The media doesn’t have a patent on gotcha questions, as Republican gubernatorial contender Tom Foley learned Tuesday.
Against the backdrop of a dying paper mill in the southeastern Connecticut town of Sprague, Foley blamed the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for the plant’s scheduled closing in September and loss of 140 jobs.
The most penetrating questions didn’t come from reporters, but rather state Sen. Cathy Osten, who is also the town’s first selectman.
“Have you reached out to the first selectman of Sprague?” Osten asked.
“No I haven’t,” Foley said.
“Have you reached out to the union president?”
“No I have not.”
Foley tried to avert the hijacking of his news conference, but to not avail, with Osten accusing him of grandstanding and not having all the facts about Fusion Paperboard closing its Sprague mill.
“Excuse, this is my interview,” Foley responded.
“This may be your press conference but eastern Connecticut is extremely important to me,” said Osten, whose tete-a-tete with Foley was captured by a tracker from the Connecticut Democratic Party.
The most heated exchange between the two comes at the 5-minute mark of the video, with Osten telling Foley that the mill is closing because the private equity firm that owns it was trying to maximize profits the way Foley’s private equity firm did when a textile manufacturer closed one of its plants in Georgia in the late 1990s.
“You sold off the company as an investment firm to make money,” Osten said.
Foley has said that his ownership stake in Bibb Co. ended in 1996, three years before the textile manufacturer closed its Columbus, Ga., plant and that his private equity firm had invested significant capital in Bibb.
Foley countered that policies of Democrats such as her and the governor drove the mill to close and said that Malloy’s administration erred when it awarded a $3 million low-interest loan to Fusion Paperboard.
“You failed at your effort to keep these jobs here,” Foley said. “You have wasted taxpayers money.”
The Day newspaper of New London reported that Fusion Paperboard will be required to pay back the state for the entire loan, in addition to a $150,000 penalty.
Foley’s campaign said Osten’s rant was coordinated by Democratic political operatives.
“Tom was very respectful and let her say what she wanted to say,” said Chris Cooper, a spokesman for Foley. “She wasn’t interested in having a discussion.”