Allan Appel Photo
Linda McMahon may not have ever actually said she wants to cut the minimum wage. That didn’t stop leading state Democrats like Nancy Wyman (pictured) from using the alleged statement to fire up the troops at a New Haven get-out-the-vote rally.
Amid shouts of “Fired up, ready to go!” 75 activists, unionists, and door-knockers gathered at a storefront at 119 Whalley Ave. Saturday morning for a pre-canvassing pep rally. They gathered at the local party campaign headquarters to rev up for the tight general elections a month away, and to hit the streets pumping Democratic candidates to vote.
Suggesting talking points for the canvassers before they fanned out, Wyman (pictured above with fundraiser Christine Bartlett-Josie and right, with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Democratic comptroller candidate Kevin Lembo) said of McMahon, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, “She allowed her true colors when she said [of the] minimum wage, we can lower it.”
McMahon’s campaign denies she ever said any such thing. The campaign of her Democratic opponent, Dick Blumenthal, released a commercial this week claiming McMahon had made the statement — based on a headline in a daily newspaper.
That headline was based on a remark McMahon made to reporters after addressing the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which opposes minimum wage increases. Here’s what she said: “The minimum wage now in our country, I think we’ve set that and a lot of people have benefited from it in our country, but I think we ought to review how much it ought to be, and whether or not we ought to have increases in the minimum wage.”
“I think a good deal of creative interpretation is needed for anybody to take away from these quotes that she is in favor of reducing the minimum wage,” McMahon’s spokesman stated in a release to reporters after the story went national.
Such distinctions were absent from the pep rally in New Haven Saturday.
“How do you lower something you can’t live on to begin with?” Wyman said.
She added that her opponent, Republican lieutenant governor candidate Mark Boughton, had voted against the minimum wage twice when he was a state representative. In addition to which, he opposes abortion, she said.
As recent polls suggest that both the McMahon-Blumenthal Senate race and Malloy-Foley gubernatorial contest have tightened, speakers also emphasized the importance of maximizing turnout. “This is not only about about Democrats or Republicans but the future of America,” said Democratic Town Committee Chairperson Susie Voigt said.
In Wyman’s view McMahon wasn’t ready for the reporters’ questions. Click here for CTMirror’s Mark Pazniokas and here for CT News Junkie’s Christine Stuart’s take on what happened.
“They put her in a glass dome. When they let her alone, that’s what happens. What’s she going to judge on schools?” Wyman asked rhetorically. “If there are problems, go to private school?
“We can’t change this budget on the backs of the people who need us the most.”
Gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy (with secretary of state Democratic hopeful Denise Merrill) arrived too late to address the crowd. Informed of Wyman’s remarks, said, “In the state of Connecticut Republicans are a little out of touch.”
He said they are unaware that for many people in Connecticut “A gated community is a place where you have gates on your doors and windows.”
DeLauro added that unlike their Republican opponents, wealthy self-financed candidates making their first runs for public office, opponents Malloy and Wyman have long experience in public life. “They just didn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘I’ll run for governor ‘cause I have the money to do it,’” DeLauro said.
Returning to Wyman’s theme, DeLauro said, “Can you imagine lowering minimum wage at a time of unemployment … when one out of five kids goes to sleep hungry? That’s what we [Democrats] do: We take care of our neighbors. Democrat is not just a label. It’s what government can do, not everything, but for working middle-class families. Our opposition is about Wall Street and the rich.”
Dan Malloy on New Haven’s Bar Problem
So bolstered, the canvassers spread out, with Malloy and Wyman among them taking a brief stint onto Dwight Street.
With time on his schedule brief Malloy and Wyman had brief encounters, shaking hands with voters such as 20-year-old Terence Jones.
On his way over, Malloy asked a reporter what was on the minds of New Haveners this day.
Told of recent violence in the bar district downtown and a mayoral crackdown, Malloy had a novel suggestion for Mayor DeStefano. He said that as mayor of Stamford, he had ordered the street cleaners and fire trucks to roll in at bar closing time in his town. Result: People did not congregate and went home. The equipment sent that message.
“Those things spray,” he said of the street sweeping vehicles. “Eventually behavior changed,” he added.
New Haven State Rep Pat Dillon, who was canvassing with the candidates, termed Malloy’s suggestion novel and innovative.
He said they’ve been doing that for generations in the most partying city in the country, New Orleans.
After shaking hands, Malloy asked Terence Jones if he was registered to vote. He said he had just registered. Malloy asked for his vote and reminded him to cast it. Jones said he was going to follow the suggestions of “his people” and vote for Malloy.
Yale Divinity School Professor Jeremy Hultin, also a Dwight Street resident and neighbor of Jones, was not yet convinced. In a 60-second interchange, he said he has a friend on the city Board of Education. Malloy talked with him about the importance of early childcare education.
Hultin said he needed to see more specifics. Wyman said that all their positions were on line. Malloy added that his 72-page platform of positions was the longest and most comprehensive of any gubernatorial candidate.
Then the candidates had to rush off to the next handshake. Plus their vehicle was shadowing and beckoning to the next event.
“I wish we could talk more,” Hultin said. Though a Democrat, he said he was still on the fence. “I need more face time,” he said.
In a city as heavily Democratic as New Haven, the task of course was delivering Jones, Hultin, and all the rest of the votes. Rosa DeLauro said that New Haven can deliver 19,000 votes, such as Jones’s and Hultin’s.
Curtis Beaman, who lives on Dwight, was the kind of person Malloy wanted to reach. He was holding a large shovel. Malloy’s opening gambit was “If it snows today, I’m in trouble.”
Then he complimented Beaman on his strong handshake. A minister with the Everlasting Word Apostolic Outreach Ministries on Kimberly Avenue, Beaman said of his some 40 co-parishioners, “I can entice them” to vote Democrat as well.
“If we can’t get the Democrats out to vote in New Haven, we may as well hang it up,” New Haven State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield said earlier at the rally.
According to the Associated Press, Linda's comment was this: "We've got minimum wages in the states, we've got the minimum wages in the government, and I think we ought to look at all of those issues in terms of what mandates are being placed on businesses and can they afford them."
I find it deeply disturbing that a candidate who rakes in $46 million a year while laying off ten percent of her workforce needs the approval of business before stating unequivocally that Connecticut workers deserve a minimum wage and that a government has a responsibility to assure that its residents are not being exploited.