Exclusive: Obama to stump for Malloy in Bridgeport

The POTUS always rings twice.

For the second time in eight days, President Barack Obama is heading to Connecticut, this time to fire up the Democratic base for endangered Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in the state’s most populous city, Bridgeport.

Obama will travel to the Park City on the evening of Oct. 15 for a rally with the first term governor, a person familiar with the planning of the event told Hearst Connecticut Media on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to announce the details.

The White House is expected to formally announce the visit this afternoon, which comes less than 48 hours after Obama swooped into Greenwich for a VIP fundraising dinner to help Democrats protect their majority in the U.S. Senate.

Malloy was conspicuously absent at the dinner, where some VIPs paid up to $32,400 to see the president.

Malloy’s campaign previously noted that the event was not connected with the governor’s re-election effort.

Bridgeport is crucial for Malloy to avoid becoming the first governor since John Davis Lodge in the 1950s to be ousted after just one term.

In 2010, Malloy won 81 percent of the vote in Bridgeport en route to a 6,400-vote victory statewide over Republican Tom Foley.

Malloy was tied with Foley in the most recent Quinnipiac University gubernatorial poll.

In recent months, Malloy’s administration committed to building a second train station in the city’s East End to try to spur development on a former industrial site.

The last time Malloy was seen with Obama was in March, when the president visited New Britain to promote his minimum wage agenda, shown in the photograph above.

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