Melinda Tuhus Photo
Campaign cash made a hit with a roomful of potential influential endorsers in the governor’s race. The question was not who had the most of, but who would accept limits on it.
That issue emerged as the most significant difference between two leading candidates for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination Saturday. The candidates — Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy — pitched their candidacies to the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus, a statewide organization of politicians, community activists, teachers, clergy and others aiming to promote the election of qualified Latino candidates — or failing that, qualified candidates who have a “Latino sense” in relating to their community, in the words of caucus chair Tomas Reyes.
Twenty members of the group who spent three hours interviewing two candidates Saturday morning at the Spanish American Merchants Association office on Grand Avenue in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood. They heard lots of similarities between the two — and a key difference in their positions on campaign finance reform.
The group didn’t yet make an endorsement. It plans to interview other potential candidates once they, like Lamont and Malloy, move from fielding “exploratory” campaigns to officials campaigns. Chief among them is the state’s first-ever Latino gubernatorial candidate, Juan Figueroa.
The group endorsed Malloy when he ran for governor in 2006. And he was warmly welcomed as the first visitor for Saturday morning’s candidate-interview session. He answered a series of questions from a panel of five Latino activists (including, pictured from left, Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro, Fair Haven Alderman Joey Rodriguez, and Yolanda Castillo of Manchester).
The panel asked Malloy about the state’s campaign-financing law, which offers matching money to candidates who swear off big contributions and special-interest money.
“I support it, and you should, too,” Malloy told them. Without it, neither he — a politician of modest means — nor members of the Latino community, would have much chance to win elections, he opined. “When the system gets rigged so only millionaires can run, and we reward them for that, then we’re in big trouble.”
His response prompted head-nodding all around.
Ned Lamont is one of those millionaires, and he demonstrated he wasn’t afraid to spend some of those millions in 2006 when he upset U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in a Democratic primary. (Lamont lost in the general election, in which Lieberman ran as an independent.)
Lamont is again signaling that he’s ready to spend millions on this race, his 2010 quest for governor. He has opted not to participate in the public finance system, which would limit how much money he could contribute.
“I know Ned says he supported it then [when the campaign finance law passed] but he doesn’t support it now, and [he says] he’ll support it again when he’s governor,” —that doesn’t fly with me,” Malloy told Saturday’s panel.
When it was Lamont’s turn Saturday, the panel asked him the same question. He said he’s leading in the polls now in the race for governor. But he sees Tom Foley, a millionaire Republican, gaining on him through his use of television advertising.
“If all the candidates, Republican and Democrat, agreed [to use public financing, thus limiting their own spending], I would be the champion of campaign finance reform,” Lamont said. But since that’s not the case, he plans to spend his own money in addition to the donations he’s been raising in small amounts from supporters, he said.
Rodriguez asked Lamont if he would abide by public spending limits just among Democratic candidates leading up to the primary (something Malloy has already challenged him to do). Lamont declined; he said that’s a recipe for losing. But he assured them, echoing former U.S. Sen. Lowell Weicker’s 1980s-era campaign slogan, “I’m nobody’s man but yours. We’re going to win this race, and it sure helps being able to pay for a little TV.” He said he’ll be appearing in campaign ads within two weeks.
Lamont (pictured with Hartford State Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, a supporter) emphasized his teaching career as a volunteer at Bridgeport’s Harding High School and currently as an instructor at Central Connecticut State University, as much as his business credentials.
Malloy differentiated himself by saying that other “millionaire candidates” want to run state government like a business. “I want to run state government like a great government,” he said, touting his 14 years as mayor of Stamford, reducing crime, adding jobs, building affordable housing. He said in pursuing those goals, “To be very honest, I would rather raise taxes than eliminate [social] services.”
Other questions the candidates addressed included how they would increase PILOT allocations (payment in lieu of taxes on tax-exempt property, which is concentrated in cities); discussing their views on educational equity and affirmative action; restoring prison rehab funding; making state government more representative of the Hispanic/Latino community, and making a Latino his running mate. On all of these issues the two candidates gave broadly similar answers.
{h5}Figueroa’s Turn Is Coming
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Reyes (pictured) said the reason Puerto Rican gubernatorial candidate Juan Figueroa was not invited to the forum is that he has not yet formally declared his candidacy. The bylaws of the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus limit endorsements to those who have formally declared. “We fully intend to have him go through the same process. The moment he’s a declared candidate he will be interviewed by our group,” Reyes said.
Will he have a leg up, being a Latino and having served in several high profile positions, including state representative, director of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund and president of the
Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut?
“I would say he doesn’t,” Reyes answered. “We’re very happy that a person of his qualifications and his stature is actually considering to run. But we’ll be asking him the same questions we’re asking Dan Malloy and Ned Lamont, and others.”