Lamont pushes campaign theme of upbeat feelings
Gov. Ned Lamont's first campaign press conference came not on a busy midweek morning over a hot issue, not with a new outlay of facts and figures, not with the rollout of some state program or a claim of battle victory for a constituent.
It happened on a quiet Friday afternoon on a sidewalk in the Democratic Party stronghold of West Hartford, with a simple message. Lamont stood by Gina Luari, owner of The Place 2 Be restaurant where we gathered, and John Doyle, owner New Park Brewing across town, and talked about small business values and culture.
“I love small business,” Lamont said in very brief remarks. “Small business, you're all in it together…like family.”
He added, “Those are the sort of values that I would like to think I bring to this game.”
Luari and Doyle have both had some help from the state — Luari in the Small Business Express program and Doyle with some regulations. But The message Friday was more about how people feel than it was about state programs or finances.
And as it happens, that squishy question — how do voters feel about Connecticut in 2022? — stands as the central issue in Lamont's reelection bid against Republican Bob Stefanowski, the Madison businessman nominated for a rematch of the 2018 race.
Yes, there was a snippet of news: When pressed by me and Christine Stuart of the CT News Junkie in a conversation before the event, Lamont said he will most likely ask the legislature to revisit the 1 percentage point surcharge on the sales tax for prepared foods and restaurant
service, which brings the total to 7.35 percent.
That surcharge, which Lamont and lawmakers enacted in 2019, has been the subject of widespread panning by Republicans, especially Stefanowski.
Lamont and lawmakers — mostly Democrats, with two GOP votes in the General Assembly — just enacted $600 million in tax cuts and one-time rebates. That was less than Republicans wanted to see, but it met federal rules on tax cuts for states that accepted pandemic relief money, and, more to the point, it was sustainable and allowed Lamont to deposit what will be at least $5.2 billion into the underfunded state pensions this year and last year.
“If we're in solid financial position next year as we were this year, we'll be free to do other things,” Lamont said. Speaking of the 1 percentage point surcharge, he said, “That will be something I will probably put on the table.”
Lamont pushed for and got an elimination of the 25-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax from April until December of this year. But no, he told me and Stuart, he's not inclined to cut two other taxes Stefanowski loves to hate: The state diesel fuel tax, now at 40 cents a gallon, and a $90 million-a-year road tax on heavy trucks that is set to take effect in the upcoming fiscal year.
Those are taxes paid largely by out-of-state interests, and they mirror similar taxes that virtually every East Coast state also charges, Lamont said. He'd rather cut taxes people feel here at home.
And on Friday, the awshucks, Uncle Ned, Ted Lasso governor showed he would rather talk about how people feel and the culture of Connecticut — signaling the message he intends to carry throughout the campaign until November.
“I believe in the state. I think more and more people
believe we've made real progress. We've got a long way to go,” Lamont said.
Without mentioning Stefanowski by name, he added, “Or you can knock the state and you can be negative about the state and write op-Eds about the Wall Street Journal knocking the state of Connecticut. You've got a real choice there.”
In a series of newspaper opinion pieces and public statements, Stefanowski has talked about how the state has failed its middle class, how people are beaten down by high taxes and costs such as utilities, not to mention inflation, and how Lamont has allowed ethical lapses in state government to undermine confidence in Connecticut.
Lamont, responding to those charges, counters that he has responded swiftly and decisively to several ethical issues — most notably the case of a former deputy budget official who remains under
federal investigation over school construction contracts. Lamont fired the official, Kostas Diamantis, in the fall.
With a decent lead in three separate polls this spring, which Lamont said he's ignoring, the governor's challenge is to advance the idea that people feel better about Connecticut than they have in the past. If Stefanowski is correct, that people feel beaten down, then the Republican will occupy the governor's mansion starting next January.
Again, without mentioning Stefanowski by name, Lamont — who founded and ran a cable TV installation and digital services firm — drew a distinction between himself and his opponent, a former executive with General Electric and other large companies.
“Somebody comes out of big business, somebody comes out of small business. Two very different ways of looking at the world in terms of how you deal with people,” he said. “One is family, the other is a line-item .... That's the lens that I've spent the last 3 ½ years looking through.”
Stefanowski, in a statement in response, said, “Not only did Governor Lamont use his first year in office to punish small businesses with higher taxes and red tape, he failed to use his last year in office to help ease the burden record high inflation is having on them and their customers.”
But Lamont sticks to the idea that voters are upbeat. “Some people are cheering for failure but I think the vast majority of people want to see this state continue to build,” he said.
Two of those people are Gina Luari and John Doyle. Luari, with two The Place 2 Be Hartford locations in addition to the one in West Hartford's Blue Back Square, just opened in Springfield, Mass., this week. Doyle had some issues with delivery rules, and appreciated an increase in the amount of beer he could sell directly to patrons directly.
“This administration was very supportive,” he said.
Will that sentiment echo across the state in an election year marked by 8plus-percent inflation?
“People are concerned that inflation is going to be passed on to them as consumers,” Doyle told me. As for the overall sentiment about the state, “It seems good but people always want it to be better.”
Two women named Sandra at a nearby table are celebrating a birthday. Lamont has a laugh with them. Later I catch up with them. Sandra Rivera, turning 21, is from Rhode Island. Sandra Cohen, from Berlin, is a Lamont fan because of the power he projects.
“He goes for it. He's not scared. That's why I like him,” she said.
The message is clear: Everything boils down to how voters feel.