On the grand platform of national debate, it will be mostly shunted aside by the planks of jobs, health care and taxes. But small business ”“ which has a few opinions on all three topics ”“ heard the Obama administration”™s best defense for its policies of the past few years.
Now, Republicans go on the offense.
Via the National Economic Council and U.S. Small Business Administration, the White House issued a 90-page inventory of its small business initiatives, as state primaries in Connecticut mostly firmed up Congressional races for the fall.
At its statewide convention, the Connecticut Republican Party chose former World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. CEO Linda McMahon as its U.S. Senate candidate to face Democrat U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, with convention also-rans Chris Shays and Susan Bysiewicz eligible for their respective August primaries.
Outgoing Connecticut Speaker of the House Chris Donovan of Meriden won the Democratic Party nod to vie for the Fifth District seat being vacated by Murphy. At the Republican convention, Goshen state Sen. Andrew Roraback narrowly beat out Simsbury businesswoman Lisa Wilson-Foley, with an August primary to decide who will represent the GOP.
In the Fourth District comprising most of lower Fairfield County, Westport businessman Steve Obsitnik is the Connecticut Republican Party”™s choice to oppose U.S. Rep. Jim Himes this fall.
A former U.S. Navy officer, Obsitnik is the former CEO of Rochester, N.Y.-based Quintel, a wireless infrastructure company. Today he teaches entrepreneurship at the Jack Welch College of Business at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Two months ago, he participated in the inaugural Stamford Startup Weekend, a boot camp of sorts for people interested in launching companies.
As the case in 2010 when she lost to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, McMahon will be the standard-bearer for businesses in the statewide elections, given her experience running WWE and two Senate campaigns that have put her in front of hundreds of small businesses across the district and state. But Obsitnik adds another experienced voice to the debate, though Himes handily beat back a 2010 challenge from businessman Dan Debicella, who subsequently took a job with the Westport hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.
At deadline, Obsitnik had yet to publish details on his campaign website on how he would spur the economy beyond general statements on entrepreneurship and education.
Himes, by contrast, got a head start on his own talking points after the White House published a detailed summary of its small business initiatives, most of them supported by Himes.
Those initiatives include:
Ӣ 18 tax credits to jumpstart hiring, including temporary payroll tax cuts and others under the Small Business Jobs Act;
Ӣ tax credits available under the Affordable Care Act;
Ӣ expanded access to capital, including the Small Business Lending Fund;
Ӣ supporting entrepreneurs via Startup America and the America Invests Act; and
Ӣ the National Export Initiative, aiming to double exports by 2014.
In speaking on the House floor in favor of the JOBS Act passed in late March, Himes said the bill might make the difference between Connecticut companies thriving or failing.
“This is a time, of course, when the American people are none too happy with us,” Himes said. “This bill ”¦ does something very, very important ”“ which is acknowledge that regulation is always a balance. It”™s not always good. It”™s not always bad ”¦ If done in too ham-handed a fashion, it can compromise the vibrancy that provides so much economic opportunity in this country.”
