Republican Dan Debicella, center, talks to reporters at the Westport Train Station about his plan to improve transportation in Connecticut. He was joined by State Sens. John McKinney, left, and Toni Boucher. (Adam Tarchoun photo)
Republican candidate for Congress Dan Debicella challenged incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Himes’ transportation record at a recent press conference in front of the Westport train station.
Mr. Debicella, who is running for Congress in Connecticut’s 4th District in southwestern Connecticut, claimed Mr. Himes’ “has failed to resolve existing problems.”
“In 2007 and 2008 transportation was a big issue for candidate Himes, but then Congressman Himes forgot all about it,” Mr. Debicella said. “Only recently when bridges began to fail and Metro-North faced unprecedented delays did he finally start to pay lip service to the issue.”
The Himes campaign shot back, saying Mr. Himes has always supported transportation improvements in Fairfield County and throughout the state.
“Jim Himes has consistently and aggressively fought for transportation infrastructure investments to ease the burden of Connecticut’s commuters, improve safety and create jobs,” a Himes campaign spokesperson said in a statement. “He played a key role in securing the $161-million federal investment awarded [in September] to help replace Norwalk’s deteriorated Walk bridge, funding that he personally urged the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to expedite.”
Mr. Debicella said his top priority is to sit on the Transportation Committee in Washington, D.C., in order to best address and assuage Connecticut’s transportation woes. He said, “Transportation is the most local issue and one that [he] wants to address immediately.”
In speaking of his intentions for transportation, Mr. Debicella said, “My plan for transportation focuses on common-sense solution for both roads and rails — with realistic funding levels that we can obtain.”
To address train delays caused by switch problems, substation power failures, and poor track maintenance, Mr. Debicella proposed the implementation of a rigorous maintenance schedule.
Mr. Debicella criticized Mr. Himes’ support for a second train station in Bridgeport, saying “political pandering” was not the right way to solve our transportation issues.
For the roads, Mr. Debicella said he wants to mitigate traffic problems by focusing on “choke points” on the Merritt and Interstate 95. Mr. Debicella’s suggestion for these “choke points” is the construction of new entrance and exit points to streamline traffic by adding lanes to permit easy merging.
The Himes campaign pointed to its experience in Fairfield County problem areas, saying Mr. Himes has already supported projects in those areas.
“He has brought almost $1 billion in additional federal investments to southwest Connecticut for infrastructure projects, including more than $70 million for improvements along the Merritt Parkway and over $30 million for upgrades to Metro-North’s Danbury Branch line,” the Himes spokesperson said in the statement.
Mr. Debicella told reporters Wednesday, “If I can save 10 minutes off your commute, that’s more valuable than any vote I can take in Washington.”
Mr. Debicella did not specify how much his plan would cost but he claimed it would be in the millions and not the billions of dollars. Funding and prioritization are an issue but Mr. Debicella believes that if elected and a part of the Transportation Committee in Washington, he will be able to make funding possible.
Members of Congress must be selected to committees by existing elected officials and cannot choose their own committee.
Mr. Debicella previously served as a Shelton state senate from 2007 to 2011.