Borough man gets nod for Congressional run

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Borough resident Wayne Winsley is the endorsed Republican candidate for the Third Congressional District of Connecticut. –RA ARCHIVE

NAUGATUCK — Borough resident Wayne Winsley has been endorsed as the Republican nominee for the Third Congressional District of Connecticut.

“I’m running for Congress because I believe in the promise of America and that promise is being broken,” Winsley said.

Winsley is looking to unseat Democrat incumbent Rosa DeLauro, who was first elected to the seat in 1990. Winsley currently works as a motivational speaker.

“I speak to high schools and college students, and what I tell them is in America you can do, be, and achieve anything you want through a combination of education and hard work. That is the promise of America,” Winsley said.

Winsley is worried that this promise is being broken by the government and, if he keeps selling this promise to students and does nothing to fix it, it makes him a liar.

His presentation, “Brave Enough to Fail,” tells students that any success in life requires them to be brave enough to risk failure in order to achieve it.

Winsley said the message he is teaching to students also applies to himself and anyone who chooses to run for a seat in Congress.

“There’s no grantee that you’ll win, but if you’re afraid you’ll lose, you don’t do it,” Winsley said.

Winsley is not afraid of losing and, in fact, believes he is the correct choice of candidate for Congress.

“I sincerely believe that I am the right candidate at the right time to defeat the entrenched incumbent. I believe I more accurately represent the voters of the third district,” Winsley said.

Winsley explained that he has experienced many of the same struggles that people in the third district are currently facing.

“I know what it’s like to lose a job. I got a pink slip during this recession. … I know what it’s like to worry to have to pay your bills,” Winsley said.

Winsley explained he had worked as a radio broadcaster for 20 years. In 2009, while working at WNLK/WSTC in Norwalk, Winsley received a pink slip.

“I ended my shift one Friday morning at 9 a.m. and by 9:20 I was sitting in my car, looking at my pink slip wondering what I was going to tell my wife,” Winsley said.

Winsley said he believes DeLauro to be a nice person, but feels she does not bring the same knowledge and experience to the race that he does.

“This year the voters of the third district have a choice. They can choose between a passionate member of the working class, a hard working American or a member of the entrenched political elite and member of the 1 percent,” Winsley said.

He emphasized again that he was the right person at the right time to work for the voters of the third district.

“I’m a regular guy. … I’ve gone through many of the exact same struggles the constituents of the third district are going through now,” Winsley said.

DeLauro will not be an easy candidate to unseat.

In her time in office, DeLauro has climbed the leadership ranks among Democrats. She currently serves as co-chair of the Steering and Policy Committee, and she is the ranking member on the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

“I take every election very seriously and will continue to work hard to earn the trust of the people of the Third Congressional District,” DeLauro wrote in an e-mail.

Winsley however is entering this race with an idea of where he wants to head if elected. He feels that the biggest problem currently facing both the state and the country is the poor economy and loss of jobs.

“The state, just like our country, is business unfriendly and it’s killing the economy. That’s why there are no jobs,” Winsley said.

If elected to office, Winsley would focus his efforts on keeping the government from stopping job growth.

“Government does not create jobs. It doesn’t. The most effective thing I can do as a representative is to get out of the way and get as much of go