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Republican candidate for attorney general Ross Garber has nabbed the Hartford Courant’s endorsement for the GOP nomination. The Hanging Shad has written recently that Garber does indeed have the momentum against right-wing conservative Martha Dean who is the party-endorsed candidate.

In addition to having the backing of the mayors of Middletown, Norwalk, Manchester, Vernon and Preston, he’s been endorsed by state House Minority Leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk, Litchfield County state Senator Andrew Roraback, Fairfield County’s legislative delegation, Greenwich’s First Selectman and Eastern Connecticut state Senator Guglielmo and others. In words, he has some statewide support.

At the risk of being repetitive, The Shad predicts a Garber victory on Aug. 10th.

As predicted here earlier this morning, Democratic candidate for governor Ned Lamont has changed his mind and will debate rival Dan Malloy on WFSB-TV (Chnl 3) and WNRP radio/CPTV Tuesday.

Malloy says he is pleased with the development. “I’m glad Ned’s finally agreed to debate.   I hope he’ll join me in asking The Day of New London and Ch. 8 to consider hosting one in prime time at the Garde in New London, given that they were ready to do it on July 27th.  And I’m glad that Ned will now join me on Aug. 3 for the Ch. 3/CT Public Broadcasting Network debate in Rocky Hill.  And if there are other media outlets willing to host one, I’d love to do it…I hope Ned will agree to a wide open format that allows us to engage each other directly in a real conversation.  Ned himself has said he doesn’t like the ‘1 minute canned response format.’”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont is poised to change his mind and debate rival Dan Malloy in a one-on-one face off. After this morning’s free-for-all Windham chamber of commerce forum that included all the candidates for governor (both Dems and Rs), Lamont seems to be moving toward reversing his strategy to avoid televised, side-by-side appearances with Malloy.

There are plenty of reasons why it would be best for Lamont to debate—he really has nothing to lose. And he is also feeling the need to defend his record as campaign advertising in the race is getting nastier.

WFSB-TV and WNPR radio are hosting debates next week—one for each party. Lamont has so far refused participate and Channel 3 has made it known that it will go ahead with an hour of air time with just Malloy (and possibly an empty podium/chair) if Lamont fails to change his mind. Stay tuned.

If Lieutenant Governor Mike Fedele was hoping for a last minute boost in the form of an endorsement from Gov. Rell, he can forget about it now for sure. (Fedele told the press when he first announced he was running that Rell told him privately that she would eventually endorse him). Nor does it appear that such an endorsement would even be helpful.

Fedele came under fire from both frontrunner Tom Foley and economic development official Oz Griebel for the fact that Rell went along with budgets that raised taxes, used one-shot revenue and borrowing to balance. Fedele had to distance himself from his boss, saying he would have vetoed such budgets. But his two rivals made it clear Fedele was at least somewhat accountable for the budgets.

Financing of campaigns also was a point of contention among the three, again with Fedele on defensive being the only candidate of the three to participate in the state’s public financing program. Foley pointed out, in essence, that Fedele is rich and doesn’t need “taxpayers’ money” to run.

One way or another public employee unions won’t be happy with any of the three becoming governor. They all made it clear that they will seek major concessions from labor. Griebel called for fiscal restraint, saying the state can no longer afford lucrative pensions for state employees. Instead, he favors placing new employees in a 401 (k) – style plan that is common in the private sector, which would generally be less expensive to the state than a traditional pension plan.