Jobs central theme for gubernatorial hopefuls

Hartford - Unanimity reigned Thursday afternoon in Ballroom B of the Connecticut Convention Center as six remaining candidates for governor competed to give the most convincing pledges to grow employment in this state without saying anything that might be used against them in the fall.

Among Democrats Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy, Republicans Tom Foley, Michael Fedele and Oz Griebel and independent Tom Marsh, no one broke with the premise of Thursday's forum: that the ability to trigger companies to hire workers will be the ultimate test of the next governor.

It was a foregone conclusion for the forum, given that the lead sponsor of Thursday's event was a coalition called Jobs for Connecticut Now and that the conventional wisdom in the state capital has held for more than a year that an anemic job market is exacerbating the current economic downturn and preventing investment and expansion of new and existing companies here.

The candidates were in general agreement on the broad terms that have defined the jobs debate: the need to encourage new investment from industries that have boomed in recent years, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

They lauded the state's educational institutions, lamented burdensome regulations they said were holding back business development, and called for renewed leadership in the governor's office.

"We've been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at big business and Wall Street firms trying to get them across the border, and we're killing the small businesses in this state," said Lamont, the Democratic front-runner. "... You have to ask, 'Why is Connecticut falling behind when it comes to 21st century jobs?' "

The state yearns for "good leadership in the governor's office and a better balance in the legislature," said Foley, a former ambassador to Ireland and the frontrunner among Republicans.

The closest Thursday's cordial forum came to direct disagreement came after Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, said the state should move to adopt the accounting rules known as GAAP, which would require immense shifts in the way Connecticut currently accounts for its revenues, expenditures and debt.

"For the state of Connecticut to go to GAAP financing right now, the next day you'd put a bankruptcy sign outside," said Fedele, the state's lieutenant governor and one of two Republicans, along with Griebel, who is trying to catch Foley before the Aug. 10 primary.

Fedele continued, describing a series of agency consolidations and efficiencies in information technology that he believed could shave some of the increased spending that he - like the other candidates onstage - said was driving Connecticut's budget into the red.

"Why haven't we done it, Mike?" Lamont demanded, beginning to point out that Fedele serves in the current administration under Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

But moderator Ron Insana of CNBC steered the conversation away from outright confrontation, saying they were "not going to do cross-fire stuff." (Insana did invite Lamont to guest on his radio show; Malloy, desperate for chances to debate the front-runner, immediately invited himself to occupy the same slot.)

Meanwhile, near center-stage sat the race's lowest profile candidate, Chester First Selectman Tom Marsh, who entered the race as a Republican but has since dropped out of that primary race to run as an independent.

As a business owner, in addition to a first selectman, Marsh told the crowd, "I'm living every day the dysfunction that we're talking about."

A few moments later, Marsh's one-liner stole the afternoon. If the state doesn't change its current path, he said, "we might as well put tolls up on the border, so at least when they leave we'll get their last buck."

t.mann@theday.com