Sources: Esty has no plans to leave

U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5. Etsy is under heavy fire after admitting she ignored U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5. Etsy is under heavy fire after admitting she ignored Photo: Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Sources: Esty has no plans to leave 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Fifth District Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty wants to stay in office and believes that whatever mistakes she made in letting her former chief of staff harass and abuse employees in Washington do not warrant her resignation, sources have told Hearst Connecticut Media.

The third-term Democrat has been reaching out to friends and colleagues, gauging their feelings and looking for guidance in dealing with the scandal, which threatens her tenure at a time of rising national sensitivity to workplace abuse.

During the normally placid Easter and Passover weekend, state Democratic leaders fretted among themselves, asking whether Esty can remain viable, or if she is vulnerable.

While senior party leaders were stressing the need for Esty to seek guidance from her constituents, others said her failure to stop the alleged wide-ranging abuse of her Washington staff before firing her former chief of staff Tony Baker during the summer of 2016 is unacceptable.

Saturday night, the co-chairman of the General Assembly’s law-writing Judiciary Committee joined a growing group of Democratic state lawmakers asking for Esty to resign.

State Sen. Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield, in a late-night tweet Saturday, joined Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, and Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, in asking Esty, who was once a state representative before winning the congressional seat in 2012, to step down.

“In light of Congresswoman Esty’s conduct, I join with my State Senate colleagues and call on Congresswoman Esty to resign her seat,” wrote Doyle, a 24-year veteran of the House and Senate who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general. “Her resignation would be appropriate and best for all the citizens of Connecticut.”

Others, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, carefully crafted responses to stories of the abuse, stressing that Esty has admitted her lapses in oversight, which first appeared in Hearst Connecticut Media and The Washington Post on Thursday.

Sources with knowledge of the intraparty discussions said that Esty, of Cheshire, is being advised to seek the advice of constituents in her 41-town district of northwestern Connecticut and meet with reporters, from whom she has isolated herself except for a single statement on Thursday. They said that Esty believes she can help change a congressional culture culture in which harassers, often men, are protected in a bureaucratic complaint system.

While she easily won re-election by about 38,000 votes in 2016, her popularity could change with the national awareness of workplace harassment and the #MeToo movement. She has raised about $1.6 million for her re-election war chest.

“She’s acknowledging her mistakes,” said Attorney General George Jepsen, during a Sunday afternoon phone interview, stressing that Esty has been an extremely talented and accomplished member of Congress. “She’s being transparent and ultimately it’s the voters of the 5th Congressional District who put her where she is, and it should be up to them to decide whether she continues to represent them.”

Nathan Gonzales, editor and publish of the Inside Politics website, said Sunday that Esty’s future may depend on her congressional colleagues.

“The response to these stories can trip up members if — or as — more information comes to light,” Gonzales said in a statement on Sunday. “This is the type of story that has the potential to be a game-changer. It’s easier for members to survive if their colleagues stick with them. If you see other members of the delegation turn against her, it’s probably the beginning of the end for Esty.”

Gonzales said he’s not sure that Esty now has as strong of a hold on the seat as she had a week ago, “but I think Democrats figure out a way to make sure the district stays in Democratic hands.” He believes that Democratic voters “are determined to send a message to President Trump this fall and it will take a lot for them to turn against one of their own.”

Esty canceled public appearances in recent days, but has said she will not resign and wants to do a better job battling workplace harassment in Congress. She gave Baker a positive job reference, for which he was able to get hired by the Ohio office of Sandy Hook Promise until his apparent firing last week.

Karen Jarmoc, president and CEO of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, whose Wethersfield office Esty visited in the days before the emergence of the news stories last week, said Sunday that the congresswoman called her on Friday.

“I think it was simply to touch base,” Jarmoc said in a Sunday phone interview, stressing that groups like hers throughout the nation have been grappling with the need for better workplace policies on reporting and punishing abuse.

“I do feel it is important to recognize that Congresswoman Esty has been a voice and a supporter of the work we’ve been doing,” Jarmoc said. “I am also recognizing, at the same time, there have been serious missteps and that is what has been so challenging about all of this.”

She said it is clearer than ever that congressional rules on workplace harassment and abuse are not up to the standard that the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have set for others.

“I feel let down by our federal officials. While they have been talking on this issue strongly over time, they have not been holding themselves, or their offices, accountable for the same measures,” Jarmoc said. “That has been very disappointing and confusing and upsetting.” She said that whether or not Esty stays in office, creating better congressional rules is a “critical” next step.

The now-29-year-old Anna Kain said that Baker punched her in the back and allegedly threatened to kill her. Esty admitted that Baker was abusive to other employees as well.

“I know firsthand we need stronger workplace protections, and to provide employees with a platform to raise concerns,” she wrote on Thursday. “But that’s not enough. Those concerns need to be listened to. And people in power must take action.”

If Esty were to resign with more than 125 days before the next election, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, would have 10 days to issue writs of election in the 5th Congressional District, ordering a special election 60 days later “other than a Saturday or Sunday” to fill the vacancy. But there are also provisions for primary elections in the law.

Special congressional elections are rare in Connecticut.

When Republican 4th District U.S. Rep Stewart B. McKinney died in May of 1987, he was replaced after a special election that August by Republican Chris Shays.

The previous special election was in 1982, following the death of 1st District U.S. Rep. William R. Cotter, a Democrat who died in the middle of his term from pancreatic cancer in September of 1981. Democrat Barbara Kennelly won that special election, serving from 1982 until 1999.

Kennelly lost the 1998 gubernatorial election to John G. Rowland, a Republican now finishing his second stint in federal custody following corruption convictions involving his participation in the 2014 5th District race.

The previous special congressional election occurred in the 2nd District of eastern Connecticut, following the May, 1970 death of William St. Onge, a third-term Democrat who was replaced by Republican Robert H. Steele in that November’s election, filling the last few weeks of St. Onge’s term with the 91st Congress, while also, simultaneously, winning the first of his own two terms.

The last Republican to hold the 5th District seat was Nancy Johnson, who served from 1983 until 2007, first representing the 6th District, until the state’s declining population resulted in the loss of a congressional seat after the 2000 census, when she shifted to the 5th District.