State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford appeared before the New Canaan Democratic Town Committee Tuesday night to try and shore up the support of potential delegates to May’s nominating convention for U.S. Senate.
Tong represents the town in Hartford and, as he emphasized to NCDTC members, he really, really needs folks from his legislative district to back his upstart bid for higher office.
“I cannot get this done without New Canaan. I just can’t,” Tong told the group, whose chairwoman has already endorsed U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy.
Tong is battling Murphy and former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz for the nomination to seek the Senate seat being vacated by Joseph “independent Democrat” Lieberman.
Tong’s appearance Tuesday night was meant to be brief but got extended when his candidacy was questioned by NCDTC member Anita Peters. She wanted to know how Tong was any different from Murphy, considered the front-runner.
Tong and Bysiewicz have portrayed Murphy as having accomplished little in Congress and too cozy with the financial services folks at the root of the nation’s economic debacle.
In response to Peters, Tong levelled a new charge.
“At the height of the financial crisis (in 2009) he (Murphy) hired as his chief of staff the chief lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association,” Tong said. “That’s not a judgement I would have made.”
That chief of staff is Francis Creighton.
You can read more about Creighton at Georgetown University’s alumni site.
And it’s not difficult to get a sense of what Creighton was up to representing mortgage bankers in D.C. Google his name and “Mortgage Bankers Association.” Here’s an example. Here’s another. And another. And he wasn’t that popular on Daily Kos back in early 2009.
Tong campaign manager Marc Bradley piled on today when I asked the campaign to further explain Tong’s criticism.
“It’s just common sense that you wouldn’t hire an arsonist to help put out a fire – would you?” Bradley said. “When predatory lending practices by Wall Street banks nearly brought down our nation’s economy, Chris Murphy’s chief of staff was lobbying to protect the very mortgage lenders that got us into this mess.”
Kenny Curran, Murphy’s manager, responded: “I guess Rep. Tong feels the only way he can impress people is to tear down Chris, but he should at least argue the issues instead of attacking the people on his staff who work hard for our state.”
Murphy’s hiring of Creighton actually came up during his last race. In 2009 it was Republican Justin Bernier raising the questions: “Rep. Chris Murphy hired the mortgage industry’s head lobbyist as his chief of staff. Francis Creighton, Chris Murphy’s chief of staff as of today, was vice president and chief lobbyist of the Mortgage Bankers Association. MBA is the lobbying arm of the mortgage corporations that received billions of dollars in bailout money through the ‘TARP’ program.”
KENSINGTON, CT 06037
GOVN’T RELATIONS AND POLITICALCON
| TONG, WILLIAM M VIA TEAM TONG 2012 |
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So will anyone other than the Tong campaign care about Creighton? Maybe.
Tom Swan, as head of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, has little patience for big banks and big mortgage lenders seperately. Put them together in an association…
I ran Tong’s accusations past Swan, whose group’s endorsement is, he said, being courted by both Tong and Murphy.
Swan said Murphy’s hiring of Creighton “might” concern him.
“I would want to do more research. I don’t know enough about this person, about their role, about anything,” he said.