LaDonna Hale Curzon, Executive Producer, Sarah Palin Radio this week interviewed Lisa Wilson-Foley, a businesswoman and mother of seven who is running for Connecticut’s Fifth District Congressional seat. Curzon met Wilson-Foley at the residence of Donald Trump last week while celebrating the birthday of Ann Romney. Wilson-Foley said she is “compelled to run at this time, because our government is broken and the future of our children is at risk. I believe we need people with real world experience, business mind-sense and some common sense.”
Entrepreneur and Lifelong Learner
The 52-year-old Wilson-Foley owns and operates several successful businesses, having started her first company at age 29. She started them to fill a need, “and in a way I think our government is a need that needs to be filled with people [who have] business backgrounds.” Wilson-Foley is a physical therapist and has physical, occupational, and speech therapists working for her. She also owns a mini-golf, an ice cream store, a bowling center, and “a variety of companies” she “has collected over the years, because they weren’t run well or they were needed in our communities.”
Five of Wilson-Foley’s children have gone off to college and grad school, and she has two teenage daughters at home. She is working on her Ph.D. in physical therapy with one semester left. “I do understand education, that kids all learn differently…I am a lifelong learner,” Wilson-Foley said. “I try to wake up every day and make each day count.”
Wilson-Foley said the lack of jobs and the weak economy is the one issue her potential constituents discuss every every day. Though the unemployment rate “hovers around 8%,” in the cities it’s at 25%, she said. When asked what she thinks the most critical issue facing the country is, Wilson-Foley said “the lack of opportunity that she and her children once had due to the country’s monstrous debt.” Future generations will be stuck with the debt and will have to dig out from under it.
“I’m fearful that the American Dream is being lost. It’s not the ‘Chinese Dream’ or the ‘Indian Dream,” or the ‘Mexican Dream.’ It’s the American Dream. My husband and I both came from large Irish-Catholic families. We were poor and we were able to reach the brass ring,” she said.
Sometimes the Best Man for the Job is a Woman
Wilson-Foley is competing against four men in the GOP primary for this race. She cited as one point of difference: her being mom. “We don’t have a lot of moms in Washington, D.C.” She has an entrepreneurial background and “understands what small business faces.” She also has a background in and understanding of health care. “I understand it from a clinical side, a policy side, and a caregiver’s side,” Wilson-Foley said.
On ObamaCare, she said it had no support from a single Republican, and even many Democrats were against it. “It didn’t take into consideration many drivers that [influence healthcare being] reliable, affordable, and accessible.”
If elected, Wilson-Foley said she would like to see a balanced budget, ObamaCare “repealed and replaced with a workable system that two parties agree to and make sure we don’t make it 2,700 pages – that it is a readable and workable document.” CT-5 is one of the only open seats in all of New England and is considered a major race.
When Curzon asked “what kind of endorsements are you picking up,” Wilson-Foley said, “the most important ones come from my family, my husband and seven kids. Without their love, patience and support, I would not be running for Congress at this time.” She said her campaign is the most important thing she has done in her life aside from raising her family. Wilson-Foley said her employees who have had to step up and do more have provided valuable support as have activists within the Republican Party.
“It sounds like you’re a lot like Gov. Sarah Palin,” Curzon said. “She’s always consulted with her family first.” Curzon then transitioned straight to Ann Romney and asked Wilson-Foley what her impressions were. She said we should never second-guess the decisions of either working moms or moms who stay home. Both are to be lauded. She regards Ann Romney as “an asset to Mitt.”
Wilson-Foley’s children are living fulfilling lives going to school and starting businesses and throughout the country, she said. Her teenage daughters will likely be helping out with the campaign.
Her campaign site is at: http://wilsonfoley2012.com/
Curzon is the Executive Producer and Host of Sarah Palin Radio. Since Sarah Palin Radio was launched in 2008, the program has been covered on MSNBC, CNN, WUSA, “America’s Morning News,” Agence France-Presse TV, SVT Sweden TV, PJTV, United Press International,The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker magazine and numerous blogs and radio shows. The executive producer and host was named “Worse Person in the World” by Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC show and acknowledged by Gov. Palin in her best-selling book Going Rogue.
Curzon is also the Associate Producer of US Tea Party Radio and a contributor to PJTV and Breitbart’s Big Government and Big Hollywood.
Audio Transcript of Interview with Lisa Wilson-Foley, CT-5 Congressional Candidate
