According to staff at Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, when Gov. Dannel Malloy visited this afternoon in honor of the attraction’s 90th birthday, he was the first Connecticut chief executive to stop by on official business in 20 years.
“What the heck were they doing?” Malloy, a Democrat in the middle of his first term, said of his predecessors. “This is an important part of Connecticut and an important part of Bridgeport.”
Beardsley really is worth the visit. They’ve got a great collection. Malloy noted Roy Occhiogrosso, his senior advisor, threw a birthday party at the zoo for his children.
Those joining Malloy were fortunate enough to spend a bit of time with a six-day-old antelope that is not on public display. The governor fed the baby its bottle.
And later in the stop Malloy was able to get a bit closer to one of the tigers than the average visitor is allowed. He eyed the tiger warily.
In some ways those two encounters symbolized his first two legislative sessions.
During 2011 Malloy was on his honeymoon and had the General Assembly’s Democrats eating out of his hand…
But because 2012 is an election year for legislators, they were far less cooperative during the recently concluded session and exerted their independence as a separate branch of government…
