It’s Spring! Time to watch politics bloom!

I’ve been on the lookout for the differences between Republicans and Democrats in Connecticut.

With just a few weeks before the statewide conventions, the gubernatorial hopefuls — called here, for our purposes goobers

— are doing their best to appeal to their bases.

The short-term goal is the political promised land: 15-percent support they need to qualify for the August primaries. From there, it’s the knockdown, drag-out fall campaigns, where the candidates will push more toward the middle, where the independent team for governor — Oz Griebel and Monte Frank — have been hanging out for months.

At stake is the Governor’s Residence, and the House and Senate, with a little Congressional action on the side, including first-term U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s seat.

Politics is about ready to blossom anywhere and everywhere these days, including the

State Bond Commission, which gathers every month or so to allocate money for capital projects. Since the commission is eight-tenths Democrats, with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy setting the agenda via his director of

Policy and Management,

Ben Barnes, getting on the agenda is tantamount to a big win.

That’s why, I imagine, the

150 people who attend each commission meeting stand at attention when Malloy swans into Room 1-E of the Legislative Office Building. Heck, they’re all getting paid.

Republicans on the commission, Rep. Chris Davis of Ellington and Sen. L. Scott Frantz of Greenwich, are in the steamroller seats, staring from an 8-2 minority. So, every so often, some political guerrilla fighting busts out.

Such was the case Friday, when Davis took umbrage against a $14million grant to Infosys Ltd, to create a $26-million innovation and technology center in Hartford. Davis used the term “citizen” a couple times. The deal includes $4 million if 200 jobs are created within two years; another $4 million if 500 jobs are generated within three years; and another $4 million if 1,000 jobs are grown within five years, in addition to the 600to-800 already in Connecticut.

Davis recalled that last year, India-based Infosys paid a million-dollar fine on hiring practices in New York. Then there was the eye-popping $34-million settlement from a 2013 fraud case involving the H-1B visa program.

He said that several years ago, his father, in order to remain eligible for a severance deal as a computer programmer with a financial-service company, had to train the person from India who took away his job.

“To only allow citizens to work in our country is wrong-minded,” Malloy said.

“The fear that I have is that there could be individuals that are interested in going into this field, but know that perhaps after they work so hard to get into this field that they would be replaced and out-sourced,” said Davis, ranking member of the legislative Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee.

“We have stories of this company, in particular, of abusing that system,” Davis said of Infosys. “When I go door-to-door to talk with constituents and I knock on their door and grown men are crying at their doorstep because they were laid off and displaced and out-sourced by companies like Infosys. And then for us to give taxpayer money to that company, perhaps the taxpayer money from

“To have a company come to the state and say that their primary audience of people to hire are recent liberal-arts graduates from Connecticut colleges and universities and New England colleges and universities, is very significant. This is about the future, no matter how bad that past may have been for individuals.”

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy

those individuals that were displaced and are paying taxes on their unemployment, I mean that doesn’t seem right to me.” Malloy didn’t let it go. “Infosys has made some mistakes and has been cited for those,” he said, stressing that as a result of past problems, the company last year set plans for as many as five hubs in various parts of the country, including North Carolina and the Midwest. “To win this competition, to have a company come to the state and say that their primary audience of people to hire are recent liberal-arts graduates from Connecticut colleges and universities and New England colleges and universities, is very significant. This is about the future, no matter how bad that past may have been for individuals.”

Afterward, during a 26-minute Q&A with reporters, Malloy said he believed Davis was trying to spin some nativist arguments. “I thought it was appropriate to point out to him that we have many people living in our country legally who are not yet citizens and we shouldn’t use verbiage that presents some challenges to those individuals,” Malloy said.

“As an elected official who represents Americans, I think it’s important to defend the jobs for American citizens,” Davis said as the Malloy news conference dispersed.

Ken Dixon, political editor and columnist, can be reached at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Visit him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT and on Facebook at kendixonct.hearst.