The Bull Moose Party is back on the ballot in a local election in Connecticut on Tuesday. It’s not the only defunct party that’s been resurrected by discontent Republicans.
In West Hartford some Republicans running for town council have adopted the A Connecticut Party of former Governor Lowell Weicker. That party has not been on the ballot since the 1990s. In Oxford they resurrected The Bull Moose Party, which was started by Teddy Roosevelt a century ago in 1912.
Gary Rose, a professor of government at Sacred Heart University, said these moves may be the result of local discontent with former President Donald Trump and national Republicans following the January 6th U.S. Capitol riots.
“So much of this I think is related to perceptions of Trump and how a number of Republicans just don't want to be affiliated with what is, what I think they are perceiving as his party,” Rose said.
That may be the case in West Hartford. But the Bull Moose Party supporters in Oxford said their issue is opposition to the mask mandate in schools. So they say they are not separating themselves from Trump, but from the local Republicans.
This might be confusing to voters, said Scott McClean, a political scientist at Quinnipiac University.
“In many ways they are hampered by the image and reputation of the national Republicans that we get through cable TV that we get through Trump tweets and so on. So it would be interesting to see how this plays out,” he said.
