Political Capitol

The media and Internet are abuzz with the news that poker-faced former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont of Greenwich has formed an exploratory committee to run for an unspecified statewide office (meaning Governor, wink, wink, wink) in 2010.

Outgoing Democratic Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, who several months ago formed his own gubernatorial exploratory committee, issued a statement entitled “Malloy Responds To Lamont News” that talks mostly about Malloy’s own vision for Connecticut and his successes running the state’s fifth largest city.

Only then does he begrudgingly welcome Lamont to the fray.

“I’ve known Ned for many years and consider him a friend,” Malloy said. “I welcome him into the discussion about Connecticut’s future.”

My previous blog post speculated on what the Democrats’ loss of Stamford’s mayor’s race might mean for Malloy as he pursues the gubernatorial nomination.

Reading between the lines of Malloy’s statement Lamont’s announcement clearly is not welcome news.

UPDATE: Kudos to Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, who is also eyeing the Democratic gubernatorial  nomination. He issued a simple and far more positive-sounding statement about Lamont’s entering the race.

“Ned will add another voice to the important discussion we’re having about Connecticut’s future, and I welcome him to the table. As a friend, I look forward to seeing him on the trail,” Marconi said.

Stamford Democratic Mayor Dannel Malloy has yet to officially declare his candidacy for governor in 2010. He is still exploring whether to seek the party’s nomination now that he is leaving local elected office after 14 years.

Malloy has been acting more and more like a gubernatorial candidate, weighing in on statewide issues and rarely missing an opportunity to criticize Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who has yet to make her re-election intentions known.

But some expect tonight’s victory of Mike Pavia, the Republican candidate for mayor, over Democrat David Martin will take a bit of the wind out of Malloy’s sails.

I’m told by Advocate colleagues far more familiar with the Stamford mayoral race that Martin was not the favorite of some local Democratic leaders and was not considered Malloy’s hand-picked successor.

At one point this summer Malloy in an interview distanced himself from the nomination process, saying: “In the old days you’d have a knock-down, drag-out Democratic brawl, and if I’ve done anything politically here, it’s to move beyond those days.”

Even so, Martin has spent the past eight of his 26 years on the city’s Board of Representatives as chairman. In less political-insiderish terms, that means for over half of Malloy’s term as mayor Martin has essentially been head of the city council, sharing successes and failures.

So when I outlined all the above earlier today to Professor Gary Rose, head of Sacred Heart University’s politics department, and asked if a Martin loss might impact Malloy’s gubernatorial prospects, Rose said yes.

“There seems to be a certain association here with Malloy that I think probably does make this election somewhat – somewhat – of a referendum on Malloy’s leadership,” Rose said. “There is something here that binds these two to a certain extent … It’s not velcro but the two of them are linked … If he (Martin) is rejected and the Republican wins that can be exploited as perhaps a development that is not in Malloy’s interest. It could have consequences for the (gubernatorial) nomination.”

Rose said he would not be surprised if some of Malloy’s potential opponents for the Democratic nod for governor use the loss against him and say “look what happened to Dan. The voters turned against his candidate.”

Former House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, the only declared Democratic candidate for governor, said by phone this afternoon a Martin loss would certainly be a blow to Malloy.

“If he doesn’t think it’s any sort of reflection on him, it’s dead wrong,” Amann said

Chris Healy, chairman of the state Republican Party, also appeared eager to use a Republican victory in Stamford against Malloy.

“It undercuts Malloy and his claims of a great legacy,” Healy said.

As a follow-up to the previous blog post about the controversy surrounding the film and television production tax credits being claimed by Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment I decided to reach out to a couple of state legislators who have been involved with the business incentive.

The first, former House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, who is currently seeking the Democratic nomination to run for Governor in 2010, helped spearhead the tax credit legislation a few years back.

The second, Rep. Patricia Widlitz, D-Guilford, was part of a small committee of legislators established earlier this year to recommend changes to the tax credits in light of the state’s budget crisis.

I asked Amann if Connecticut should have prevented established companies like WWE from taking advantage of the credits. Some critics have argued WWE was a successful company long-before the credits came along and should not have been able to hop on board the gravy train.

“That would have been silly,” Amann said. “Don’t we want to pump up our own companies first? Certainly you wanted to see what we could do to help them.”

Widlitz said the point of the credits is to encourage companies “to do more work in Connecticut, including existing businesses.”

But what about cutting the companies off after a while?

“Absolutely not,” Widlitz said. “As soon as you do that another state will entice them away with a better deal.”