Scully Communications

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont launched a new attack ad on party-endorsed candidate Dan Malloy today. The radio commercial hits many topics and basically says “Malloy went negative, so here’s our side.” A similar TV ad is schedule run today as well.

The most unconvincing claim in the ad is that Lamont and Malloy have “debated 27 times” (please pick a number and stick with it) and “the next debate is Thursday.” Anyone who has followed the race at all knows that there has been exactly one side-by-side, televised debate. Two more were scheduled (in New London on News 8 and in Hartford on Channel 3 and CPTV). Lamont refused to participate in either.

The “debate” Thursday that the new negative ad cites is a chamber of commerce event in Windham with all five gubernatorial candidates at 7 a.m—there might be a microphone and a video camera. Not exactly prime time TV—the TV debates were scheduled to be shown when people could actually watch them and place the Democratic candidates side by side without the distraction of other candidates (they accepted their own TV debates).

The Malloy campaign is now out with a response to the new Lamont ad. “It’s unfortunate Ned would resort to these attacks –attacks he knows are untrue…Ned says he’s debated Dan numerous times, but they’ve had exactly one head-to-head debate on TV, and none in the closing weeks of this election when many voters are just tuning in,” said Malloy campaign manager Dan Kelly. “Ned has made a choice not to stand next to Dan on stage and let voters compare the candidates’ records and visions. The idea that Ned Lamont isn’t dodging debates is, frankly, laughable” The news release then goes on to cite different media reports about the debate issue including some by The Hanging Shad.

Kelly then addresses other accusations made in the Lamont ad including job creation and clean government

The bottom line is, if Lamont has such disagreements with Malloy and thinks the former mayor of Stamford is misrepresenting his record on jobs, corruption and experience, the he should stand right next to Malloy, get the best possible exposure (TV) and debate.

All the reforms that the state legislature and Gov. Rell want to put into place will have to be put on hold (at best) as Connecticut once again lost out on federal “Race to the Top” education funding. This is the second time the state didn’t make the finals in the competition for a piece of the $3.4 billion pie. The state was looking for at least $175 million. It won’t see a dime.

The inability to get any of the any funding puts at risk some landmark reforms the state had planned and the state legislature had passed. “It’s obvious if the economy doesn’t turn around and we continue to have dire fiscal straits in Connecticut, we will have to push back various reforms,” state Rep. Andrew Fleischmann (D-West Hartford) co-chairman of the legislature’s education committee told the Hartford Courant. “We’re going to have to find the dollars to implement this. We cannot create some kind of unfunded mandate for cities and towns that are already strapped.”

The state had planned on instituting a new high school curriculum and building a data system to track student achievement by grade will have to be postponed.

Massachusetts, by the way, made the finals.

Democratic party-endorsed candidate for state comptroller Kevin Lembo prevailed in court yesterday and will be allowed to spend $375,000 in public financing. Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura went to court to try to block the state Elections Enforcement Commission from granting Lembo the money.

The race for the Democratic nomination for comptroller is one of the nastier primary contests, with Jarjura stooping to new lows. In addition to the court challenge, Jarjura has used incredibly negative mailings and even started a website www.lembolies.com . One would think a candidate for comptroller could fly a little higher. If there’s any justice in politics, Lembo will prevail.

Employees of the state legislature got the official word Thursday –there will be no cost of living (COLA) increases and no merit raises this year as the state tries to crawl out of nearly $4 billion hole by 2012.

The Hanging Shad reported nearly a week ago that there would be no raises this year but the employees were not informed of the decision until this morning. Legislative management Executive Director D’Ann Mazzocca circulated an email informing staffers of the decision.

Gov. Rell last week announced that state employees in the executive branch would not get pay increases because of the dire budget situation. The legislature historically follows suit.