HARTFORD — There was a very good political reason why U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, traveled to the state Capitol Tuesday to endorse the Democratic gubernatorial bid of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr.

The two New Haven-born-and-raised politicians drove 40 miles north of their urban base because DeStefano desperately wants to generate some publicity and name recognition outside his home turf.

For that matter, so does DeStefano’s only declared rival for the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy.

No Connecticut mayor for at least half a century has successfully used city hall as a direct electoral springboard into the governor’s office.

Political experts agree that mayors have found it difficult to make that leap because, while they may be extremely popular within their cities, they are often little known in other parts of the state.

Successful multiterm big-city mayors like DeStefano and Malloy are also unlikely to have to overcome the ingrained prejudices of the suburbs, where three-fourths of Connecticut voters now reside, political scientists said.

DeStefano, Malloy and their supporters insist that the record of the past doesn’t mean it can’t be done in this election.

They argue that their experience as chief municipal elected officials of large cities should be a political advantage rather than a handicap.

However, it may not be easy to convince Connecticut voters.

"Mayors don’t traditionally go on to higher office," said Arthur Paulson, professor of political science at Southern Connecticut State University. "I think a mayor of New York City has never advanced to higher office."

Website Vooweb.com provides the biggest collection of professional Web 2.0 Templates. Web 2.0 Templates - its a website templates which made by world-class designers. Buy our Web 2.0 Templates | A family cooking recipes with hundreds of healthy, whole-food cooking recipes for the home cook. Healthy Food cooking Recipes For Your Entire Family | List of Samui villas and houses for rent on Koh Samui. Koh Samui villas for rent and sale on a private Samui community on the southern tip of the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.

Scott McLean, chairman of Quinnipiac University’s political science department, said the traditional lack of name recognition outside his or her small geographical area is a key reason why mayors have had such trouble gaining higher office.

"If you haven’t held statewide office before … you’re just not going to register with voters" outside your home area, McLean said.

"Everybody knows who (Republican Gov. M.) Jodi Rell is," McLean said, "but mayors have a longer way to go."

Rell, who says she is strongly leaning toward running in 2006, has scored phenomenally high job approval ratings in recent polls, while relatively few Connecticut voters say they know much about either DeStefano or Malloy.

Meanwhile, DeStefano and Malloy have the additional problem of waiting to find out whether the man many Democrats consider their top choice as a candidate for governor, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, will finally make a decision about the 2006 race.

Paulson said he believes that DeStefano may have an edge over Malloy in terms of statewide name recognition because of DeStefano’s service as past chairman of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and of the National League of Cities.

DeStefano is also leading in the fund-raising race, with more than $2.3 million to Malloy’s $1.5 million.

On Tuesday, DeStefano argued that his campaign’s emphasis on the need for easing the burden of local property taxes, improving education and creating more jobs bridges urban-suburban divisions.

He said the people he’s met in suburban towns like Madison and Rocky Hill "talked about the same things" that concern city voters.

One of Malloy’s political consultants, Roy Occhiogrosso, said "being a successful mayor of a city like Stamford is in some ways a great training ground for being governor."

Occhiogrosso said that, like the governors who have gone on to become presidents in recent elections, municipal chief executives in Connecticut may soon be considered prime recruits for gubernatorial races.

©New Haven Register 2005