Lamont: I Won't "Fight With One Arm"

Sections

Neighborhoods

Features

NHI Newsletter

Legal Notices

Some Favorite Sites

Government/ Community Links

Lamont: I Won’t “Fight With One Arm”

by Melissa Bailey | Jan 19, 2010 7:42 am

(8) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Politics, State

Melissa Bailey Photo On the heels of a new poll depicting him as a frontrunner in the governor’s race, Ned Lamont signaled to a New Haven audience that he won’t seek public financing.

Lamont, who’s “exploring” a run for the Democratic nomination for governor, spoke Monday before 40 members of the Yale College Democrats at Yale’s Branford College on York Street. He appeared in the same room as he did four years ago, when he rallied the young anti-Iraq War vote to help him snatch the Democratic nomination away from U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (before losing to Lieberman in the general election).

This time, Lamont found himself focused on a new issue—the state’s economy and jobs—and presented with a new question: Will he participate in a new public financing program, or use his personal wealth again to finance his campaign?

The topic came up during a question and answer period following Lamont’s hour-long appearance at the couch-filled common room.

As governor, would Lamont support and fully fund the state’s new public financing program? a student asked.

Lamont said yes, he would support the program as governor: “I’m proud of public finance reform.”

However, as a candidate gearing up for a fall election, he indicated that he can’t afford to participate.

Candidates who sign up for public financing must stick to campaign spending caps and small-dollar fundraising.

Lamont said he looks at the field of candidates and sees at least one Republican who’s heavily raising money. U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley has already decided not to seek public financing, and has already chipped in $2 million of his own money to his campaign.

Public financing works only if everyone participates, Lamont argued.

Given the landscape this year, Lamont said, he doesn’t think Democrats can afford to “go into the fight with one arm tied behind their backs.”

Lamont, a Greenwich businessman, spent $13 million out of his own pocket to finance his 2006 U.S. Senate run. The emergence of wealthy candidates bankrolling their campaigns has been a hot-button issue this election season in Connecticut: Besides gubernatorial hopefuls Foley and Lamont, two U.S. Senate candidates have emerged ready to spend millions of their own dollars: Republicans Linda McMahon and Peter Schiff. As a pro-campaign financing Democrat, Lamont has been on the defensive.

After his speech Monday, Lamont was asked if he’s prepared to spend another $13 million on his gubernatorial run.

His response: If he decides to run, he’s prepared to “go into this race with both feet.”

He said he is keeping up with the “spirit” of campaign finance reform by limiting contributions to $375 per individual and refusing contributions from lobbyists, state contractors, and political action committees. The campaign’s average individual donation is not above $100, he said.

“Just As Important” As Iraq

In making his campaign pitch to students, the candidate acknowledged his task is very different from in 2006.

At that time, he had an easier sell, galvanizing a liberal constituency outraged by the Iraq war. This time around, he sought to convince students to rally around the state’s economic crisis.

“I’m not that anti-war guy now,” he told the crowd.

He’s running as an executive prepared to take control of an economy that’s “flat on its back,” he said. (Click here to read more of his thoughts on Connecticut’s budgetary woes.)

This campaign will be about righting the economy and creating jobs, he said. He urged students to stick around and become part of the solution.

Connecticut, the third-oldest state in the nation, has a “brain drain” problem, he said.

The state would be better off if it could “keep a higher number of Yale students in our state,” he said. “We educate them and they leave.”

After his speech, he encouraged students to take their talent to Hartford as young legislators instead of heading to Washington, D. C. He tried to pique their interest in the drier subject of the state’s debt.

“The recession is not as dazzling as the war in Iraq,” he told a handful of students who gathered around him after his stump speech, “but it’s just as important.”

“Best Chance Of Winning”

In a Q&A session, Lamont was asked what makes him stand out from the other nine Democrats exploring runs for the governor’s seat.

He said he’s an “outsider” candidate who has good relationships with both business and labor unions. As such, he’ll “bring these folks together in a constructive way” to create jobs, he said.

He ended his pitch with a declaration: “I’ve got the best chance of winning.”

He was buoyed by a Daily Kos poll that came out earlier Monday. The poll showed Lamont leading the top three Republican front-runners by nine to 12 points.

The poll was taken Jan. 11 to 13, after U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd announced he won’t seek reelection, but before Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz jumped ship from the governor’s race to seek the attorney general’s seat.

The poll shows Bysiewicz in the lead of the Democratic governor’s candidates, outperforming Lamont and former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy when matched against Republicans. Lamont isn’t far behind her. Given the poll’s four-point margin of error, Lamont’s basically neck and neck with Malloy.

Doug Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said he hasn’t seen any polling data after Bysiewicz dropped out of the governor’s race, so as a pollster, he can’t ascertain who’s in the lead. He plans to survey voters “soon” about the shaken-up field of candidates.

