A Democrat has not been elected governor in Connecticut since 1986. Unaffiliated voters in the gubernatorial cycle break Republican. Connecticut voters enjoy the torture of a GOP governor and Democratic legislature.
Lowell Weicker, the Republican U.S. senator who lost his seat to Joe Lieberman in 1988 started the anti-Dem gubernatorial trend with his election as an independent in 1990. Since then it’s been 16 years of Republicans John Rowland and Jodi Rell. And now, according to polls, independents once again are leaning GOP. The latest Q Poll has Democrat Dan Malloy and Republican Tom Foley in a statistical dead heat.
Turnout in Connecticut cities is key for Malloy and first-term Democratic Congressman Jim Himes who defeated Chris Shays two years ago riding Barack Obama’s Bridgeport tsunami in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District that includes heavy GOP suburban towns. Voters seem cranky these days and that means some Dem candidates will be punished in November.
Bridgeport’s turnout drop off from the presidential to the gubernatorial cycle is larger than most suburban communities. Will the turnout in Connecticut cities reach 35 percent? If not, look out.
(Check out my daily webzine at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)
Incumbents are even starting to struggle in New England, where Jim Himes was one of two incumbents recently downgraded from “likely” to “leans” Democratic by Larry Sabato. The problem with Himes’ record of punishing success so that he can subsidize failure is the unintended, if not unexpected, consequence of distorting the economy. If one ignores the costs and does not take into account incentives, then Himes’ ideas are not so terrible. However, costs and incentives matter and have played a role in the public policy outcome of the past two years. Voters are getting more of what we have subsidized (failure) and less of what we punished (success) and are left paying the costs. While it has been an expensive experiment, it is at least comforting to see the results confirm every one of the previous social experiments in government-run economies.
I dont trust Malloy OR Foley- but I dislike Malloy more.Great reason to vote,huh?Himes seems like a nice guy, Debicella reminds me of the smarmy Greg Marmallard in “Animal House”