Enter Michael Williams of New Preston. Another Candidate Joins Race for 5th.

Democrat Michael Williams will seek the his party’s nomination for the 5th Congressional District seat being vacated by three-term incumbent Christopher Murphy.  Murphy is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat being vacated by four-term incumbent Joseph Lieberman.

Williams was an intern for Vice President Joseph Biden when he was in the Senate.  He also was an adviser to the 2008 Obama campaign.  He brings a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics to the arena, which will probably get on rival Elizabeth Esty’s nerves.  The Estys are supposed to hold the copyright on that sort of credential.  Williams may not want to mention in certain precincts that he worked for the Royal United Services Institute. That sounds awfully British.

Young Mike Williams features a photo of himself banging on about Kant and democracy in front of a white board.  When’s the last time you saw a candidate do that?  He’s written two books! Not just read two books in the last decade, written ’em.

What brainy meetings await Democratic town committees from Meriden to Salisbury.  Williams has delivered a lot lectures, and the public square can never have enough of those. Speaker of the House Christopher Donovan can provide a guitar interlude if he jumps in. The waif Daniel Roberti could screen the latest Ken Burns documentary he’s flacking for, Prohibition.  That’s not, however, a topic that attracts much attention among politicos.

The Mike Williams for Congress website is up and bursting with content–though the endorsement page is forlorn and may stay that way for a while. He’s “widely regarded as a global expert on foreign affairs.” So says he.  He promises no glib answers on his grainy video.  Williams, who grew up in Southington, sports a hankerin’ for a cliche.  Win the future gets an early mention.  So does a conversation about new ideas, your ideas.

Both parties are going to have raucous, aggressive contests. There may, however, be an opening for a candidate who now and then can fake some humility.