Malloy Aide Tweet Suggests History Favors Foley.

Insiders must be seeing Connecticut state budget numbers deteriorating. Disputatious Malloy administration loyalist Roy Occhiogrosso may have meant to add a sneer to his ominous Tweet that “Tom Foley=Mitt Romney.” The historical similarities between the two Republican businessmen, however, may have Malloy claque nerves on edge 23 months before the gubernatorial election.

Foley, who announced Thursday he will run for governor, hopes to repeat the Romney trajectory in Massachusetts. Romney’s first appearance on the ballot was against veteran Democratic U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy in a 1994 roller coaster race that Romney lost. In his second campaign, Romney defeated a veteran Democrat to become governor of the deep blue New England state with a recent history of election Republicans to lead the state. Foley, the early frontrunner for the 2014 Republican nomination governor, will be making his second bid. Foley lost to Democrat and Working Families Malloy by 6,400 votes out of 1,145,000 cast. Like Romney in 2002, expect Foley enters the race a better-known and savvier candidate than he was in his initial bid.