Complaining about what he called overly generous state investments in corporations during Malloy's tenure, Foley said, "The idea of the governor and his staff negotiating with a very sophisticated group of businesspeople--I'm a little worried for Connecticut taxpayers."
Foley listed corporations he said had eliminated jobs in Connecticut over the last three and a half years. Malloy countered that the decision to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in businesses had preserved jobs in the state. Somewhat awkwardly, he specifically defended his dealings with Pfizer by noting that the daughter of the company's president "was an intern on one of my campaigns."
"By the way," he said, pausing for a long beat, "One of my own sons suffers from mental health challenges. I have some expertise in this area personally." He quickly retreated back to the more comfortable terrain of government policy. Malloy has never been big on Oprah-style expressions of emotion.
In 2009, when Malloy was still mayor of Stamford, his then-21-year-old son Ben was arrested in connection with an attempted robbery. At the time, Malloy and his wife, Cathy, released a statement saying their son suffered from an "emotional illness." The Malloys recounted their middle son's struggle with what they said was a form of depression.
Gov. Dannel Malloy (D, CT) chimed in to clarify--and to chastise a bit. "Until a few moments ago we were going down a pretty cooperative road," he said to some nervous laughs from some in the crowd. "So let me just say that we don't all agree that moving Canadian oil through the United States is necessarily the best thing for the United States economy."
Many of those who attended the NGA conference, Malloy added, support raising the minimum wage and other priorities that Obama laid out.
Malloy, meanwhile, will point to long-term agreements he has made with state unions and the hundreds of millions of dollars he has invested in Jackson Labs, Bioscience Connecticut, the busway and other economic development initiatives designed to attract or retain new business to the state. Malloy will also likely emphasize that under his leadership the state has been able to eliminate projected spending deficits of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Source: The Connecticut Mirror on 2014 Connecticut Governor race Dec 18, 2013
"We have needed to reposition ourselves for two decades," Malloy said. "This has to be seen as an overall vision about how you get a state going that has been unwilling to get going for so long. I don't have any doubt the efforts we're making will pay dividends and are paying dividends."
Malloy mentions trade trips to China to promote the state's aerospace industry and its bioscience initiatives on the Farmington campus of the University of Connecticut Health Center.
"This is how you build the economy in the long run," Malloy said, pointing to ThinkitDrinkit as one of 944 small companies that have received grants and cheap loans from the Small Business Express Program.
Malloy accepted a sample drink from a young woman who wore a white lab coat with a large button featuring the company logo and "Malloy 2014!" The same message was written on a whiteboard in the company's test kitchen.
|
The above quotations are from 2014 Connecticut Gubernatorial debates and race coverage.
Click here for other excerpts from 2014 Connecticut Gubernatorial debates and race coverage. Click here for other excerpts by Dan Malloy. Click here for other excerpts by other Governors.
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org!
| Click for details -- or send donations to: 1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140 E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org (We rely on your support!) |