Not even Wolf Blitzer could assemble this lineup.
As Connecticut’s high-stakes governor’s race builds to a crescendo, the candidates are pulling out all the stops to be seen with their respective party’s standard bearers, from a sitting president to a former president to a presidential prospect.
Yes, it’s sweeps week in the Constitution State.
It started Friday, with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, whose name has been linked to U.S. attorney general vacancy, campaigning with his Connecticut counterpart and fellow Democrat Dannel P. Malloy in Hartford. The neighboring governors trumpeted legislation that puts Connecticut on a path toward raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, choosing the date of 10/10 for its symbolism for their joint appearance.
On Saturday, the Democratic National Committee will dispatch its chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to Hartford, where she will host a roundtable with Malloy on the women’s agenda of their party. A rally will follow.
For Malloy, the appetizer will give way to the main course on Monday, when former President Bill Clinton returns to the state to rally Democrats at the Learning Corridor, an educational facility in Hartford that includes a Montessori magnet school, a public middle school, a magnet high school and theater.
On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will make his fourth trip to Connecticut since July to campaign for fellow Republican, Tom Foley, in Rocky Hill. Early indications are that Christie, the head of the Republican Governors Association and 2016 presidential prospect, will visit a farm with Foley. A fifth Christie appearance is also in the works, Foley revealed Thursday following a televised debate.
President Barack Obama will spend hump day (Wednesday) in Bridgeport, a get that the Malloy campaign hopes will get the governor over the hump in the state’s largest city. Obama will headline a rally for Malloy in the evening, marking the second trip in eight days for the president to Connecticut. He was in Greenwich on Tuesday for a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraising dinner.
To round out the week, Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal will stump for Foley on Friday at a Connecticut GOP fundraiser in West Hartford. In February, Jindal had a run-in outside the White House with Malloy after members of the National Governors Association met with Obama.
Malloy will spend Friday evening at a cocktail fundraiser for the Connecticut Democrats at a SoHo art gallery with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who Foley warned in a television ad would drive New Yorkers across the border with his communist agenda after de Blasio’s election last November.
Before all is said and done, Foley is expected to trot out former presidential candidate, publishing magnate and flat-tax proponent Steve Forbes to campaign for him.
So do all these surrogates move the needle?
“My overriding belief is that the issues and economic struggles facing Connecticut’s citizens supersede any fascination with national surrogates,” Jerry Labriola Jr., the state GOP chairman, told Hearst Connecticut Media Friday.