CONNTACT.COM

Gubernatorial candidates spar, ineffectively, at biz expo

HARTFORD — The six white, middle-aged (or slightly beyond) men who would lead Connecticut into the yawning maw of the next four years made their pitches to the business community at the June 10 Connecticut Business Expo at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.

It was not pretty.

L-r: Moderator Insana, Fedele, Griebel,
Lamont, Marsh, Malloy and Foley.

Moderated by CNBC program host Ron Insana (who also was the lunchtime keynoter), the panel discussion featured Democratic and Republican party-endorsed candidates Ned Lamont and Tom Foley, respectively, as well as Democrat rival Dannel Malloy, GOP challengers Oz Griebel and Michael Fedele and independent Tom Marsh.

The theme of the discussion was “Jobs for Connecticut,” and all six candidates acknowledged that Connecticut trails the other 49 states in job creation. They also agreed that the state needs to encourage the creation of new companies, attract existing companies from elsewhere and retain the (few) private employers that remain here.

That’s where agreement pretty much ended.

On the GOP side, Griebel, the one-time Bank of Boston executive who is president of the MetroHartford Alliance, voiced the most unvarnished pro-business tones, noting that the state’s yawning $3 billion-plus budget gap could be reconciled only by reducing the size of state government and forcing wage concessions down the throats of state workers. Griebel also expressed doubt that state government could effectively target specific industries to incentivize — the “cluster” strategy that was the hallmark of the Rowland administration. “Let the market decide where to allocate [investment] capital,” he said.

Fedele, the lieutenant governor whose campaign has tried but to date failed to leverage the incumbency card, said he would empanel a business council and subject every proposed piece of legislation to a “business analysis.” He also promised to veto anti-business legislation — which as his boss knows doesn’t count for much when the Democrats hold a super-majority in both houses.

Former U.S. ambassador to Ireland Foley, who announced that he had to leave the session early for another “obligation” (always a bad move!) appeared oddly unengaged. He seemed better at defining the problems (“poor leadership and poor policy”) than solutions (he pledged to convene a task force when he assumes office next January 5 (as if). The Foley money quote: “State government seems determined to make this place impossible in which to do business.” No argument there.

The Democrats needed to be a bit more acrobatic to mollify the audience of business people, and they mostly were. Lieberman-slayer (in the primary, anyway) Lamont lamented the fact that companies like Alexion Pharmaceuticals find it more cost-effective to locate major production facilities out of state (in this case, Smithfield, R.I.) because “The other states are on offense” with regard to economic-development. He would triple funding for Connecticut Innovations Inc., the state’s quasi-public technology investment arm, ever-confident of the ability of state bureaucrats to choose winners and losers.

Fourteen-year Stamford mayor Malloy, who once worked as a prosecutor in Brooklyn, N.Y., promised to raid New York to recruit companies seeking refuge from the even-more-fiscally-challenged-if-that-is-possible Empire State. He promised if elected to consolidate the 200-plus existing state agencies “by one-third, at least.” Which would be, frankly, awesome.

Then there was poor Tom Marsh, the bald, proudly independent first selectman of Chester (Chester!). He promised to raise the 7,500 signatures necessary to be on the November ballot against the two primary-winners. “Everyone up here is running away from their parties,” he asserted of the five others onstage. “I don’t have a party to run away from — that’s why I’m running as an independent. I know it’s kind of a long shot,” he added, “but I’m staying in this thing because I believe in Connecticut and I want to influence the debate.”

Maybe he already has.