GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob Stefanowski Tuesday at WNHH FM.
The campaign gods have bestowed a gift upon Bob Stefanowski. Will he be able to run with it and become Connecticut’s next governor?
Stefanowski addressed that question Tuesday during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
The Madison retired business exec, who grew up in part on Newhallville’s Pond Street, is mounting a second Republican gubernatorial campaign against Democrat Ned Lamont, who defeated him in Round 1 in 2018.
Like other Republicans nationwide, Stefanowski readied to run this year on inflation, Covid mandate fatigue, and crime, hot-button issues on which Democrats are polling poorly. He continues to highlight those issues. He said he has also learned from his last loss to get out more beyond Republican enclaves (Democrats outnumber Republican 2 – 1 in Connecticut, and the million-plus unaffiliated voters top both groups) and to call for a partial rollback of the sales taxes rather than elimination of the income tax.
Then came the gift — and a new issue for a challenger to run on.
That gift is a cascading scandal involving the Lamont administration. Just in time for the campaign, statewide news is filled daily with stories that tie the words “corruption” and “FBI investigation” to the incumbent, with two top-level departures so far and an untimely deadly drug overdose thrown into the mix.
Among the revelations:
• A top Lamont official, Konstantino Diamantis, allegedly pressured local government to give a favored list of contractors no-bid contracts on state-funded school reconstruction work.
• The Lamont administration received complaints about the pressure last year and failed to take action.
• The (now former) chief state’s attorney hired Diamantis’s daughter as the same time he was lobbying Diamantis for raises for his staff.
• Diamantis allegedly separately steered all but 15 out of 284 state purchase orders for hazardous waste disposal and demolition work to the same two companies over five years, according to an investigation by the CT Mirror’s Dave Altimari. Those same two companies are named in a federal subpoena connected to the school reconstruction investigation. Diamantis’ point person handling those contracts died of a drug overdose two months after the subpoena was issued.
• Meanwhile, the governor fired Diamantis — who then publicly blamed his firing on his accusing top Lamont administration officials of sexually and racially discriminating against his boss, the state’s top budget official — who has pretty much seconded the allegations (which administration brass denies.)
And the drip-drip of new revelations and questions and repercussions and finger-pointing/buck-passing has just gotten underway.
Not surprisingly, Stefanowski has blasted the reported corruption and pressed for more answers in press releases.
He repeated those themes in the “Dateline” interview and promised to clean house if elected.
He did not assert that Lamont knew about any of the alleged hanky-panky. He did say the state should find out, through a separate bipartisan legislative investigation. Either way, Stefanowski argued — the governor not knowing about corruption under his watch, or the governor knowing but not taking action — the responsibility lands at Lamont’s feet. (Lamont, for his part, has denied any advance knowledge of the problems and said he has demonstrated zero tolerance for corruption by taking prompt action against those involved.)
At this point, “we don’t even know what we don’t know,” Stefanowski argued.
“We need to get to the bottom of it.”
He called for government to take immediate steps in reaction to these revelations:
• The bipartisan legislative inquiry into all the suspect contracts. The state shouldn’t count on the FBI to investigate the entire matter, especially since a law enforcement agency focuses on potential crimes, while the government should explore ethical lapses as well, Stefanowski argued. “We shouldn’t have to rely on the feds to clean our own house.”
• An audit into how all local governments spent federal Covid-19 relief dollars that flowed through state government. He pointed to the arrests made in connection with how West Haveners (including a state representative) stole that money. “It’s hard to believe all 169 towns” except West Haven had no problems, he said.
Longer term, Stefanowski called for changes to “raise the bar” in state ethics.
“The public sector should be held to a higher standard than the private sector,” he argued. “I’ll bring back integrity to government.”
He promised if elected he would not hold stock in any companies that do business with the state. He promised to fully staff and preserve the powers of the State Contracting Standards Board, which would be weakened under the current proposed state budget. He spoke of crafting a “thoughtful” policy limiting other state officials’ holdings or at least decision-making powers in companies that contract with the state. He also proposed banning alcohol from the Capitol.
It’s not a given that voters end up casting ballots based on ethics or corruption issues. In 2002, when Republican Gov. John Rowland ran for a third term, his Democratic opponent publicly predicted Rowland would end up in prison if reelected. The opponent detailed tens of millions of dollars of no-bid contracts with a specific politically connected company. Rowland cruised to reelection — then left mid-term and went to prison.
“Is it helpful politically? Perhaps,” Stefanowski said of the current corruption scandal’s potential impact on his campaign. “It’s not right for the state of Connecticut.”
Click on the video to watch the full interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski, who, when asked who won the 2020 presidential election, responded, “Joe Biden is the rightfully elected president of the United States.”
As long as ex-President Trump owns the Republican Party, it is incumbent upon Republican candidates to define themselves where they stand regarding the ex-President's vision for party politics and election integrity. I'm curious why he didn't comment on this hot topic in the interview. In any case, the Diamantis scandal is indeed a growing stain upon the Democrats of Connecticut. The only person smiling about Trump and Diamantis is Putin, who thinks democracy is a waste of time entirely.