Photo illustration by Neil Vigdor.
Let them eat Snickers.
Connecticut Democrats likened Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton to Marie Antoinette Monday following a Twitter exchange between the Republican and a local high school student over a lack of heat in her classroom.
The female Danbury High School student took to social media to vent her frustrations over the lack of heat.
@janexx3 No heat until trick or treat.
— MayorMark (@MayorMark) October 28, 2013
Multiple students Tweeted back to Boughton, who is both running for mayoral re-election and exploring a run for governor in 2014, that they were freezing.
“Mayor Mark Boughton has established himself as the modern day Marie Antoinette candidate in the race for governor” James Hallinan, a spokesman for the Connecticut Democratic Party, said in a statement. “Students without heat pleaded with the mayor to get the heat turned on so they could concentrate on their studies, but Mayor Mark Boughton essentially said, ‘let them eat cake.’
Boughton said his Twitter banter was all in good fun and that the heat at Danbury High School was turned on Oct. 15. He did acknowledge that a boiler had malfunctioned and that the city was working to fix the problem.
“Must be a very, very slow news cycle up at Democratic headquarters,” Boughton told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers. “If they know anything about my relationship here with students, they know we’re having a good time. It’s just part of the repartee that we have.”
Boughton, a former school teacher, missed an opportunity to school the state Democratic Party on French history, however.
The consensus among many historians is that Marie Antoinette never said, “Let them eat cake.”
This kerfuffle should have its own hot and cold soundtrack.