We Will Hear More From Dan Malloy About Tom Foley, Cancer and Wigs.

Tom Foley made a serious misstep earlier this year when he named wigs for cancer patients as a health insurance mandate that we could do without.  Dan Malloy’s been waiting months to pitch that one across the plate, and today he wound up and let it go.  He’ll do it again.  Who wouldn’t? It was a bit of a non-sequitur to raise it as an example of Mr. Foley’s heartless budget ax since it mostly applies to private insurance coverage, but it makes the broader point in a manner that will continue to torment the Foley campaign.

Mr. Malloy thinks his Republican opponent is not being accurate with budget numbers of specific in how he would solve the looming problem.  The Democrat says the former ambassador claimed at a University of Connecticut forum today that he could cut $2 billion for the state budget without raising taxes.  That leaves $1.4 billion, under Mr. Foley’s estimate of the deficit, and Foley ignores that.  Fair enough.  These numbers are a moving target and the former Stamford mayor is right to check his opponent’s math.

Mr. Malloy, however, is not so free with the numbers himself.  He is candid in recognizing the scope of the problem.  His website, however, is shy on attaching numbers to solutions.  He promises “an honest discussion of where we stand and what steps my administration will take each and every day to move Connecticut back toward prosperity.”

We’d like that discussion now, not in January.  Mr. Malloy and Mr. Foley have agreed to 8 debates.  At an early one, the hosts should give each candidate a white board and a marker.  The only task will be to show us how you get to $3.5 billion.