Sunday, June 25, 2006

Malloy on the Primary

Part One of a Series on Dan Malloy

Bloggers from Connecticut Local Politics and My Left Nutmeg met with Mayor Dan Malloy of Stamford, the endorsed Democratic candidate for governor, on Saturday for an informal question-and-answer session.

Each of the four bloggers from this site who was at the meeting will be providing their take on part or all of the experience. These will not be long articles, as they are intended to allow you to get a basic idea of who Malloy is and what he's about. Today I'll be focusing on some of the horse-race aspects of the meeting, and on my general impressions of Malloy.

The Primaries

Malloy was quick to point to the fact that the Senate primary "is sucking all the air out" of the gubernatorial race. He believes that people are just now starting to pay attention to these races. He's basically looking to July as the real start of the gubernatorial primary: "July through August 8th will be a sprint," he said. Right now "we're in a bit of a lull."

Perhaps the most interesting part of the primary discussion was Malloy's defense of his progressive credentials. When asked about which way Lamont supporters might break, he said, "My hope is that they’ll take the progressive candidate. That’s me."

When civil unions first came up in 2003, he stated, municipal officials were invited to testify in favor of the idea. "Only one showed up. Me." He also said that he "would sign a marriage bill," is "against the death penalty" and, perhaps most importantly to many primary voters, is against the war.

"Where’s John [DeStefano]'s voice on the war?" he asked of his opponent. "I’ve had numerous debates with John. ... I don’t know what his position on the war is. Do you?" (Malloy also defended his membership in the centrist Democratic Leadership Council or DLC--see his remarks here.)

When asked why people ought to vote for him instead of DeStefano, Malloy said "The real difference is that I have a far better record than John [DeStefano] does." He pointed to Stamford's record on crime, ("...one of the 5 safest cities in America"), affordable housing and the economy as points in his favor. He also mentioned that his plan for universal health required the federal government "to pay its fair share" of the cost.

The Convention

"We knew that he didn't have 804 [votes], despite what John [DeStefano] was saying," said Malloy, when asked about his convention victory. He went on to state that the DeStefano campaign "was trying to decieve people," and that "they didn't understand that we had solidified our support."

Malloy said that delegates began changing their votes after the 1st Congressional District was called, "because we won that district" and because they didn't like being decieved. He accused the DeStefano campaign of "typical politics," in which everyone is kept guessing. He referred to the fact that the DeStefano campaign waited until after the votes were done to announce Scott Slifka as their LG choice, and made allusions to the fact that "people in Litchfield" (presumably a reference to Audrey Blondin) were kept guessing. By contrast, the Malloy campaign announced Mary Glassman's selection before the convention began.

Jodi Rell

Malloy, when asked about the remarkably high popularity of Jodi Rell, said, "Everybody in the country thinks that public education needs to be reformed, but they think the public school they send their kids to is great. Think about it.

"I think people in Connecticut have suppressed their true feelings about the failure of government and have decided not to associate that with Jodi Rell because ...she's not John [Rowland] ...and she's a nice person. Therefore, we should like her. And I think that dynamic changes come September."

He repeated several times that the Rell administration has been "a failure."

"I spend more time worrying about what will happen if we don't change directions," said Malloy when asked what he thought a Connecticut following his governorship would be like.

"I can't wait to have a real debate with Jodi Rell," he said.

Commentary

Malloy is a knowledgeable man with a knack for framing the debate. He's also a little more defensive and sharp than I expected, but that may just have been a certain intensity. This is a man who is desperate to wake Connecticut out of what he sees as a bout of self-pity and depression. He believes, strongly, that we can be better than what we are.

The proposal of his that I'm interested in the most has to do with the separation of education funding from municipal property taxes. I'll let someone else talk about this in more detail, but Malloy does at least recognize what may be one of our most serious problems.

Of the two, DeStefano seems like slightly more of a policy wonk than Malloy, but DeStefano has never really played to this strength. His proposals seem less detailed, less concrete and more vague than Malloy's--at least on the surface. There may be more to the DeStefano proposals that we don't see. Actually, there's a lot that we don't see about that campaign. Maybe that's the clearest distinction between the two.

Malloy also may be correct that people have somehow suppressed their feelings about the failure of Connecticut's government--simply because we don't expect much out of government to begin with. This is especially true following the Rowland scandals. I'm not quite convinced that Rell's popularity is due only to mass delusion or to her grandmotherly persona, but that's a discussion for September, not June.

More reactions, reporting and commentary on the Malloy meeting will appear over the next couple of days. Thanks to Dan Malloy and Brian Durand for proposing, setting up and attending this meeting.

6 comments:

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

Does anyone really see any scenario where Jodi loses?

Really?

Seems like a lot of effort by a lot of people using up a lot of cash, and all for no real reason.

Genghis Conn said...

It seems pretty unlikely that Rell would lose. Anything can happen, of course... but I don't think she's in serious danger unless she's either lazy or manages to seriously screw up.

Mr X said...

My thoughts are Dan Malloy and Mary Glassman will defeat John DeStefano and Scott Slifka.

The Malloy Campaign is working hard throughout the state and I truly believe they will come out on top at the end of Primary Day.

DeStefano has suddenly developed "Litchfield County Amnesia" He knew where it was a few months ago when he put Audrey Blondin on his short list.But yesterday his campaign did not send anyone to the breakfast in Litchfield which proves to me that DeStefano and Slifka and their campaign staff have forgotten where Litchfield County is??? Well we will remember that they forgot on primary day.

Go Malloy/Glassman!!!!!!

Mr X said...

My thoughts are Dan Malloy and Mary Glassman will defeat John DeStefano and Scott Slifka.

The Malloy Campaign is working hard throughout the state and I truly believe they will come out on top at the end of Primary Day.

DeStefano has suddenly developed "Litchfield County Amnesia" He knew where it was a few months ago when he put Audrey Blondin on his short list.But yesterday his campaign did not send anyone to the breakfast in Litchfield which proves to me that DeStefano and Slifka and their campaign staff have forgotten where Litchfield County is??? Well we will remember that they forgot on primary day.

Go Malloy/Glassman!!!!!!

Mr X said...

No I decline thats not in my Budget.

Dan and Mary have spent a lot of time throughout the state and their campaign team is working everywhere in our state and making the committments.

Since the convention I havent heard or seen John or Scott anywhere in Litchfield County or in the 5th CD.They have a disorganized campaign organization Now Bruce if you were running it Then It would be great But the people he has advising him are not doing what they need to be doing.Where Dan Malloy is all over the place and is doing what he needs to do Maybe he doesnt have as much Labor Support as DeStefano But he is working,going to events,making phone calls(actual live phone call not a recorded message)He called me at home on a Sunday afternoon while I was watching Nascar. I just believe Dan and Mary Will win when all is said and done.

Genghis Conn said...

Speaking of Litchfield County... I can't get the image of Audrey Blondin in tears at the convention out of my head.

Here's what happened... It was after the vote was done, and I was talking with her, we were shaking hands and talking about the site. She was such a nice person. Great hat. Then DeStefano came up, put an arm around her shoulder, and took her off the floor. I followed them. They were talking intensely over in a corner. I wish I'd had my camera with me just then, because I guess that was where he told her she didn't get it. I headed back and overheard DeStefano staffers talking about Slifka, and how he was the choice. "Is that true?" I asked. They took a look at my media badge and shut up.

The next time I saw her, she was pretty upset.

So I can't blame him for staying away.