ELECTION 2012 The Race for the House Elizabeth Esty & Andrew Roraback face off in District 5

The eyes of voters this election season have been focused on the presidential election.  That’s true for Connecticut voters as well – but here in the nutmeg state there are several other races that are grabbing voter attention.  One, of course, is the race for Senator being waged by the Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Linda McMahon.  The Ledger ran interviews with both those candidates this past summer.  Now, we turn our attention to another Connecticut race to keep an eye on:  That is the race to fill the Congressional seat being vacated by Chris Murphy in Connecticut’s 5th district. While there has been much debate between the two candidates – Democrat Elizabeth Esty and Republican Andrew Roraback – regarding the economic and other domestic issues, there has been little asked and answered about foreign affairs, specifically Israel and the Middle East. So we asked.  Here are the candidates’ answers.  

THE CANDIDATES

Elizabeth Esty

ELIZABETH ESTY is the Democratic nominee for Congress from Connecticut’s 5th District. A native of Oak Park, Ill., Esty, 53, was raised in Minnesota.  She earned her B.A. from Harvard College and her law degree from Yale Law School. She studied international relations at L’Institut d’etudes politiques in Paris for a year on a Rotary Scholarship. In 2008, Esty was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 103rd Assembly District, representing Cheshire and parts of Hamden and Wallingford, where she served one term before being defeated in 2010. She also previously served two terms on the Cheshire Town Council.  Esty and her husband Dan lived in Washington, D.C. until 1994, when they moved to Connecticut.  The Estys and their three children live in Cheshire.

Andrew Roraback

ANDREW RORABACK is the Republican nominee for Congress from Connecticut’s 5th District. Born in Torrington, Roraback, 52, received his B.A. from Yale University and his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School.  He is a descendent of the founder of the law firm of Roraback and Roraback, which he joined in 1988. In 2006, Senator Roraback was named to the Aspen-Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership as one of the nation’s top young elected officials. Roraback was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in the 64th Assembly District – encompassing Cornwall, Goshen, Salisbury and Sharon – in 1994 He served three terms before being elected as state senator from the 30th Senate District in 2000. In 2007, Roraback was elected deputy minority leader pro tempore and minority caucus chairman of the State Senate. Roraback and his wife Kara Dowling live in Goshen with their son.

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