Malloy and Lamont Get Rough.
With the Democratic primary two (2) weeks away, Democratic gubernatorial rivals Dan Malloy and Ned Lamont spent the day kicking the stuffing out of each other. Malloy called on Lamont to answer questions about a racial discrimination case filed against his cable company and other business questions. Lamont’s campaigned responded with questions about discrimination complaints filed against Malloy and his administration during his 14 years as mayor of Stamford.
Malloy appears to have gotten the better of it by posing a simple question to Lamont: Why not air these issues at the August 3rd debate Lamont’s ducking?
There’s an important difference what’s available for voters to examine on the campaigns’ competing claims. Anyone can read about the resolution of any complaints about the Malloy administration. That’s part of the public record. How much Ned Lamont paid to resolve a racial discrimination lawsuit is a secret.
These are close to becoming the kind of campaign wounds that take more than a few days to heal. They also could serve as a cover for Lamont to declare that his reputation has been sullied and he must address them in a direct confrontation with Malloy–on August 3rd.
6 comments
The supposed “racial discrimination” issue about Ned Lamont is a non-issue and doesn’t matter. Ned Lamont cannot break the agreement his company made with the other party. Everyone knows that so there’s nothing here, just move on.
As far as the debate, this has been discussed before, debates are pretty much meaningless, no one really cares.
I don’t know. I think debates are meaningless if you do them, because nobody watches. I just don’t understand why Lamont would not participate, because that becomes more of a story than the debate itself would have been.
Make no mistake, if Malloy wins this primary (which I don’t think will happen) it will be based soley on him having taken advantage of this debate issue.
Possibly.
As the front runner he has more to lose than gain by participating and he knows that he’ll take a hit by not participating as you pointed out. He loses either way but this way he has more control over how much that loss is because by participating, it could get real ugly and he could lose a whole lot more with a bad showing, especially now with Malloy trying to make an issue over Lamont’s ex-employee who settled out of court over a personal issue.
Btw, Tom Foley’s first negative counter attack began airing this morning. I missed the beginning but it seemed pretty good. The basic theme seemed to be, Mike Fedele has now served a full term as lieutenant governor… are you happier today than you were four years ago?
Am I looking in the wrong places, or do most candidates fail to include their negative ads on the video page of their campaign websites?
UPDATE: A reader points out that the Malloy campaign posted its (mildly) negative ad on its site.
Glad Ned decided (finally!) to another debate. And yes, I make a point of watching them them – debates are a major decision-maker for me as to who I vote for.
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