Will GOP gloom sell at the Connecticut polls?
It's hard to think that gubernatorial candidates Tom Foley and Dan Malloy are talking about the same Connecticut this election season.
A caustic Foley talks about the state being dead last in the country in jobs growth. Quoting a conservative journal, which he didn't name, Foley called his opponent during the last debate the worst governor in the nation, complaining about Malloy corporate welfare that cost the state millions without creating jobs.
"You've failed" is one of the bombs Foley frequently throws at Malloy, saying he is presiding over a state on the road to ruin; one Republicans claim has a large number of residents who want to escape but can't.
Welcome to the Republican 2014 playbook in Connecticut, long on criticism and short on constructive ideas.
Malloy responds that Foley is dead wrong on his characterization of Connecticut jobs growth, that his state is second in New England for jobs growth and near the middle of the pack for the country.
Indeed, the jobs report released this week was the best for the state in 20 years, and that covers a lot of Republican gubernatorial rule. Unemployment is now at a six-year low.
Another Republican gloom practitioner we've heard from here in eastern Connecticut is Lori Hopkins-Cavanagh, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney.
I feel a little sorry For Hopkins-Cavanagh because she says her husband lost his job at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital because of Obamacare and her real estate business is suffering because of the economic policies of the Obama administration.
In her case, economic hardship seems personal and real.
But do a majority of voters in the Second District feel the same way? Or might many think Courtney has done his job well for economic growth, bringing home the Navy's largest shipbuilding contract ever.
Hopkins-Cavanagh calls Courtney a one-trick pony for that remarkable $17 billion contract. But what a big, big pony.
Hopkins-Cavanagh, apparently nursing her own struggling business, last week sent out a bleak press release calling the real estate market in her district "dire," spared a more catastrophic freefall only because the federal government "withheld a sizeable inventory of foreclosed homes during the summer in order to stabilize the declining market."
With dour reports like this one, you can see why Foley was one of the biggest contributors to Hopkins-Cavanagh's campaign. Foley, too, is a critic of Obamacare and supported the famous Republican shutdown of the government in a repeal attempt.
Foley and Hopkins-Cavanagh make good partners in conspiracy and gloom-and-doom platforms.
This fall's election season in Connecticut reminds me a little of the last presidential election, with Obama making the same argument as Malloy, that his policies are finally gaining traction, with an economic recovery under way.
Indeed, no doubt to Foley's consternation, the economic numbers for this election keep improving as the vote nears.
As Malloy likes to note, Connecticut manufacturing is healthy and the state built more jet engines this year than any time since 1983. Crime is down 20 percent. The minimum wage went up. Paid sick leave is promised by law.
That's part of a positive message, one the governor admits is sometimes hard to sell in a state that is "inclined to feel the worst about itself."
The GOP machine is busy trying to feed that inclination.
Certainly if your spouse lost a job or your business is suffering, you are going to buy it. If you are a Connecticut resident whom the GOP suggests wants to leave the state but can't afford to, you are buying it.
But I suspect more voters might prefer the sunnier assessment, that we are indeed on our way out of the ditch and of a terrible recession and on a well-defined path forward.
This is the opinion of David Collins
d.collins@theday.com
Twitter: @DavidCollinsct
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