Lamont’s at-home COVID testing mishap target of new attack ad
The mishap that hampered Gov. Ned Lamont’s efforts to ease spiking demand for at-home COVID tests over the holidays has become the target of a new political attack ad released Monday by the state Republican party.
The ad spotlights the nearly two-week-old issue, faulting Lamont for failing to procure 500,000 at-home COVID test kits “when it mattered most over the holiday season” and for vacationing in Florida as the situation unfolded.
The criticism comes as the Lamont administration works to overcome the bad start to its efforts to get test kits to residents, delivering nearly 1.8 million tests in the last week, outpacing New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“This isn't the first time the Republican party has lied about Governor Lamont and it won't be the last," Dan Morrocco, manager for the Lamont campaign, said in a written statement shortly after the ad’s release. "The Governor is providing the strong, steady leadership we need to keep schools open and the economy running — getting 1.8 million tests and 5 million masks into Connecticut in the last week alone.”
The 30-second video, named “Ned Lamont’s COVID Failures,” which is posted on the state GOP’s YouTube channel, is an indication that Republicans plan to go after Lamont’s handling of the pandemic as they seek to challenge him for the governorship and take back seats in the General Assembly in the 2022 election. The ad, paid for by the Republican State Central Committee, directs people to a website where they can donate to the party.
“COVID is clearly going to dominate the 2022 election,” Ben Proto, chairman of the Connecticut Republican party, said by phone Monday. “It’s dominated half of his term.”
Lamont launched his reelection campaign in November. His potential GOP contenders include Former House Minority Leader Themis Klarides and Bob Stefanowksi, the Republican nominee in 2018 who is likely to seek the nomination again.
Lamont has largely received high marks for his response to the pandemic, even from some Republicans. But the GOP has seized on his vaccine mandates and his emergency powers, still in effect nearly two years into the pandemic, as government overreaches, calling him “King Ned.”
The governor dismissed the ad as “cheap political hay” in comments Monday following an online press conference on COVID safety protocols at child care centers.
“I think we’re still in a war. We’re in a war against an invisible enemy, COVID,” Lamont said. “Usually a state and a country, when they’re in a war, they rally together and they speak with one voice. We don’t take cheap political shots for political advantage, not when we’re trying to get everybody through a tense situation.”
The attack from Republicans come after they’ve downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic and undercut “common sense” health measures, the head of the state Democratic Party said.
“Instead of being concerned about a public health crisis, the GOP is gaslighting Connecticut with namecalling and lies to politicize a global pandemic and fundraise,” Nancy DiNardo said in a statement Monday.
In the ad, the GOP takes aim at Lamont over another testing controversy — investments by his wife Annie Lamont’s venture capital firm in SEMA4, the Stamford-based laboratory that received a state contract for COVID-19 testing. Ned Lamont, who has recused himself from state dealings involving his wife’s investments, has said his family has not made a profit from SEMA4 and that any earnings would be donated to charity.
The ad also ties Lamont to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom he closely coordinated with early in the pandemic, saying he “sought” Cuomo’s advice then cutting to a clip with text from an April 9, 2020 NBC article about the tristate region having the highest COVID death rate in the nation.
Proto said many of the deaths in the early days of the pandemic were older adults in nursing homes and pointed to a March 2020 directive from Cuomo to admit COVID-19 patients to nursing homes. Connecticut is now asking nursing homes here to do the same, he said, referring to new guidance from the state Department of Public Health.
In his statement, Morrocco, the governor’s campaign manager, urged bipartisan cooperation in this latest phase of the pandemic.
“Instead of lying about COVID to raise campaign money — the GOP should join Governor Lamont in working to end this pandemic by promoting vaccines and boosters so we can continue to educate our children, grow our economy, and keep Connecticut moving forward," he said.