For years this was the face on the state’s most respected state political newspaper column. Now it will be the policy face of John DeStefano’s gubernatorial campaign.
The face is that of Michele Jacklin, until last December the dean of state Capitol pundits as op-ed columnist for the Hartford Courant. The DeStefano campaign announced Thursday that Jacklin is coming aboard as director of policy and research.
The announcement came a day after the latest poll results show Jacklin’s new boss trailing Republican Gov. Jodi Rell by a daunting 64 – 21 percent.
DeStefano’s liberal Democratic platform — property tax reform, massive public investment in mass transit, increased state support for pre-K-college education — fits well with the general thrust of Jacklin’s columns over the years. Jacklin also has a Capitol veteran’s knowledge of how state government works.
“Michele has long been one of the most articulate progressive voices in Connecticut politics. She understands the issues that are most important to Connecticut families and I’m excited that she will be bringing her energy, experience, and integrity to my campaign,” DeStefano stated in a press release.
Jacklin said Thursday that she had discussed a job with both DeStefano and the other Democratic mayor seeking to become governor, Dannel Malloy.
“I admire and respect Mayor Malloy,” Jacklin said. “In the end I felt I would have a bigger role in the DeStefano campaign. Mayor Malloy already has a pretty good campaign operation and machinery. I would have been a small cog.” Jacklin said she and DeStefano “hit it off. He made me feel more valued.”
Based on her years covering campaigns, Jacklin said she was unfazed by the latest poll results showing Rell devouring DeStefano if the election were held today. “You know as I do, when you look at these early horse race polls, they’re pretty meaningless when you have one person who is so well-known and someone who isn’t.”
Jacklin wrote for the Courant for more than 27 years. And she hadn’t planned on leaving the Courant last year. As part of relentless downsizing by the paper’s parent company and newspaper chains in general, she was offered an early-retirement buyout just before Thanksgiving. She said she had a “bad vibe” about her status at the paper so she took it.
An unplanned exit from journalism has proved a new mid-life opportunity for Jacklin. “I’m 55 years old,” she said. “Life threw me a curve. I thought to myself, ‘If I look back and say I did the same thing [the rest of her working life], I’d be disappointing.” Working for a gubernatorial campaign offered her a chance to do something “fun, challenging and different,” Jacklin said.