CT Post: DeStefano Keeps Eye on the Prize

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CT Post: DeStefano Keeps Eye on the Prize

The Connecticut Post August 13, 2006

By Ken Dixon

Speaking to several reporters one day after his 4,100-vote victory over Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy, DeStefano was asked how much campaign cash is left. He reached into a pants pocket, pulled out a handful of change and looked at it. "We have at least 80 cents," he said with a smile.

But now, the goal that he's been working toward for more than two years is in sight.

All DeStefano has to do is raise about $3 million more, take his campaign at Rell and become the first Democratic governor since William A. O'Neill left office more than a quarter century ago.

Feeling loose on the day after the primary, DeStefano joked when asked to talk about possible new strategies.

"I think I'm changing from coffee to Red Bull," he quipped. "I think that gave me a higher level of caffeination. I started doing it the last week of the campaign and my hands haven't stopped moving." But the battle shaping up for the governor's race will most likely become more contentious than even the final couple of weeks of DeStefano's primary campaign against Malloy that was marred by hard-hitting attack ads and charges over who was doing a better job governing their city.

Rell's been watching from the relative safety of the political sidelines, raising more than $1.7 million this year after refusing to accept lobbyist and state-contractor contributions. She said last week she's prepared to bring voters a record forged with a Democratic Legislature since taking office after the resignation of John G. Rowland, the disgraced former governor.

DeStefano uses the terms "the Rowland-Rell administration" to include Rell's nine-and-a-half years as lieutenant governor that preceded her ascension to governor on July 1, 2004. DeStefano's campaign touch stones are phrases such as "working families," "universal health care," property taxes and jobs. After a few days off, he'll try to gain some traction against Rell and her 75-percent approval rating as the Nov. 7 election slowly draws closer.

Health benefits for hourly wage workers and equal pay for women will also be among the campaign issues that DeStefano, 51, will arm himself to do battle with Rell, 60.

"Gov. Rell doesn't think the state needs universal health care," DeStefano says. "I do. Gov. Rell thinks the property-tax problem in the state is the automobile tax. It's not. It's house taxes that are forcing seniors out of their homes." DeStefano, whose wife, Kathy, is a first-grade teacher, also criticizes Rell on education.

"Gov. Rell doesn't think it's a problem that we continue to let prekindergartners enter kindergarten without being ready to learn," he says. "That's the case that's got to be made and it's got to be made to the general public." Rell last week dismissed the early campaign rhetoric.

"These kinds of comments will come up," she told reporters. "I'm very proud of the accomplishments we've made together over the last two-and-a-half years." Rell, a Republican who has to deal with solid Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, points out major legislative initiatives, including support of stem-cell research, campaign-finance reform and this year's expansion of the billion-dollar-plus transportation program of 2005.

"They talked about that for 20 years and I did that in 20 months," she said.

She also has the power of incumbency and with it, control of the State Bond Commission, which formally doles out funding approved earlier by the General Assembly.

On Friday, Rell's office issued a news release touting the imminent approval of $459 million for new rail cars for the New Haven and Shore Line East commuter lines. Rell has included this on the agenda of the next Bond Commission meeting on Friday.

Rich Harris, Rell's campaign spokesman, said Wednesday that the governor is ready to dispute many of DeStefano's claims.

"He's promising on one hand to create 200,000 jobs and on the other he's closing in on a billion dollars in new taxes," Harris said.

"He's got $350 million in new businesses taxes for health care, which is going to send employers out of this state in droves; $450 million in new energy taxes; $100 million in a half-millionaire's tax and various and sundry assorted taxes," Harris said. "And that was all before he won the nomination." Harris called DeStefano's plan for mass-transit improvements a "fantasy land" package. "John DeStefano has never had a proposal that he didn't think a tax increase couldn't fix," Harris said.