Sometimes you need to be the governor

Had he wanted the job, Kevin Lembo might be governor today.

He briefly ran for the position but dropped out in 2017 even as he was among the early frontrunners. He wasn’t sick or unable to serve. He simply decided he preferred his current position as state comptroller, ensconced in the numbers pertaining to pension plans and health care.

But there are limits to how far that role can take you.

Lembo went into his current term likely expecting he’d be working with a governor who shared similar goals. Ned Lamont spent most of 2019 ostensibly on board with Lembo’s plan to create a public health insurance option, a state- run plan that would compete with private providers to drive down costs and improve coverage.

On the surface, all remains well, and Lamont gave the comptroller a mention in his State of the State speech on Wednesday: “A special shout out to Comptroller Kevin Lembo. He’s saving money in health care in innovative ways by getting better care for our state employees at less cost to the taxpayer.”

Beneath the geniality is a new divergence on what has emerged as Lembo’s signature policy.

Lamont now says he’s against a public option. This was revealed during a Connecticut Mirror podcast interview with longtime WNPR host John Dankosky. “A public health care option means the existing stakeholders are bad actors, that the insurance guys are just trying to rip you off,” Lamont said in the interview. “And it doesn’t deal with the underlying costs of health care.”

Lembo said he learned of Lamont’s new position along with everyone else in the state by listening to that interview. And it wasn’t just Lamont’s stance that caught him off guard.

“It was stunning to me that the governor was willing to absolutely repeat industry talking points,” Lembo told Hearst Connecticut Media’s editorial board last week. “It’s almost the greatest gift that the industry could get to have a governor, a Democratic governor, almost parroting their talking points.”

Using language about as harsh as the soft- spoken Lembo is willing to get, the comptroller said, “That was bothersome.”

Like most people who talk about Lamont, Lembo has high personal praise for him. “He’s been good to work with; he’s an affable guy,” Lembo said, adding later, “It’s hard to be angry with him even when you should be angry with him.”

But he drew an unfavorable comparison between the current governor and his famously stubborn predecessor, Dannel P. Malloy. “There’s a lot of tacking from issue to issue and position to position within an issue, and that’s really hard, and different,” Lembo said. He was referring to health care but could just as easily have been talking about tolls.

Lembo further implied, in his understated manner, that Lamont might not have any idea what he’s talking about.

“The governor surrounds himself with the people that advise him. Any elected official, myself included, has people in their ear. You either have to have the base of knowledge to understand what’s real and what’s spin, or have people around you who understand it,” Lembo said.

This is not about a squabble between two elected officials of the same party. This is about an issue, health care, that consistently comes out on the top of lists of voters’ concerns.

Democrats fought for and have sought to preserve the gains of Obamacare, which dramatically increased the number of people who have insurance and introduced vital safeguards, like protection for people with pre- existing conditions ( a protection that, despite his protests to the contrary, the president is actively seeking to undermine).

But Democrats also know Obamacare wasn’t enough. People may have coverage, but insurance with a $ 6,000 deductible is almost the same as having no insurance at all. That’s why the Democratic presidential campaign has been dominated by competing health care proposals, from Medicare for all to measures that are smaller but would still bring a demonstrable benefit for large numbers of people.

This is where Lembo’s public option fits in. It’s not free health care. It’s a step toward better insurance and improved outcomes, and the benefits could go far beyond Connecticut.

Lamont had once shown interest in this fight, but has now backed off. Lembo insists the struggle goes on without him, and that he will work to build a legislative coalition that could, if necessary, overcome the governor’s veto. In a short session, that’s a huge hill to climb.

Lembo dropped out of the governor’s race because he wants to be in the trenches on his policy issues, doing the hard work to save a few dollars and create better outcomes. Delivering a rah- rah up- with- Connecticut speech to open the legislative session was never in the cards.

But with an unpredictable governor in power, the limits of his current position are clear. Designing a winning policy and assembling a coalition only goes so far. To effect lasting, systemic change, you might just need to be governor.