A few years ago, I interviewed all the candidates for Governor and came away with the impression that Dan Malloy was a policy wonk that would make Connecticut work better. The gist back then in June of 2006;

In the past six years, Main Street in Middletown has changed from empty store-fronts to a more pedestrian inviting look of small businesses like Java Palooza. It’s the kind of small scale growth that has been a small bright spot for the Connecticut economy recently. In this setting it seemed natural that chatting with Malloy would turn to themes of the Connecticut economy.

“I think Connecticut has some surprising opportunities” said Malloy. “We have the capacity to compete in more areas than people think.”

To Malloy, Connecticut is a land of opportunity, but he admits that he worries more about what happens if Connecticut doesn’t change course.

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For weeks, in some cases months, the campaign to become the next fill-in-the-blank has been occupying the best and brightest political flunkie minds. Oh, maybe not, but there’s certainly been a fair amount of trees sacrificed to the alter of why the “other guy” is is bad, American pie is good, and bright photos of aging white men who want you to think they can rock the house, legislatively that is. Then there’s Linda McMahon, who no longer wants to rock the ring, is not an aging white man, and plans to introduce chair throwing as a debating tactic in the Senate. But that’s a post for little later.

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A scan of the news headlines concerning the race to become the governor of Connecticut reveals that we still haven’t gotten over our fixation over the race itself. Tom Foley wants you to know that he’s filed a lawsuit against Mike Fedele because Foley’s campaign doesn’t want Fedele’s campaign to qualify for $2 million in public funding.

Dan Malloy’s campaign wants you to know that Ned Lamont is too chicken to debate him. Ned Lamont’s campaign says Ned is working hard on speaking to the voters directly.

Oz Griebel still can’t get his name into the headlines.

What they’re all saying, somewhere buried in all this campaign news, is that they’re the guy to turn Connecicut around and create jobs.

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A debate was held in Stamford featuring all 5 major party candidates for Governor? Yes indeedy there are are five.

For the Republicans we have:

Tom Foley – the Republican convention nominee

Mike Fedele

Oz Griebel

For the Democrats we have:

Dan Malloy – The Democratic convention nominee

Ned Lamont

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from a press release:

MALLOY RESPONDS TO DPUC DRAFT DECISION ON RATE HIKE

June 14, 2010 – Dan Malloy, the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate for Governor, today responded to the Department of Public Utility Control’s draft decision to reduce Connecticut Light & Power’s requested rate increase by nearly half, to less than 14 percent.  In recent months Malloy has spoken out against the proposed rate increases, and has called for a comprehensive statewide effort to promote energy efficiency, lower consumption, invest in renewable energy, and drive down electricity prices.  A final decision from DPUC is expected at the end of the month.

Said Malloy:

“This is a decent start, but I will continue to urge DPUC to deny CL&P’s requested increase outright.  At a time when Connecticut consumers are paying the highest electric rates in the continental United States we simply should not allow CL&P to overburden them further.

“The fact is, DPUC shouldn’t even be in a position where it has to make this choice.  Connecticut’s energy crisis is due to years and years of inaction from state leadership that has allowed our energy usage and costs to spiral out of control. That lack of planning is costing us jobs by driving out businesses that refuse to pay exorbitant energy costs, and it is suffocating consumers already struggling to make ends meet.  As Governor, I’ll make energy efficiency and consumption hallmarks of my effort to make Connecticut a more competitive, more business-friendly, and more affordable place to live.”

Malloy recently put forth his ideas for addressing the state’s energy needs, which can be viewed at www.danmalloy.com/policy/energy.

This morning’s inbox was full of poll press releases. “We gained,” said Malloy’s team. “We’re ahead,” said Lamont’s team. We irrelevant said the missing GOP press releases from Foley’s team. So until the Democratic deathmatch primary occurs in August, or until Mike Fedele figures out he has to er, campaign more visibly, this race is all Lamont promising to be about as effective as Rell has been in creating jobs in Connecticut (really think about it what was that tech company he ran) and Malloy promising to be a different type of candidate.

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Dan Malloy wins the Democratic Party nomination in an overwhelming 2 to 1 margin over Ned Lamont. If we recall, okay, if I recall in 2006 it was a squeaker of a vote between Malloy and John Destefano, who later went on to beat Malloy in a primaary and then lose overwhelmingly to Rell.

The first bit ‘o news out of this is that Ned Lamont plans on a primary. Someone should have that 2006 election map of the governor’s race emailed over to Ned.

Norwalk Delegates voted:

Malloy: 30
Lamont: 7

This week is kinda like super bowl week, but entirely for political junkies. This is the week that both the Republicans and Democrats convene up for their state conventions, where they get together to catch up under the guise of nominating who will be candidates for the state offices. Let me take a step back and say, why is this system any better than just having a statewide run off race to determine candidates. What exactly are the political parties bringing to the table? When we look closely, we see things like the city of Hartford, population circa 124k, according to Courant columnist Colin McEnroe, who in 2007 elected Mayor Eddie Perez with a vote of around 6500 from a total of 14,000 votes. Did the two party system serve Hartfrod particulary well at the municipal level? We certainly know the answer at the state level now, just look at the crap that was passed as a “balanced budget.”

But all that’s for another post. Today we check into the race to be run races.

Today Republican Gubernatorial candidate Mike Fedele announces his running mate, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.

Earlier Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont announced Mary Glassman as his running mate. And Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy announced Nancy Wyman as his running mate.

All the running mates, are currently in office, and essentially running for the spot that Mike Fedele occupies as Lt. Governor. There are other candidates running for Governor who have not announced running mates. Notably Republican Tom Foley. At this rate, we might be running out of currently in office candidates who aren’t running for something else.

Quinnipiac put a poll in the field March 9 through March 15th, and today released a statement on the results:

Among Democrats, 44 percent of voters are undecided, while businessman Ned Lamont gets 28 percent to Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy’s 18 percent. No other candidate tops 4 percent.

As I’ve said elsewhere, polls this far out aren’t terribly meaningful in terms of head to head match-ups and, as others have pointed out, with 44 percent undecided this is still wide open.

What I find interesting about this poll is that Malloy hasn’t spent a dime on paid advertising, it has been all earned media. And Malloy and the campaign has really earned every bit of it, by being the hardest working candidate that I’ve ever seen, putting out substantive statements all the time, offering tons of video, regular email updates to supporters, and so on.

Malloy’s vote share has moved 7 points without spending a dime. Ned hasn’t spent any money on paid media either, and he’s moved but a point. That tells me that the Malloy campaign’s focus on issues, on shoe leather campaigning, on direct contact with the voters, is working. The time will come for paid media, and when it does, Malloy will be competitive.

As far as it goes, this is good news for Malloy.
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One week ago today, Dan Malloy officially became a candidate for Governor.
Video:

Malloy continued his torrid pace of appearances, appearing on WFSB’s Face the State, answering questions from panelists Daniela Altimari of The Hartford Courant, Ted Mann of The Day, and host Dennis House.
Video (thanks to ctblogger):

Malloy’s Sunday appearances included a conversation with Connecticut Newsmakers host Tom Monahan.
Video (thanks again to ctblogger):

There’s more after the jump…
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