Connecticut’s two most important races, those for Governor and Senator, sometimes look like mirror images of one another. Both Democratic candidates are long-time holders of elected office; both Republicans are millionaires from the business world who have never held elected office. And unsurprisingly, both sides are scrutinizing the others’ prior careers in an attempt to discredit them.
Never was this clearer than at the first gubernatorial debate of the year, held last week here in Middletown. The topic was education, but the subtext was so much more. Republican candidate Tom Foley accused Dan Malloy of being a career politician. Only in politics could holding a similar job disqualify you from holding a position. Can you imagine the University refusing to employ a professor because they had previously held a more junior position at another university? Or a law firm refusing to hire a lawyer because they used to work as a paralegal? It’s madness, but that’s exactly what Tom Foley is arguing the people should do.
Granted, there are totally valid reasons why Malloy’s service as Mayor of Stamford might be a mark against him. If Malloy, like corrupt Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, had been corrupt or ineffective as Mayor, then surely it could be used as an argument against him. But that’s not the argument Foley is making.
Indeed, it would be a hard argument to make, as Malloy’s service was marked by economic development, a strengthening of the city’s finances, and generally good marks for his service as Mayor.
Malloy was so good, in fact, that he was the President of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, held several chairmanships in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and received several awards from the conference for Stamford’s work in public education.
Quite plainly, what Foley is trying to do is relate Malloy’s career to the seedy parts of politics, where campaign contributions are exchanged for political favors and government is poorly run. This is an odd argument to make given Foley’s history in public service, marked by an Ambassadorship to Ireland awarded by President Bush because Foley raised more than $100,000 for Bush’s re-election campaign. If campaign dollars in exchange for a swanky foreign service position doesn’t represent the seediest part of politics, I don’t know what does.
The most interesting part of the debate, however, might have been left idling outside—Foley’s campaign bus lay waiting for the candidate outside the MacDonough school, where the debate was held. Could the differences in how the candidates are funding their candidacies be more obvious than in their vehicles of choice? Malloy is driven to events by an aide in a car. Foley is driven to events in a motor coach, his name emblazoned along the side. That’s what you get when you eschew public financing, as Foley has done, and instead choose to self-fund much of your campaign, with the balance being provided by high-dollar donors including George and Laura Bush.
On the Senate side in Connecticut is long-time Attorney General Richard Blumenthal running against former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon. When she entered the race, I assumed that high-brow Connecticut wouldn’t go for the founder of low-brow entertainment, but here we are.
As Linda McMahon ads play in the uber-expensive New York Media Market, Richard Blumenthal is left to explain why Linda McMahon’s record on creating jobs isn’t as robust as she’d like you to believe. I don’t know how Linda McMahon plans to create jobs as a U.S. Senator, but having your company produce its toys in China is not a good place to start.
Richard Blumenthal has a long-standing relationship with the people of Connecticut, one that will probably be enough to win the election this November. In the meantime, we get to be treated to the spectacle of one of the nation’s most respected Attorney Generals explain to the people of Connecticut that his record as a public servant is more valuable than McMahon’s corporate history of paying people to wail on each other.
When voters go to the ballot box this November, I hope they remember why we call our elected officials public servants, and why government can’t be run like a business. So long as being the queen of network violence is a qualification for office, our democracy is in deep trouble. As for me, I’ll be voting for the politician.
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