It was the big leagues inside the Hartford Expo Center Saturday, staged for the closest race for a gubernatorial nomination in anybody’s memory —” and Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy came to play. Opponents from Team DeStefano said he played too hard, “strong-arming” delegates into switching up to get him his narrow victory. Not so, said Malloy. “People want to be with a winner!”
Placing brothers Shawn and Ron to greet and sticker delegates at the door, and a son and nephew at each of his shoulders, Malloy strode through convention aisles with greetings for all, clearly the more visible candidate on the floor Saturday. Campaign manager Roy Occhiogrosso (pictured below, merging brainpower with Malloy) was never out of arm’s reach to make sure the message stayed on point: Dan’s electability. Don’t go for the mayor of a one-party town (DeStefano), when the mayor of two-party Stamford has proven his worth as a uniter, palatable to centrists and threatening to Rell.
“I’m going to bring this party back together so we can have a Democratic governor for the first time in 20 years!” said Malloy in his victory speech. That is, the official one —” not the gun-jumping acceptance he offered from atop a folding chair at 4 o’clock, well before the final count was announced. “Two years ago we began a campaign to oust a Republican governor — ¬¶” Malloy began then into a hand-held mic, shushing riled ralliers awaiting news from party officials on the challenges brought over delegate results from Norwich, East Haven, Waterbury, Danbury, and initially West Hartford. (Click here to read about a midday moment of West Hartford drama.) Nearby, DeStefano campaigners frowned. “It’s not over,” said DeStefano spokesman Derek Slap.
That’s what Malloy people said at the day’s start, referring to their own campaign, which at that point was still thought the underdog, by a hair. “All we need is 50 percent plus one,” said Occhiogrosso about their prospects. If they didn’t get it, would they take a lieutenant governor spot if DeStefano offered it? “Absolutely not!” Malloy exploded. “You want someone who can win! We’re not going to drop out.”
In fact, he wasn’t going to drop a single vote if he didn’t have to. “Roxbury! Dan Malloy,” he greeted Diane Graszik and John Murray (pictured), the two slightly bewildered delegates from the small Western town. “We’ve been getting an inordinate amount of attention,” said Murray. “There are only two of us.”
Shuttled to the Roxbury seats by Occhiogrosso, who must have heard whisperings in his ear-pierce about Graszik’s and Murray’s spots on the fence, Malloy slid into a seat facing them to spin Dan. He could have saved his breath. “I’ve decided for DeStefano,” said Murray. “I’m a little leery of everyone trying to change my mind, at least at the last minute” when there’s “too much temptation to cast the issues in whichever light they think is expedient.” Murray said it was the candidates’ “very different health care plans” that decided him. In the end, Roxbury sent two votes to John.
Other fence-sitters were less leery of the eleventh-hour, full-throttle attention from the Malloy team. In fact, they seemed to like it. When Malloy and his pinstriped entourage wove through crowds and climbed over seats in a post-roll call dash for vote changes, zeroing in on marked targets to insist, “Dan needs You!” —” some seemed sort of thrilled. All those flashing news bulbs, that pro-Malloy whooping, those DeStefano camp chants of “My mayor is not a bully” —” all for me? Votes got changed.
“What a way to win a convention. If they did, it’s disgusting!” said a fuming Rob Smuts, DeStefano’s deputy chief of staff.
Malloy brushed off accusations of exerting improper pressure. “They were never ahead.” Hard to know: officials had a post-challenge final count (799 – 794 for Dan) and a pre-challenge last count (803 – 798 for Dan) but no roll-call result before those final spot-lit changes (pictured). “All challenges came from the other side. Just remember that,” said Malloy.
What? No arm twisting by Malloy and his minions? Please, I have no idea how Malloy's wranglers lasted the day carrying the weight of their reference copies of The Prince out on that convention floor. Surely they had been drinking kool-aid and reciting portions of the Machiavellian philosophy that essentially says in order to achieve success you must know when and how to do what no good person would ever do, while undoubtedly handing Malloy a Red Bull to chug as he led the attack on decent folks to change their votes.
Interesting sight to behold and for DeStefano supporters, like me, far more energizing than even Niccolo could have imagined.