Stefanowski’s taste for secrecy may exceed Lamont’s
The campaign for governor is more a referendum on Democratic incumbent Ned Lamont than a straightforward rerun of his 2018 contest with Republican Bob Stefanowski.
The global pandemic caused the governor to play an outsized role in our daily lives for more than a year.
Lamont was a steady hand through a harrowing time for the state’s 3.3 million residents. He exercised his emergency powers prudently in the areas that mattered most. The governor was a force for getting children back to school as quickly as possible, though his reluctance to expend political capital meant he did not always respond resolutely to resistance.
As the pandemic receded, some bad habits returned. The governor contrived to keep the committee that advised him on the crucial reopening of state businesses shrouded in secrecy. After its work was done the sacrament of secrecy was honored at every opportunity. The governor and his aides continued to deny critical documents to the public for two years or more and was sanctioned by the Freedom of Information Commission this month.
There can be only one explanation to Lamont’s unceasing obstruction of the public’s view of the public’s business: He does not trust the people of Connecticut and their right to know how he uses his power.
The governor too often acts like a spectator in his own administration. Only recently through an intervention of a senior adviser has Lamont come to understand the mismanagement of the State Police. When federal criminal law served subpoenas on his administration, Lamont said he learned of it “in passing” from his legal counsel, Nora Dannehy. She’s the renowned former federal prosecutor of political corruption in Connecticut.
Lamont refuses to acknowledge his grievous error in disregarding the state law on how billions in school construction grants are to be administered, one area of the federal investigation. Lamont dooms himself and us to further embarrassments by refusing to acknowledge his blunder. So does his bizarre tolerance of alleged bullying by aides.
Lamont often prefers rhetoric remain a stranger from action. He aspired in 2020 to act as an instrument of racial equity, but his two appointments to the state Supreme Court have been white judges. Two black women appointed to top jobs in his administration complained about their treatment by his aides. Lamont declined to criticize the University of Connecticut Board
of Trustees for their shabby treatment of the school’s first Black coach of the men’s basketball team, Kevin Ollie. The administration and board’s gross negligence cost $15 million. Lamont remains inert in the face of injustice.
The Ollie outrage was only the most vivid example of Lamont’s disinterest in higher education. He failed to break the grip of UConn bureaucrats on the selection of a new university president. The governor is too often blind to opportunities to innovate in higher education and elsewhere.
Lamont spent $2 million on a study by his friends at Boston Consulting Group on how to adapt to a wave of state employee retirements. He hailed the report’s conclusion and then did … nothing. Judging by his tweets, Lamont wants to improve the state’s economy as much as he would like the world to recognize the quality of Connecticut pizza, which is to say, a lot.
The displeasure of one rich Greenwich friend caused Lamont to abandon his own proposal for the nation’s first state tax on sugary drinks the day after he unveiled it. I’ve seen the emails and they are stunning in revealing the veto he extends to the wealthy.
And yet and yet and yet. The candidate Republicans chose reminds us that party is disappearing as a serious force in Connecticut. Stefanowski’s taste for secrecy may exceed Lamont’s and is on full display as he continues to refuse to provide details of his lucrative and ongoing Saudi Arabian business dealings.
Four years ago, Stefanowski ran promising to repeal the state income tax. He could not explain the consequences of the tax plan from cloud land. This year he’s complained that the state’s finances are too robust. He wants to pillage the state’s rainy day fund. Connecticut’s improved finances are due in large measure to the 2017 bipartisan budget that imposed discipline and limits on spending.
Stefanowski’s been a Republican, then a Democrat and back to a Republican in the last six years. The odyssey reflects his unmoored views. Stefanowski’s running mate, state Rep. Laura Devlin, voted for what Stefanowski would destroy.
The elements of a case for change were there from the start of this dreary campaign. Robert of Arabia chose to ignore them and has ceded the field to Lamont, who is on course for a convincing win.