Weir a Fundraising Phenomenon in Race Against Shaken Osten.

Fresh face Steve Weir knows how to raise campaign contributions. In three days as a candidate, the Hebron Republican has raised half of the $16,000 required to qualify for public financing in his race to defeat five-term Democrat Cathy Osten in the ten town Senate district.

Weir is a popular Glastonbury business owner with a wide network of friends and well wishers. The political outsider is active in local, regional and state volunteer organizations.

Osten is a retired corrections officer who suffered a stinging defeat last fall in her campaign for another term as Sprague’s first selectman. Osten, who serves as co-chair of the legislature’s budget committee, struggled as the manager of tiny Sprague’s finances. The bitter aftermath of that hometown campaign has caused considerable comment in the Capitol village as colleagues fret over the once-steady legislator’s vituperative outbursts.

Watch for a bitter campaign in the 19th as the contrast grows bright between the optimistic Weir and the economically incomprehensible Osten.