GARY, IN – OCTOBER 01: U.S. President Barack Obama waves after stepping off Air Force One at Gary/Chicago International Airport to begin a two-day visit to the Chicago area on October 1, 2014 in Gary, Indiana. The president’s plane landed in Gary instead of Chicago because Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is still struggling to return to normal flight operations following last weeks sabotage of a suburban FAA radar facility by a contract worker. The sabotage disrupted air travel nationwide and caused more than 2,000 flights to be cancelled at O’Hare airport. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
You won’t find Gov. Dannel P. Malloy inside the belly of “the Beast” — the Secret Service nickname for the presidential limousine — when Barack Obama comes to Connecticut.
Now, whether that’s a good thing for Democratic governor in a Democratic state facing midterm election slog, we’ll leave that to the spin machine at both ends of the political spectrum.
Malloy will be conspicuously absent Tuesday evening when Obama returns to Connecticut for a $10,000 and up per plate fundraiser in backcountry Greenwich.
Malloy’s senior campaign adviser, Mark Bergman, pointed out that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is putting on the event and that it is not connected with the governor’s re-election.
Hinting that Obama could return to the Nutmeg State in the final month of the campaign, Bergman said that Malloy is not in the least be slighted by the president’s visit for a cause other than helping the governor.
“No, absolutely not,” Bergman told Hearst Connecticut Media. “I think the president is clearly coming for a different reason, other than to campaign for us. At the end of the day, we’re proud to have the president come whenever he’s able to. He came for the governor in 2010 and we expect to see him here again soon.”
Bergman said he didn’t know whether Malloy had been invited to the fundraiser, which will be held at the Conyers Farm estate of Democratic power couple Richard and Ellen Schapps Richman.
Malloy’s approval rating sank to 40 percent in a Sept. 10 Quinnipiac University poll, which was conducted on the heels of visits by Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton to the state to campaign for the governor.
“As you’ve seen, the vice president has been here. President Clinton has been here,” Bergman said. “High profile surrogates are committed to campaigning for the governor, and we’ll see that in the final weeks.”