Paul Bass Photo
Malloy in WYBC’s studios Tuesday.
He brought a $1 million gift for Dixwell. He spoke to an R&B DJ about racist attacks on President Obama and the need to boost the minimum wage. He swung back at local critics upset about the drying-up of state “PILOT” money to the city.
In other words, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was hitting all the urban notes needed to win himself reelection this year.
Malloy hit the notes during a sweep through New Haven Tuesday. It wasn’t officially a campaign swing. He was officially conducting his duties as governor.
But he in practice has already started running hard for a second four-year term leading the state, a quest that promises to be a tough one. And judging by his repeated focus on New Haven, as well as the urban focus of his top Republican rival, New Haven is a central battleground in that quest.
He started his mid-day visit on Temple Street — coincidentally, steps away form the building where his 2010 and leading 2014 opponent Tom Foley has set up an urban-issues “think tank.” He spoke with WTNH’s Mark Davis about his public spat with U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader John Boehner over food stamp cuts; Malloy enraged Boehner by moving to enable 50,000 Connecticut households to bypass Republican-backed food-stamp cuts.
After finishing with Davis, Malloy (with Davis and cameraman in tow) took the elevator up to the studios of WYBC-FM, an R&B station with the largest local radio listenership. Program director and top DJ Juan Castillo (pictured) peppered Malloy with questions submitted by listeners via Facebook and Twitter.
The station has a large African-American audience; Malloy segued at one point into an unprompted attack on critics of President Obama for “continuing racism” in how they question his “legitimacy” in office. Castillo asked about jobs and crime. Malloy touted his proposal (which he linked to Obama) to raise the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2017. Click on the video to watch Malloy rebut claims that a higher minimum wage destroys jobs.
Malloy also cited his administration’s help in bringing health care and tech jobs to New Haven through deals like the one that lured Alexion Pharmaceuticals back to town in a newly built 13-story office tower. On crime, Malloy spoke of targeting gangs; he praised New Haven Chief Dean Esserman (Malloy’s former police chief when he served as Stamford’s mayor) for New Haven’s decline in shootings. He took credit for Connecticut posting, for “the fourth time in 40 years,” fewer than 100 homicides. Still, he said, New Haven’s number of shootings and murders — 67 and 20, respectively, last year — remains too high, he said. He segued into a pitch for his efforts to improve schools — and then plugged the purpose of his New Haven visit Tuesday, the announcement of a $1 million state grant to redesign a new Dixwell Community “Q” House. Better schools and after-school programs will “help lower crime,” he argued.
Touching on the personal, Castillo asked the governor about his continuing struggle with dyslexia. Click on the video to watch his answer. “I still have weaknesses in performance, for instance taking oral communication into written form,” Malloy said. “I’m still embarrassed about being dyslexic. But it doesn’t stop me from stop talking about it.”
After the interview Malloy fueled up on some Roly Poly restaurant-prepared wraps delivered to the studio; he also chatted with Inner-City News Managing Editor Babz Rawls-Ivy (pictured). Malloy can’t win reelection without winning New Haven, and winning it big: The city delivered Malloy his largest vote total in 2010 — 22,285 — and largest plurality, 18,606 votes. That was three times his statewide margin of victory. Malloy has assiduously courted his supporters in elected office and local unions for months now to gear up for the reelection campaign; last week he fired up the “Hilltop Brigade.”
His overwhelming support in town this year is not a given, in part because of anger in some neighborhoods (primarily East Rock) over a proposed tax increase. Neighborhood Alder Michael Stratton has repeatedly criticized the governor for shorting the city on the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program, which reimburses New Haven for revenues lost on tax-exempt properties like colleges and universities. Before leaving the studio, Malloy answered questions about the issue. (Click on the video to watch.) He defended his efforts to boost PILOT by $8 million statewide this year; he said doesn’t know yet if he’ll back a proposal by New Haven state Sen. Martin Looney to guarantee that New Haven always receives at least 50 percent reimbursement under PILOT. He said critics should look at the entire picture of aid to the city, not just PILOT — especially his increased support for aid to urban schools. “We’re sending millions and millions of dollars more per year to New Haven” than before he became governor, he said. Stratton this week criticized Malloy for using part of a $500 million surplus on $110 tax rebates to families — “dinner vouchers,” Stratton called them — rather than fundamental PILOT reform. “I think that anybody who disparages a family getting $110,” the governor responded, “doesn’t really get how difficult life is in some of the neighborhoods in New Haven.”
Allan Appel Photo
Then it was off to the Dixwell Q House, where a crowd of politicians and activists celebrated his announcement, along with Mayor Toni Harp, that the state Bonding Commission has approved a $1 million grant for planning and design of a new community center. Click here to read a full story about that.