TV ad stirs controversy in 5th district race

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- A decade-old video clip is stirring controversy in Connecticut's most contested congressional race.

It shows one of the candidates suggesting that residents of Cheshire leave town if they don't like their property taxes.

The race between Andrew Roraback of Goshen, the longtime Republican State Senator from Northwestern Connecticut, and one-term former Democratic State Rep. Elizabeth Esty, is one of the highest profile Congressional races in the country. And Roraback is claiming that Esty is smearing his reputation with a TV ad.

"Andrew Roraback puts your retirement at risk, he'd raise the Social Security retirement age and cut the Social Security benefits you earned. Andrew Roraback's just not for you," an announcer says in the TV ad.

Roraback says he only favors changing Social Security for those who are under 50, and that at a recent forum he said all the recommendations of a bi-partisan Social Security Commission should be considered.

"From my statements in Simsbury, that we ought to consider the recommendations of the 'Simpson-Bowles Commission'...to be morphed into this hateful lie is a huge transgression," Roraback said.

Esty declined to go on camera Wednesday, but her campaign issued a statement accusing Roraback of a flip-flop.

"During the Republican Primary, he called changes to Social Security including raising the retirement age and cutting cost of living adjustments 'essential.' Now, Senator Roraback is trying to deny he holds these views," Esty said in the statement.

However, Roraback's campaign has also found a decade-old, grainy cable access video that appears to show Esty being insensitive to taxpayers at a Town Meeting in Cheshire.

"People who don't intend to or don't currently have kids in school, who object to the property evaluation...I would say you're always welcome to move to one of our neighboring towns," Esty said in the video clip.

"Rather than engage in constructive dialog about how to solve a real problem her answer was get out of town," Roraback said.

Esty does not deny what she said in the video clip, but her campaign accused Roraback of "attacking a mom for standing up for public education."

Esty's husband is Dan Esty, the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environment in the Malloy Administration.

Roraback is also accusing Esty of soliciting campaign contributions from the companies that her husband regulates.