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Mr. Westby, who has lived in Southbury for five years, said he agrees with Mr. Bernier, who entered the race in late March, on many of the issues.
He said that he would speak to Republican town committees in the 41 municipalities in the district over the coming months before the nominating convention next May.
The nomination may ultimately be determined in a primary in August of next year.
Mr. Westby said that he believes Mr. Murphy has provided "good constituent service" but has not represented the interests of the district by voting "95 percent of the time with Nancy Pelosi," a reference to the U.S. House speaker, who comes from a liberal district in San Francisco, Calif.
"Tax cuts would reduce the deficit," he said of his plans to trim a shortfall that is projected to be at least at $1.6 trillion for the fiscal year and that the White House has estimated will grown in the coming years.
Before this last fiscal year there never has been a federal budget deficit of even $500 billon.
President Barack Obama has been criticized by New York Times columnist David Brooks and others for spending now and trying to save later with risky plans.
In a news release on his entry into the race, Mr. Westby stated that the United State benefited from the broad tax cuts and investment tax credits enacted by Democratic President John Kennedy in the early 1960s and by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
However, the late Theodore White, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Making Of The President" series and a Bridgewater resident, said in a 1982 interview that the policies enacted by Mr. Reagan were "Zen economics," since they sought to lower taxes, increase military spending and balance the budget simultaneously.
U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-East Haddam) has said that Mr. Reagan's tax cuts generated unsustainable budget deficits and were partly responsible for the economic recession of the early 1990s.
He has said that David Stockman of Greenwich, who was Mr. Reagan's first director of the Office of Management and Budget, indicated the flaws in Mr. Reagan's plan in his 1986 book, "The Triumph Of Politics."
However, the late Jack Kemp, the former Republican vice presidential candidate who was one of the architects of Mr. Reagan's tax cut, said in 2006, on the 25th anniversary of the bill's being signed, that there had only been 14 months of negative economic growth over that time and that Mr. Reagan's economic program had set the stage for a long period of prosperity in the United States.
Former President George W. Bush signed a 10-year $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, which the Washington Post has reported was partly responsible for the recent growth in the federal budget deficit.
Mr. Westby said that in the mid-to-late 1990s, when the Republicans controlled the U.S. House and Senate, welfare reform and fiscal discipline were enacted, which led in 1998 to the first federal budget surplus since 1969.
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who was in office from 1993 to 2001, has said he presided over the longest economic expansion in the 233-year history of the United States.
As was the case with Mr. Reagan, who sought to lower the growth in federal spending, Mr. Westby has called for a freeze on domestic spending and said he would consider doing the same on military expenditures as soon as America has reduced its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Westby said that "in principle" he supported the $700 billion economic rescue plan for the financial services sector that Mr. W. Bush signed one year ago this month. However, he said that the legislation should have included "more safeguards" regarding the awarding of bonuses by the companies that received funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Regarding, the options in Afghanistan, Mr. Westby said that Mr. Obama and members of Congress need to "evaluate what the military commanders are saying" and determine "whether to expand the troops and make a 100 percent effort or withdraw the forces."
On health-care reform, which has been a high-profile issue since this summer, Mr. Westby said that a "government option" would lead to "socialized medicine," which would be a mistake.
He said that he believes that the private sector can provide the best solutions.
"We have the best physicians, the best hospitals in the world," Mr. Westby said. "People come from other countries to be trained at our medical schools."
He said that serving in Congress should not be "a lifetime position" and that he would seek term limits of 12 years for both U.S. House and Senate members.
