Ready, Set, Debate!
GOP Gubernatorial Contenders
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 4/26/10
Only a politics-crazed policy wonk could have watched last week’s back-to-back Democratic and Republican gubernatorial debates without having their eyes glaze over at least once. Eleven candidates, seven Republicans and four Democrats, took part in the events at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford. Uconn and the Connecticut Daily Newspapers Association sponsored the debates, separated by a half-hour refreshment break.
As the gubernatorial contenders push their campaigns toward next month’s nominating conventions, they didn’t seem to be taking many chances on new ideas or radical shifts in positions.
Ridgefield Democratic First Selectman Rudy Marconi again (and again, and again) pitched a return to highway tolls as a good way to boost state revenues and help transportation. Apparently he never checked the latest Quinnipiac University Poll which showed a majority of voter oppose new tolls.
Liberal Democratic candidate Juan Figueroa apparently believes mentioning tax hikes early and often will help his campaign. In this debate, he proposed hiking the state income tax for folks bringing in $500,000 or more.
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Foley again informed everyone that “Hartford is broke and broken.” Hopefully all listeners understood he’s talking about state government—not the financially-ailing city of Hartford.
And Democratic gubernatorial contender Dan Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, trotted out his favorite line about dysfunctional state government. “I’m the guy who goes around the state and declares what’s going on in the Capitol a bipartisan train wreck,” he explained.
A few new issues were discussed in the twin debates. Candidates were asked if the state should try to tax internet sales as a means of raising much-needed new revenues. Differences were noted. Chester First Selectman Thomas Marsh, who is seeking the GOP gubernatorial nomination, said he opposes such taxation. “Instead of chasing other states down the wrong path, we should offer Connecticut as an opportunity and make it a home for those kinds of (internet) businesses,” he said.
Democrat Marconi endorses efforts to tax internet sales. “We’re leaving to $50 to $100 million on the table yearly because we’re not enforcing (the sales tax),” he said. He said going after the sales tax on internet purchases will bring in new revenue but also “bring shoppers back to Main Street because they will no longer be getting (a tax break) on the internet.”
Since the back-to-back debates were at a UConn facility, higher education was a big topic in the Q & A. Several candidates offered ideas on how to help colleges and universities flourish.
Republican “Oz” Griebel favors investing more resources at the UConn School of Medicine. “Make sure that we are not only training doctors and nurses for the future, but that we attract more research dollars so the I-91 corridor, complementing what goes on down at Yale (medical school), make our health care entities a powerful economic driver,” Griebel explained.
Figueroa proposed a “full tuition-free program for kids who have a B+ grade and are enrolling in community colleges.” Another Democrat, Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman said, as governor, she would bring together leaders of the corporate world with college and university officials. “Put everybody in a room,” she said, “and figure out ways to partner education and the work force.”
All these candidates have their own ideas how they will save the Connecticut economy and grow jobs if elected governor. Sometimes it sounds as if being governor is more powerful than being president.
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, one of the GOP gubernatorial hopefuls, promised a take-charge governorship. “We need to revitalize our economic strategy,” he said, noting that the state shed thousands of jobs during the recession. “We also have to right-size our state government,” Boughton maintained, “creating a state government that meets the needs and demands of the 21st century at the right size, and most importantly, at the right price.”
Griebel vowed he would personally take a hand in job growth. “Unless Connecticut has a hungry governor, there are 49 others out there who will eat our lunch every day by coming into this state to recruit our companies.” Griebel added: “Job number one for governor is to serve as the chief economic development officer for this state.”
Each of the gubernatorial hopefuls promised to be an activist governor, a “can do” elected official with creative ideas, plenty of energy, and the will to make things happen. When you run for a big office, you have to say those kinds of things. Who’s going to nominate or vote for someone who simply says: “I think I’m qualified, so give me a chance”?
Yet none of the reporters at the debate asked, and none of the candidates offered, how they would handle the kind of political dilemma that has faced Republican Gov. Jodi Rell. The question is—if you are elected governor and the legislature winds up being controlled by the other political party, how will you deal with that?
At one time or another, each of these gubernatorial hopefuls has criticized the existing state political leadership. Those officials, Rell and the Democratic leaders who run the legislature, have coped with the two-party power struggle for years. It has forced them to accept compromises, some of them messy and short-sighted, to get anything done.
It is easy to criticize them, but moving the state forward when the governorship and legislature are ruled by different parties is difficult. Being a gung-ho governor isn’t going to be enough to solve that political challenge. Each of the gubernatorial hopefuls should think long and hard about how to cope with that dynamic because voters may put it on their plate if elected, along with a nasty structural budget deficit and other headaches.