Three of Connecticut's 10 largest cities are in the 5th -- Waterbury, Danbury and Meriden -- but any Democratic tendencies in those urban areas are counterbalanced by two dozen smaller towns where Republican candidates usually run well among middle-class voters and by a number of Fortune 500 companies whose headquarters employ a substantial white-collar work force.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 3-to-2 in the 5th. But many of the nominal Democrats -- especially those in the working-class Naugatuck Valley -- feel the national party has become too liberal. That helps explain why a Democratic presidential candidate has not carried the 5th since 1968.

In Connecticut's heated three-way 1990 gubernatorial election, Waterbury and Danbury voted for Republican John G. Rowland (who had represented the 5th since 1985); Meriden split between Rowland and Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who won election as the state's first independent governor. The 5th went strongly for Rowland in 1994, when he won the governorship on his second try.

In Waterbury, the 5th's largest city with 109,000 people according to the 1990 census, Democrats have had some trouble retaining a dominant position even in local politics. Waterbury had a Republican mayor from 1985 to 1991. Rowland, a Waterbury native, ran well in the city in his three House campaigns, and Rep. Franks, also born in Waterbury, has made enough of a dent in Waterbury's usual Democratic margin to win three House elections. In the two earlier contests Franks also benefited from campaign visits by George Bush and other high-level Republicans, who were eager to help one of their party's few black politicians. (Blacks make up only 5 percent of the district's population.)

Franks gets his strongest electoral support from a number of smaller, wealthier towns in the district, places filled with white-collar businesspeople who commute to corporate jobs in Danbury and other venues closer to New York City.

Danbury, in Fairfield County, is home to some of the 5th's most affluent residents. The median family income in Danbury averages around $50,000, and its public school system is among the nation's finest. Located in the media and cultural orbit of New York, the city boasts several corporate headquarters, including Union Carbide, one of the district's larger employers. The city also draws visitors to the Danbury Fair Mall, New England's largest shopping center.

But the wealth has not spread to the district's two other cities.

Downtown Waterbury was sprucing up in the mid-1980s, but when New England fell into recession in the late 1980s, renewal stalled. Waterbury once was hailed as the "brass capital of the world" and was known for the watches it made. But those industries are no more, and the city is searching for ways to fill the void. Two hospitals are the city's major employers. Just to the east is Meriden. Once the region's silversmithing capital, Meriden remains a mostly blue-collar community, with many residents working for defense contractors outside the district.