RepAm: In 8th Senate District race, Democratic challenger Melissa Osborne says Republican incumbent Kevin Witkos’ job at Eversource poses a conflict of interest

TORRINGTON — State Sen. Kevin D. Witkos, R-Canton, is paid in excess of $50,000 for his work as a community relations specialist with Eversource Energy, a job he said involves communicating with municipalities on matters such as tree trimming.

“I’m pissed about my (utility) bill, too,” said Witkos, who has recused himself from discussions involving the utility, including a recent bill to “take back the grid” to create a performance-based system to determine rate increases. Massachusetts and Connecticut have the highest utility rates in the contiguous 48 states.

A claim of conflicting interests, he said, “hasn’t been an issue in the past eight years.”
His challenger in the Nov. 3 election, however, disagrees.

Undaunted by two failed attempts to unseat Witkos, Democrat Melissa E. Osborne of Simsbury said high energy rates here are impacting household budgets, and hindering economic growth and opportunity.

“We need a senator who can and will fight to hold public utilities accountable,” she said. “Instead, Eversource has bought our senator’s silence, leaving us with no voice and no vote at the mercy of a monopoly. Eversource is getting away with making a guaranteed profit and paying exorbitant executive compensation, no matter how badly it does its job, or how badly the economy and its customers are suffering.”

Eversource has especially been in the spotlight since its much-maligned response in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias on Aug. 4.

Pat O’Neill, a spokesman for House Republicans who once worked closely with Witkos, said Witkos isn’t the only legislator on the Eversource payroll, but he has recused himself from debates involving the utility he has not promoted.

Witkos did join the Senate on Wednesday night in its unanimous passage of new legislation giving residential customers of Eversource and United Illuminating rebates if the two electric distribution companies fail to restore power after outages lasting four or more days.

Witkos said he agrees the utility company should be held to a higher standard as a monopoly.

SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY political science professor Gary Rose said that while Witkos’ involvement with Eversource isn’t illegal, it raises legitimate questions about a conflict of interest.

“Is he working for his constituents or the company who is paying him more than he makes as a state senator?” Rose asked. “It has the appearance of a conflict of interest. Even a recusal doesn’t dissociate the interest. State legislators should not be working for a utility that serves the public interest. It’s too murky.”

Cancer-free following treatment in 2014 for third-stage breast cancer and invigorated by the backing of an 11% increase in registered Democrats in Simsbury alone, Osborne won’t get the chance to pose her own questions to Witkos about Eversource in a public forum because he has declined to debate Osborne this fall. Besides disagreeing with the format, he accused Osborne of manipulating news bites and statements, and taking them out of context, to “create hysteria.”

THE DEPUTY SENATE Republican President Pro Tempore said he has more work to do after 17 years as a lawmaker in a district that covers Avon, Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook Granby, Hartland, Harwinton, New Hartford, Norfolk, Simsbury and part of Torrington.

A fiscal conservative and retired 28-year Canton police officer who previously served as state representative for Avon and Canton from 2003-2008, Witkos has favored fiscal controls. He co-sponsored legislation that now restricts the sale of state-owned open space and forests under the control of the departments of Agriculture or Energy and Environmental Protection.

He is ranking member of the General Law Committee, Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees.

A strong supporter of gun rights, Witkos said he opposed the ban on bump stocks because “the bill that passed violates the state’s Constitution.”

He favored elimination of the dual-arrest law regarding domestic incidents to give police more discretion in determining the aggressor. Previously, both parties were typically arrested, even if one of them was acting in self-defense.

AN ATTORNEY SPECIALIZING in family mediation, Osborne said national politics will trickle down to benefit Democrats this year, with attention to health care, gun safety and abortion rights on the line. But rulings by a conservative Supreme Court will challenge state laws, she said.

Osborne, who supports a woman’s right to choose, is critical of Witkos’ urging at a 2018 debate to avoid “hysteria” over Roe v Wade.

Witkos garnered 56% of the vote in 2018, a thinner margin than some had expected in what has “always been assumed to be a Republican district,” Osborne said of the 8th.
For Osborne, who launched her first race against Witkos in 2012, it means people want change.

“The values here reflects moderates,” she said. “We can’t keep sending these people back to Hartford and expect different results.”