Bob Stefanowski Has No Grasp Of State’s Problems

It was not always this way. There was a time when Bob Stefanowski, the Republican candidate for governor, wanted to talk about his ideas in more than repetitive 90-second bites. I know because I was there when he did and it was a disaster.

Last fall, at Stefanowski’s request, we met at a local Starbucks to discuss his campaign for governor. All I knew about Stefanowski before the meeting was that he had been in business, was recently a Democrat and had not voted in 16 years. Like others who pay attention to the details of politics, I knew he’d been funding his own nascent campaign.

The meeting was a revelation. I talk to many candidates, but I do not recall one who knew as little about Connecticut as Stefanowski did that day. Issues that have been debated in the public arena for decades — and matter to state residents — were new to the Madison Republican. To call him a political ignoramus would be a kindness. I recall a fleeting alarming thought that what a mess it would be if Stefanowski made it to this year’s Nov. 6 general election.

And what a mess it is. Candidates can learn, but they have to be interested. In

December, I attended Stefanowski’s unveiling of the tax plan he paid economist Arthur Laffer $75,000 to draft and defend. Stefanowski struggles to explain simple concepts. Here’s one. If the state repeals the income tax, which is the centerpiece of his campaign, how will there be enough money to pay for services such as aid to public schools and medical care for the neediest? His mantra is that a growing economy will do that. But it won’t if there’s no means to capture some of that growth through taxes for the public services that so many state residents expect.

Stefanowski has gotten no better in the months that have followed. He continues to seem oblivious to how government works. When WFSB’s Dennis House asked Stefanowski this fall what his policies would mean for the vulnerable children served by the Department of Children and Families, the candidate launched into his familiar story of how much it cost his elderly father to care for Stefanowski’s ailing mother.

I remain baffled that Stefanowski has not used the past year as a full-time candidate to become conversant in the basics of the governor’s job and the challenges he would face should the voters make the terrible mistake of electing him. By now, he should be able to explain where he’ll find some of those billions he insists can be cut from the state budget. When Stefanowski talks about public-private partnerships to fund transportation improvements, he refuses to say how the private partners will make money. The answer is that we would have to pay those investors with higher gas taxes or tolls. Stefanowski’s answers suggest he shares with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy a vast contempt for the public, playing us for fools.

Stefanowski is not alone in his disrespect for the public’s desire for serious answers to pressing questions. The most disheartening episode of this long campaign season may have been the encounter between the two major party candidates for attorney general, Republican Susan Hatfield and Democrat William Tong, streamed on WFSB’s website earlier this month.

Leapin’ lizards, what a punishing half-hour for viewers. Neither candidate acknowledged the attorney general’s primary responsibility: representing departments of the state government. It has nothing to do with criminal prosecutions, as Hatfield would have us believe. Its primary mission is not to drive businesses out of Connecticut, as Tong appears to want to do.

Hatfield, an early disciple of Donald Trump, and Tong, who seems to be running for mayor of Gotham at its darkest, are an insufferable duo. You’d need a heart of stone not to have felt some sorrow for earnest UConn law school dean Tim Fisher who posed questions that the candidates had no interest in answering. A high school debating competition would provide a more relevant experience for audience members.

Now and then the glories of democracy take a sabbatical. This is one of those years. Politicians got us into the long mess Connecticut is enduring. Sometimes I wonder if the way out is to leave some of these offices vacant for a few years. Could it get any worse?