Ned Lamont Takes the Bait.
Exploring candidate for governor Dan Malloy used a slow news day to to announce a passel of endorsements from delegate-heavy East Hartford and Manchester, along with South Windsor, Glastonbury and Bolton. Under the restrictive rules for picking delegates, the endorsements provide a big boost to Malloy’s chances of prevailing at the Democratic state convention.
The Malloy scheduled the Marco Polo Restaurant presser in East Hartford for the day before Lamont’s formal announcement of his candidacy for governor. Busy as the Lamont campaign ought to be, they found time to issue a graceless response to the Malloy endorsement.
Lamont campaign manager Joe Abbey issued a press release, claiming this:
“Ned is not a career politician and has never been the insiders’ choice for office. In this political climate, it’s clear voters want candidates who will challenge the status quo and shake up the system, and who won’t participate in the same old political deals motivated by selfish political ambition that they’ve seen become commonplace in both Washington and Hartford.”
“Ned is not a career politician and has never been the insiders’ choice for office. In this political climate, it’s clear voters want candidates who will challenge the status quo and shake up the system, and who won’t participate in the same old political deals motivated by selfish political ambition that they’ve seen become commonplace in both Washington and Hartford.”
“As this campaign progresses voters who are concerned about their jobs and the future of Connecticut are going to see a stark contrast between the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for Governor.”
Political deals? Selfish political ambition? Among the Malloy endorsers are two South Windsor Democrats, Town Chair Joan Walsh and Deputy Mayor Ed Havens, I’ve known for most of my life. Each has devoted decades to local public service. Havens has been on and off the Town Council for many years. Each is at a stage in life when political ambition is not much on their minds. The Lamont press release is an ignorant smear. These are honorable people.
East Hartford Mayor Melody Currey also joined in the Malloy endorsement. A former legislator, Currey has earned a reputation as a competent, thoughtful mayor of a town with daily challenges. It profits the Lamont campaign nothing to hurl an insult at her.
The Lamont campaign will need a different set of press release templates going forward.
Roy Occhiogrosso of the Malloy campaign asks, “Why’s Ned overreacting like this? It’s a little unsettling. Is he seeing significant support moving toward Dan, and getting rattled by it? There’s more to come. And did he really use the term ‘selfish political ambition’? Ironic.”
Manchester, East Hartford and South Windsor will send 75 delegates to the Democratic state convention. That may explain the endorsement heebie jeebies from the Greenwich millionaire’s campaign.
4 comments
Thank you for your synopsis of this recent political campaign announcement — I haven’t been following the gubernatorial race as closely as I have followed campaigns in the past. I supported Dan Malloy in his last bid for governor after meeting him at a debate. As a Democrat, I naturally supported Ned Lamont in his U.S. Senate race, but I am leaning toward Mr. Malloy at this time after reading your review of Malloy’s endorsers.
What do you mean overreacting? Isn’t this a typical “hit job” by a former Republican politician who’s trying to pave the way for another Republican to win the governor’s office? Isn’t this just Republican Kevin Rennie’s attempt to take down the man who leads all challengers in the race for governor?
After all, this is the same Kevin Rennie who did a hit job on Chris Dodd, inferring wrong-doing associated with his cottage in Ireland, but presenting absolutely no proof whatsoever that there was any wrongdoing.
Come on guys, when Ned spoke of ‘selfish political ambition’ he had to be referring to Madame Secretary – the aspirant AG.
He thanked Mayor Currey for funding “universal day care” when she was a legislator. And many of those on that list sent out were TIS – “there in spirit.” Since I note the Courant and the Journal Inquirer both had stories, but I did not see their reporters actually there, I wonder if these newspapers actually send a reporter out to these events, or are they satisfied by just rehashing the campaign press releases verbatim?