by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT — The governor’s race entered its home stretch Thursday, with the two campaigns holding events less than a mile and less than an hour apart, and with plenty of claims and counterclaims going back and forth.
At a 10:30 a,m. press conference on the Capitol lawn, state Sen. Ryan Fazio unveiled what he called a pattern of broken trust. Backed by about a dozen Republican supporters, Fazio called for an end to what he dubbed the Corruption Tax.
“We keep seeing story after story about mismanagement, poor leadership and taxpayers being left in the dark,” he said.
Fazio criticized various reports – including allegations of a toxic culture at Central CT State and at the CT State Colleges and Universities system, Kosta Diamantis corruption conviction and former Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona’s consulting firm receiving a $250,000 contract.
While careful not to state that Gov. Ned Lamont himself was guilty of any wrongdoing, Fazio invoked former President Harry Truman and said responsibility ultimately went to the top.
“When people are struggling to pay their property taxes and electric bills, $250,000 here or $15 million there is not pocket change,” he said. “This is real money to real communities and this administration has lost sight of what a dollar means.”
Fazio proposed a handful of reforms, like requiring legislators requesting earmarks to disclose potential conflicts of interest and site visits for recipients of large amounts of state funding, and strengthening the Freedom of Information Act.
A few minutes later, Lamont and his supporters announced their statewide campaign launch at the Pratt Street pedestrian mall, a few blocks from the Capitol. The Democratic lawmakers stuck to a familiar theme – that a Fazio administration would essentially be an extension of President Donald Trump’s.
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