determine it is too expensive to work with Millstone instead of sourcing power from elsewhere.

“We need to accept that reality, and the state needs to, five years ago, get in front of it and start saying, ‘What are the plans for adaptive reuse? How can the state assist Waterford with the crushing tax burden if Millstone shuts down?’” Welch-Collins said. “The state rep. of the district needs to be that voice, that constant nagging advocate saying, we have a problem: If you want your taxes to rise 40%, then don’t do anything.”

McCarty vehemently disagreed with Welch-Collins’s assessment.

“I’d like to stop that argument right away,” she said. “How are we going to get to the clean energy goals the state would like to achieve if we shut down early? I think it’s wise to have a plan in place and for the town to be looking at the eventuality of no longer having Millstone, but I don’t think it’s as short as 10 years. I think we can go out at least after this contract, another contract.”

Welch-Collins was highly critical of McCarty’s record on paid family and medical leave as well as raising the minimum wage to $15, two measures she voted against.

“I was really surprised by that, because Representative McCarty sells herself as a moderate Republican,” Welch-Collins said. “Those are really radical, far-right positions to vote against paid family leave and a $15 minimum wage. The cruelty of that kind of vote astounds me.”

McCarty said the circumstances aren’t as black and white as Welch-Collins makes them.

“I am for paid medical leave, and I’ve been a strong voice in that regard for many years,” McCarty said. “The idea was, I don’t think the state should get involved in telling businesses what they need to do. We said, ‘Let businesses decide, let them have that choice.’ Let’s have it be done on the private side and allow businesses to move forward.”

Her primary concerns on minimum wage are that nonprofit organizations and the home care industry would be damaged if faced with paying a $15 minimum wage.

McCarty has devoted much of her time in public office to the issue of education. She highlighted her work on the legislature's Education Committee, especially her effort to stop forced school regionalization. While she believes in finding creative ways to regionalize services, she doesn’t think it should be a state mandate.

“People were furious that they could no longer have a choice of a community school, that the state would come in and say what you had to do,” McCarty said. “I was probably the primary catalyst there for stopping that bill at the legislature because of my excellent rapport with the chairman and leadership of the Education Committee.”

It is McCarty’s work in education that makes her slow to support legalizing marijuana. She thinks the state should pay attention to and engage in research on what effects marijuana has on the developing brain. While she isn’t opposed to the concept, she’s OK with the state taking its time to make sure it’s done correctly.

Welch-Collins fully supports legalizing marijuana and pardoning nonviolent cannabis offenses. His reasons are economic: He wants to use tax revenue from cannabis sales for tax relief and public services. It’s one of the plans he backs for revitalizing an economy in tough shape due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s also a proponent of public banking. People who support public banks believe money should be considered a public utility and should be kept within the community.

Welch-Collins and McCarty both said the state needs to focus on helping small businesses during this time. Both also said they hope for another federal stimulus package.

Welch-Collins said state spending needs to be cut. “I say we cut from the top down, not bottom up. The waste I think starts at the top, and that’s where I start my analysis when I go down the spreadsheets,” he said.

McCarty said she’s never worked as hard in her life as she has since March. She gets calls constantly from people who are struggling economically due to the pandemic. She said the state needs to build the economy back up, and that there shouldn’t be any new taxes. She wants Connecticut to be an attractive place for businesses. And she believes the state’s rainy day fund can help in slashing the deficit.

Welch-Collins has some reservations about the police accountability bill — for example, he found it confusing and convoluted — but he chided McCarty for voting against it.

McCarty said the legislature should have taken more time with it. “We want our police to be accountable, but we also recognize their hard work,” she said. “Let’s not hurt our police while we’re trying to better the culture.”

For Welch-Collins, the bill wasn’t perfect but it was necessary. He lamented its divisive nature. “We unquestionably have a problem across our state and across our country with policing, with systemic racism, but at the same time, if you were to go up to an individual police officer, they’re some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and there’s not a prejudiced bone in their body,” he said. “I think part of the solution to this is to recognize that we’re not talking about police as individuals being racist, we’re talking about systems of power.”

Another issue where McCarty and Welch-Collins are at odds is on tolls. Welch-Collins thinks it’s a good source of funding for infrastructure. McCarty isn’t outright opposed to the concept, but she was opposed to a plan in the legislature because southeastern Connecticut was hit hard in an iteration of the plan, and because there was no guarantee funds from tolls would be used specifically on infrastructure.

Personal appeal

Welch-Collins and McCarty are on opposite sides of a most important issue: which restaurant in the district is their favorite. McCarty’s top choice was Caffe NV in Waterford; Welch-Collins said he was partial to Nana’s Byrek & Pizza in Waterford.

Welch-Collins and McCarty both enjoy outdoor activities. They also have more distinctive personal interests. Welch-Collins, for example, keeps bees, is an amateur blacksmith and plays several instruments. McCarty is an avid aviator and has worked on a 400-page doctoral dissertation on feminine rhetoric.

Each candidate answered why they are running to represent the 38th District.

“Having lived here my whole life, and having grown up deeply caring about the place that I’m from and valuing the schools, the people, I think it would be an honor to advocate for their interests in Hartford,” Welch-Collins said. “‘Giving back’ is kind of a cliché, but I feel like I owe a lot to the people and the places I’m from.”

McCarty said there’s more to be done: “The work is unfinished. Now more than ever before you need to have an experienced state leader who has the track record,” she said. “I can get back there, help our businesses, our education community and our seniors. There are issues out there that I need to see through. I believe I’m the right person at the right time for this job.” 

s.spinella@theday.com