By CHRIS POWELL
Maybe Connecticut isn’t yet in the mood for competitive politics, but the most recent Nutmeg State Poll from the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center reports enough political dissatisfaction that, if it continues, might be the precursor of change.
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For the first time in years, according to the poll, more respondents disapprove than approve of Governor Lamont’s performance in office — 44% approving and 52% disapproving. With a large sample, 917 participants, the poll is plausible, as are the issues on which respondents say they are most dissatisfied with the governor: the state’s high cost of living, its high taxes, its weak economy, and expensive housing.
The decline in the governor’s standing might be partly a consequence of the rough primary he nevertheless won overwhelmingly for renomination by the Democrats just a few days before the poll was taken. Lamont’s challenger, far-left Hamden state Rep. Josh Elliott, spent heavily on advertising depicting the governor as the plutocratic “King Ned” striving to protect “the rich” against “fair share” taxes. Despite what has seemed like the Democratic Party’s frantic rush to the left, Elliott’s appeal to class war won him less than a third of the primary vote. But it also may have helped to legitimize grievances against state government generally.
The new poll still shows the governor with a substantial lead over his Republican challenger, Greenwich state Sen. Ryan Fazio, 52-37%. But Fazio has just started running television commercials, and the traditional Republican vote in recent elections for governor has been closer to 45%.
Of course the megalomania of President Trump, a Republican, will weigh heavily on the party’s candidates in Connecticut. But if, as the poll suggests, people are blaming not just Trump but also the governor for the high cost of living, Fazio may have a few things to talk to them about.
In any case the governor is seeking a third term at age 72 amid signs that many people want change. Not that change is always good, but what if people ever realize that it is seldom accomplished by re-electing people?
RAW PATRONAGE PORK: With a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars to draw on for his campaign, which he again is financing all by himself, and with Connecticut remaining a heavily Democratic state, the governor probably isn’t worried much about his prospects.
A sign of that confidence, if not arrogance, may have been the governor’s unannounced hiring of Miguel Cardona, the former state education commissioner and former U.S. education secretary, to be a highly paid consultant to an advisory commission the governor created this year to devise new ways of helping people find jobs in a changing economy. Cardona will chair the group as well as get paid to consult for it.
Since, upon his departure from the Biden administration, Cardona was widely regarded as the worst Education Department secretary in history, he may have needed help finding a job himself. The Connecticut Mirror reports that the Lamont administration will pay him $250,000 for consulting and that no other applicants were sought.
Cardona’s soft landing is the rawest patronage pork, confirmed by the governor’s attempt to hide its cost.
WORK, NOT WELFARE: Hysteria is sweeping the welfare and hospital business in Connecticut now that the federal government has directed state governments to enforce work requirements on Medicaid recipients who are able-bodied adults without dependents. They could lose their medical insurance unless they work at least part-time — 80 hours per month — or pursue job training.
State welfare and hospital officials fear that many Medicaid recipients won’t comply with the new policy and instead will crowd hospital emergency rooms when they lose their insurance, with their unpaid bills classified as “uncompensated care” having to be paid by state government or insured patients.
But the new requirements are reasonable. For as Theodore Roosevelt said, the first duty of a citizen is to pull his own weight. With the federal government $40 trillion in debt, able-bodied adults without dependents should pull their own weight and then some.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
Chris Powell column 