Republican Leader 'Amazed' to Hear Stratford Financially Backing Obama

As of the end of July, campaign contributions $100 or more by Stratford residents totaled about $25,000 to President Barack Obama and about $8,000 to Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The lopsided totals are just that and Stratford Republican Town Committee Chairman Lou DeCilio can't seem to make sense of it.

"It amazes me with the staggering drop in annual household income, with gas prices at historic highs, with unemployment at unmeasurable levels and our childrens future being mortgaged away that anyone would give to the worst president in the history of our country," DeCilio said in an email.

"The simple question of 'are we better off than we were four years ago' can be answered with a resounding NO!! Barron's magazine released their list of the best and worst run states in the nation. Nobody should be surprised, Connecticut is ranked 50th. Our state is also in the worst financial shape of all 50 states according to their findings.

"Decades of one party democrat rule has contributed to this financial mess and the first two years of this president's one party rule has set our country back decades. Government dependency is the new normal and one can only assume the people who contributed to this president somehow benefitted from the bailout money off the backs of our children."

On the other side of the aisle..

Democratic candidate for State Assembly Terry Masters emailed the following response to the town's financial backing of President Obama:

"Whether we are called the 99 percent or the 47 percent, our interests are best served by elected officials who have concrete platforms to deal with concrete problems. The radical shift to the right in the Republican party makes the differences between the Democrat and republican slates so clear.

"We need clean air, a safe food supply, affordable higher education, affordable healthcare, and safety measures to protect our jobs. Whose election threatens these?

"Every program and good law that has been in place since the New Deal is under attack: the 40-hour work week, Social Security, the concept of equal rights, equal pay and an equal playing field.

"On the local and state level, the same radical right is trying to privatize and sell off our public assets and services.

"Less than 10 percent of the Stratford contributions went to Romney. More than 90 percent went to Obama. This tells me that people in Stratford are pretty savvy and can look at the facts and make good decisions."