In an interview, Lamont stopped short of calling himself the “frontrunner.” He said people know what he stands for based on his Senate bid. They’ll vote for him because he’s a “pro-jobs Democrat” and an “outsider,” someone who “doesn’t have their fingers all over the deficit stalemate,” he said.

For his part, Malloy said Monday he doesn’t “put much stock in polls or declarations of where one stands.”

“The person who can demonstrate that they have the ability, talent and track record is going to be the frontrunner,” he said. Malloy said he’s shown those qualities in his 14-year tenure as mayor of Stamford.

“The reality is that people will make the decision based on who is best, and they’re looking for someone who really knows how to run government,” he said.

One seasoned political activist opined that it’s too early for there to be a frontrunner.

“The Democratic field is still wide open, he said, noting that Simsbury First Selectwoman Mary Glassman and health care activist Juan Figueroa recently joined the race.

To break to the front of the pack, a candidate will need to secure a broad range of endorsements from grassroots groups, elected officials and labor, the activist said. And most will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination at the State Democratic Convention in May.

Malloy and Lamont are both “scrambling” to secure commitments from likely convention delegates, the activist noted. Lamont lagged behind Malloy and Bysiewicz in that task, he said. In 2006, he lagged behind, too: Lamont lost to Lieberman at the convention by a 2-1 margin, though he ended up winning the primary anyway.

Lamont conceded he “has some catching up to do” in securing likely delegates’ support, in part because he just joined the race about 60 days ago. He said he’s been touring the state, visiting Democratic town committees to build his convention support.

Malloy downplayed that part of his campaign. “Not a single delegate has been named” to the convention, so it’s impossible to have a delegate’s commitment yet, he noted.

Malloy said unlike other candidates, he’s fully committed to the public financing system.

“I have no fear about participating” in the program, he said. “I want that system to survive.”

Comments

posted by: pat on January 19, 2010 8:36am

Ned Lamont is a very nice man, but we live in an age of millionaire government, meaning government of, by and for the millionaires.

The cost of campaigning precludes many qualified and talented people from running for office and offering a different perspective.

We need free media open to all candidates for a shorter period of time instead of the image managing and stage presentations called debates that pass for campaigning.

The press has stopped asking real questions, so many people vote thinking they know a candidate’s position (see Obama on Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan) and end up being surprised.

The system in place has given us career politicians who are out of touch with the needs of the people. They live in a bubble with lobbyists and wealthy contributors who are not in place to change anything but to protect what they have.

posted by: Tanner on January 19, 2010 8:54am

Who cares that the man will fund his campaign with family money and
money from Soro’s. I think people elect these millionaires because the
public is delusional thinking they might actually use some of their
riches and pay for an agency or two. Did Corzine? Has Bloomberg?

posted by: mikepc45 on January 19, 2010 12:52pm

He is another tax and spend liberal who wants to tax working people to death. He is rich and has no respect or compassion for working people. If he did he would lower their tax burden adllowing to them pay their bills instead of creating trickle down government handouts and assistance programs which do not work. Cut taxes and hold people responsible for their actions. Go Scott Go, another Boston Massacre in the making, cleanse the temple, out with the incumbents. Tabula Rusa!

posted by: EatSleepCT on January 19, 2010 9:04pm

Country Club Ned thinks he can buy the governor’s office—which shows he is more of the same-old-same-old. Connecticut dared to get money out of politics with public campaign finance. Looks like it wants to come slithering back in.

posted by: robn on January 20, 2010 9:13am

TANNER,

Bloomberg and some of his top officeers worked for a buck annually….just sayin’

posted by: terrapin on January 20, 2010 9:46am

I’ll take a millionaire spending a lot of his own money over, for example, a senator running for reelection who can outspend anyone using money which has been gathered largely from corporate interests. At least we know where Ned Lamont made his money. How does someone like Joe Lieberman spend his whole career in “public service” and also become a millionaire?

posted by: frankfgsr on January 21, 2010 9:51pm

The voters of Conn. better do a lot of thinking who they vote for in the coming elections. The Democrats who are now in control have brought this state into a massive deficit they just don’t care; they spend money that they don’t have, and then they put it all on the taxpayers back it is time to vote all of these fools out of office.It is time to get back to basics you don’t spend money that you do not have.

posted by: discouraged on January 27, 2010 1:22pm

What makes a candidate qualified to run the State today? Sounds like all you need is money. Let’s ignore the other candidates like Rudy Marconi who has years of experience running a town, has put forth a lot of good ideas, but doesn’t have millions of dollars to fund a campaign. Let’s ignore anyone with a good idea on how to fix things and instead pick someone who has lots of money. I say let’s level the financial playing field and let the candidates with the best solutions emerge.

New Haven Independent

New Haven Independent Login Form