Oz Raises The BAR

As Democrat Ned Lamont and Republican Bob Stefanowski sparred on on the stage of the Shubert Theater Monday night, unaffiliated gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel joined the debate two blocks away.

“If we don’t like the question,” he announced, ​“we’ll just answer something else.”

And that’s what he and running mate Monte Frank did.

Griebel and Frank, who gathered enough signatures for the Nov. 6 ballot, were barred from participating in the official debate Monday night. They didn’t like that, but they worked hard to make the best of a bad situation.

First they showed up outside the Shubert to give their spin to reporters.

Then, with12 stalwarts, they marched from the Shubert over to BAR on Crown Street. There, while peering at the screen of an Apple iPad, Griebel treated supporters to pizza and beer and, via Facebook Live, a running, sometimes technologically interrupted commentary, on issues raised at the Shubert, and more.

The idea was to have the images of Lamont and Stefanowski debating over at the Shubert projected real-time onto a screen in the back room of Bar, which the campaign had rented.

Griebel had been excluded from the debate because his most recent poll numbers had not reached the threshold set by the organizers.

“If they believed in the democratic process, they would have welcomed the exchange,” Frank argued.

Yet when they got BAR the projection screen didn’t work for much of the time, so Griebel and Frank could not do a rapid and easy-to-comprehend play-by-play commentary they had wanted for their supporters and those watching on Facebook Live.

No matter.

For the next hour, with relentless and easy-going optimism, Griebel peered at the little laptop set up in front of him, not being able to hear the debate very well. Frank, whose laptop was working better, passed along questions from the official debate

Appropriately enough for the location of their event, the first question discussed — at Bar, though not at the Shubert stage — was pizza.

“Unlike the other candidates, Oz and I know what pizza is all about,” said Frank. He added that he had grown up devouring Sally’s pies. ​“I mean apizza,” he self-corrected.

“How do you handle the question of civility?” Frank paraphrased one of the first questions percolating over at the Shubert.

Griebel’s reply: ​“Don’t vote for the lesser of two evils” in the civility department. ​“Vote for the one that values civility. We represent the ​‘radical middle.’”

“‘Trumpinowki and Ned Malloy!’” Frank added. ​“That type of childish behavior is not going to solve problems. What we saw tonight in front of the Shubert was shouting, Red Team versus Blue Team, when what we need is a red, white, and blue team.”

That elicited universal applause from the small crowd. Among those clapping was Kevin Blacker of Noank. He was enjoying the cheese and sausage pizza as well. America should be watching the Connecticut gubernatorial race, he said, because it’s a microcosm of the 2016 presidential election, but with a third choice now.

“He’s [Oz] a pragmatic optimist, which I think is a huge compliment,” Blacker said.

When the tech crew was not able to fix the large screen (“What are those blue things? I can’t see Bob or Ned,” Griebel opined), the candidates settled in to answering questions without hearing them all that well, without seeing Lamont and Stefanowski’s body language or hearing, very well, their spoken language.

Griebel’s and Frank’s responses were generally restatements of their campaign positions.

For example, when the question of funding of the state’s universities came up at the Shubert, Griebel said, ​“We have a $4.5 billion operating deficit . There’s not enough money for everything. We need to bring the private sector into education. “

He pointed out a recent visit he had made to the Westerly Education Center of the Community Colleges of Rhode Island. ​“That community college is known as Electric Boat University,” he said. ​“We need to bring the private sector into education.”

When Stefanowski was explaining his tax cut plan over at the Shubert, Griebel told his BAR audience, ​“We’ll sell you a bridge if you can eliminate the income tax! You can’t run a state like a business.”

You serve the taxpayers of Connecticut, not the shareholders,” he concluded, to applause, as a few people used the juncture to fetch more pizza from boxes spread out across BAR’s long wooden tables.

There were also more friendly applause when the debate question shifted to candidates’ positions’ on support for same-sex marriage. Count me a fiscal conservative, Griebel said, ​“but people should be allowed to live their lives.”

Then he gave a shout-out to the people who prepared the podia. He peered at the little Apple screen, as Frank continued to reiterate or paraphrase the Shubert questions. ​“This is exhausting doing this,” he said.

But on he went gamely and with fluent conviction deploring pitting companies against each other with financial bribes to move here.
Taxpayer dollars should be spent, he said, for uses like education and transportation that benefit all companies, not this one or that.

Applause.

He also called for sensible privatizing of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Economic and Community Development. Not all at once, because unions are involved, but sitting down with all parties and figuring it out.

“Connecticut is in competition with 49 other states. That doesn’t happen with handouts,” said Frank.

More applause.

Frank and Griebel, who have an easy, respectful dialoguing style, ended with a confidence-revealing faux pas. When Lamont at the Shubert was discussing his ability to reach across the aisle, Frank questioned how he could possibly do that given the positions he has taken, especially in the primaries.

Frank said that he and Griebel are the living example of reaching across the aisle. ​“I’m a lifelong Democrat and you’re a lifelong governor,” Frank said.

Oops. He meant ​“Republican.”

“I like that,” Griebel replied with a smile.

He concluded by telling people to be as confident as that. ​“Don’t vote for the lesser of two evils on Nov. 6 or there’ll be stagnation in the state. We’re getting coverage,” he said. A radio and television campaign is being rolled out next week, he added, which should help the poll numbers.

“I’m relatively certain we’ll be included in the next debate,” he added.