Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, Speaker Sharkey (“fake’), Malloy (“What the hell does that mean?”) pile on Foley’s urban agenda

tom and heatherSpeaker of the House Brendan Sharkey (below, photo by Dixon) calls out Republican Tom Foley (left, photo by Dixon) as a “fake” in a made-for-the-news-media attack with Democratic members of the legislative Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. Rep. Bruce Morris (Sharkey’s thumb is on his tie), speaking for lawmakers in 11 cities representing more than a million state residents, endorsed Gov Malloy’s (to Sharkey’s right) urban agenda. Malloy took the opportunity to join Sharkey in attacking Foley’s “pride and prosperity” urban agenda. “Its plagiarism has been widely reported,” Malloy said. “Clearly Mr. Foley has gone to Tea Party think tanks to come up with urban policy. It’s interesting that he keeps inviting (New Jersey) Gov. (Chris) Christy here. Gov. Christy in other states is criticizing Democrats for plagiarism, but when it comes to Republicans it’s hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil…By the way, let me just point something out to you: He denied plagiarism and then he blamed somebody else for it. Just like he denies bankruptcy and then he blames somebody else for it. Just like he denies laying off people and blames circumstances for it….It’s quit historic in its lack of understanding of urban issues and quite frankly, quite historic for its lack of understanding of things we’re already doing.” Malloy said Foley’s platform “is a wholesale attack on schools.” On housing, Malloy got entangled in Foley’s first-person agenda. “I will spread low-income housing throughout the community so it is not concentrated in large public housing projects,” Malloy read off Foley’s website. “Okay. I understand that.” He then read Foley’s next paragraph: “I will promote an active and buoyant private housing market by insuring that public housing policy doesn’t destroy the private hosing market in cities.”

 

“What the hell does that mean?” Malloy asked, not once but twice. “Here we are proving a model where we stand alongside of the private market, where we actually fund private market housing development with affordable components. This guy is so far out of touch when it comes to an urban agenda, it’s unbelievable. And you have to go no further than this largely plagiarized document.”

Next up was Sharkey. “I am astounded, frankly, that in the four years that since this governor took office that there is any doubt in anyone’s mind about the progress that has occurred in the state of Connecticut. This governor has done the things that we in the Legislature have tried to do for 20 years under Republican leadership and it never went anywhere…We have done more in the last four years I think to further the betterment of our urban centers in education, in housing, in job creation, in employment, in training for those jobs, in human services, in a way that was not even happening in the state of Connecticut prior to Gov Malloy taking office. When I look at the agenda and the message from Tom Foley, there is only one word that describes him in my mind and that is fake. He is a fake. He has no concept to actually run the state of Connecticut.”brendan