Not that I would ever consider voting for his MAGA-inspired candidacy, but I give former state legislator Mike France, the Republican running to unseat U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, high marks for being frank in this tortured, polarized political environment.

He’s a proud Trumpist, and unlike most other hypocritical Connecticut Republican politicians, he’s not afraid to say so.

Only Rep. Doug Dubitsky of the 47th District, of all the local GOP lawmakers I asked, also forthrightly said he would continue to support a convicted Donald Trump. I give him credit, too, though he faces a politically less diverse electoral base than France.

I included France, as the region’s most prominent Republican candidate this election season, in an email blast asking southeastern Connecticut lawmakers up for reelection whether they will support Trump if he is found guilty in the hush money trial underway in New York.

It’s a fair question, right, asking whether a politician thinks it would be OK to have a felon at the head of the ticket they’re running on?

As I watch the trial evidence unfold ― there’s even a recording of Boss Trump, sounding full-on mobster, arranging the secret payoff of a mistress ― it’s hard to imagine him not being convicted by the jury he and his lawyers helped choose.

It’s also really hard to imagine any American would vote to elect a convicted felon ― one facing dozens of other indictments brought by unrelated grand juries ― president of the United States.

Lots of American politicians have already addressed this question. Some brave Republicans, like Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, have already run for the exits, saying they won’t vote ever for Trump. Here in Connecticut, a sizable chunk of Republicans voted against Trump in the presidential primary.

Others around the country, like puppy-slaying South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, say they are all in with Trump, even if he is convicted in New York.

Candidate France gamely took me up on my offer to explain whether he would support a convicted Trump.

“In this year’s election I’ll be voting for borders that are actually secure, a stronger economy that stops runaway inflation, and a government that supports our seniors and veterans here at home before sending billions overseas,” France wrote, in a statement I agreed to include unedited here.

“So yes, that means I’ll be voting for the Republican nominee and not the demonstrated incompetence of President Biden and his administration. Donald Trump is the likely Republican nominee, so yes, I will be supporting him for President of the United States.”

Dubitsky, who also took me up on the offer for an unedited statement, said: “Elections are choices between two sets of policies. I support $1.75 gas, not $4.00 gas, crippling inflation, and soaring interest rates.

“I support legal immigration, not millions of illegal immigrants, gangs, and known terrorists. I support Mid-East peace, not terror, war, and chaos.

“Unlike many in the press, I can distinguish between a man whose policies brought peace, prosperity, and stability, and the man's mean tweets. I'd take Trump's policies over Biden's policies any day — as do most people in this country — notwithstanding the unconstitutional and politically-driven prosecutions against him.”

The rest of eastern Connecticut’s Republican lawmakers all went full-on chicken, cluck, cluck, pecking around the divided political landscape with nothing to say about the guy who will be at the head of their ticket.

I did not get any response from Rep. Greg Howard of the 43rd District, Rep. Holly Cheeseman of the 37th District, Rep. Devin Carney of the 23rd District, or Sen. Heather Somers of the 18th District.

Eastern Connecticut Republicans are all in safe seats, rigged pretty well for their party. If they can keep their heads down and not offend independents in their district with pro-Trump talk, while placating the Trumpists by not renouncing the former president, they can probably keep threading the election needle. Some could run without challenge.

Somers, though, who says she is interested in running again for governor, should think about that approach and how it will impact any campaign for statewide office. People like me will be then be glad to remind voters she was a Trumpist by default, afraid to speak up when our democracy was at risk.

Cluck, cluck.

If Somers can’t find the resolve to condemn Trump if he is convicted, I’d put her chances of winning statewide office in blue Connecticut at pretty close to zero.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com