Malloy, who has been riding out momentum from a string of newspaper and party insider endorsements, cut DeStefano's lead in half, ending 10 points behind his contender, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday morning. Malloy said internal polling put him even closer — trailing the New Haven mayor by a number in the "low single digits." In a dead heat, with the Aug. 8 Democratic primary days away, Malloy turned to the campaign's major issue, health care, in attempt to maintain momentum.

His new cancer plan (click here to take a look) would require coverage of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Ever since the FDA in June approved a vaccine for women aged 9 to 26, lawmakers have been mulling whether to make vaccination mandatory. The vaccine protects against four types of HPV, which are responsible for 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer. Some critics oppose such a mandate because of the cost — about $360 per person — and the fact that cervical cancer is spread through a sexually transmitted virus.

Malloy said he'd spend $60 million over two years to finance a cancer plan including that mandate as well as programs for smoking cessation, nutrition, cancer screening and cancer research. The money, he says, would come from "public-private partnerships" and a court settlement with tobacco companies. "There are also substantial long-term savings that will come from fewer smokers and when the number of people with cancer is lessened and cancer deaths decreased."

Malloy shared plan details with a huddle of reporters in a tent at the Hill Health Center on Columbus Avenue. (Click here to hear what Hill teens in a leadership camp asked him later).

Even though the Quinnipiac poll brought bright news to his campaign, Malloy's tone turned darkly combative. Someone asked him to respond to a DeStefano camp's criticism calling Malloy's universal health care plan too dependent on money from President Bush.

"John's a hypocrite," said Malloy, launching into an attack on DeStefano for proposing during a debate to use federal funds for transportation. Then he looked up at a Hill Health Center administrator and apologized: Sorry, he said, he hadn't come to talk about that "other political stuff." He got back to talking about health care mandates.

DeStefano spokesman Derek Slap said he didn't know DeStefano's stance on the HPV vaccine, but the mandate "seems like something that makes a lot of sense." Transportation funds his candidate proposes are based on a "formula with a precedent," while "there is absolutely no precedent for President Bush to write a $100 million check to Malloy to keep an empty campaign promise" for universal health care.

On making Connecticut a "national center for cancer research" — Malloy's promise — Slap noted that "one of the greatest examples of [DeStefano's] leadership" was bringing everybody together to make the $430 million Yale-New Haven Cancer Center a "win-win-win" for Yale, neighbors and the city.