Coming off a new poll that puts him solidly in the lead among Republicans, Greenwich business executive Tom Foley said Thursday night that he would cut state spending by $1 billion if elected governor in November.
A multi-millionaire business executive who is largely funding his campaign, Foley said he would not accept the governor’s annual salary of $150,000 as a step toward cutting state spending.
“We definitely do not have a revenue problem,” he said. “We have a spending problem. … Our state government is broken and broke. … I am not one of the Hartford politicians who created these problems.”
Foley, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, has catapulted into the lead in the Republican primary as the only candidate who has been running extensive television advertisements. His name recognition has increased because he previously ran commercials when he was running for the U.S. Senate, but he has since dropped out of that race to run for governor.
Foley appeared on stage with seven other Republican candidates Thursday night in the first live, televised debate of the campaign season. All eight GOP candidates stood at identical podiums at the NBC studio in West Hartford for one hour, and they answered questions in either one minute or 30 seconds.
The clash included Foley and the two candidates who placed second in the poll – Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. Both of those candidates had four percent – far behind Foley.
The race, however, is still wide open as 50 percent of Republicans said they are undecided. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for the GOP primary.
Boughton and other candidates complained about the Democratic-controlled legislature, saying they have consistently made the wrong choices about state spending.
“They’re kind of like the movie ‘Gremlins,’ ” said Boughton, a former state legislator. “If you feed them after midnight and give them water after midnight, they will multiply with bad ideas and bad public policy. So the bottom line here is we can’t feed the gremlin. We can’t give them any more money.”
Fedele briefly told the story of his immigrant past when he arrived in the United States from Italy 51 years ago.
“I want to have those same opportunities for you,” Fedele said, adding that he has created hundreds of jobs in 26 years in the business world.
As the lieutenant governor for more than three years under Rell and a former state legislator for 10 years, Fedele said he has the experience to understand the state budget and to know where to cut. This week, he unveiled his plan that calls for a four-year spending freeze and a four-year hiring freeze that could only be broken if the governor personally signs off on a new person being hired.
The candidates spoke out against binding arbitration for employees, unfunded mandates, the level of spending by the state, and sprawl. Several candidates spoke in favor of the death penalty.
“The most important social issue is economic,” longtime business executive Oz Griebel said when asked about the death penalty.
“In Connecticut, the death penalty does serve as a deterrent,” Foley said. “I’ve had no questions on the death penalty in that period of time” that he has been traveling around the state.
“As the mayor of one of the safest cities in America, I support the death penalty,” said Boughton, a former state legislator who followed in his father’s footsteps and became mayor of his hometown.
Former U.S. Rep. Larry DeNardis of Hamden, who once served in the state Senate, said that he has the experience to cut state spending. Depending on which estimate is used, the budget deficit for the 2012 fiscal year could be from $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion. He listed various reports, including one by the Thomas Commission, that had proposed cutting state spending through the years, but he said many of the recommendations had been ignored for years.
“I would cut every department, every agency, every board,” DeNardis said. “It can be cut in virtually every line item.”
Regarding urban policy, Boughton said some state officials have believed that large projects – such as the Adriaen’s Landing complex along the riverfront in Hartford – can turn around a city all by itself.
“There’s no silver bullet,” said Boughton, the mayor of the state’s seventh largest city.
In his closing remarks, Boughton said, “I believe our best days are ahead.”
Newington Mayor Jeff Wright, who said that several of his relatives have moved permanently out of Connecticut, said the state needs to take action, rather than simply studying the levels of state spending.
“By the time studies are done, people forget about the recommendations,” said Wright, a certified financial planner and a U.S. Marine.
Foley has clearly pulled ahead in the GOP primary because of a heavy barrage of statewide television commercials that show him driving around the state and then standing outside of the Capitol to say that he is going to fix Hartford. Before his television blitz, Foley had little name recognition because he has never held elective office. The recent blitz comes after previous television commercials when Foley was running in the race for the U.S. Senate – and the combined amount of air time has clearly raised his name recognition statewide.
A friend of former President George W. Bush, Foley is the former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland – having served there until Bush left office on January 20, 2009. Before that, Foley served in an appointed position in Iraq for seven months, overseeing the privatization of previously state-owned businesses.
Since he never served in the state legislature or other elected post, Foley has been making numerous trips around the state to raise his profile. That included an appearance at the state Capitol on St. Patrick’s Day for the traditional Irish Coffee Break that is held every year by the Motor Transport Association and always fills up a large, chandeliered function room on the third floor. Foley chatted there with Biagio “Billy” Ciotto, a former Democratic state senator who introduced him for the first time to former state Sen. Michael Meotti, another Democrat who serves now as the state commissioner of higher education.
Foley has also advertised on the Internet and recently sent a brochure to Republican households in an attempt to reach primary voters. The expensive, stapled, eight-page brochure contains 14 color photographs and includes Foley’s slogan that “Connecticut is broken and broke. Working together, we can fix it.”
Foley says he has been traveling across the state since June, and that the poll shows that citizens are concerned with “bringing jobs and the economy back to our state, reducing the cost and size of government, reducing the tax burden on working families, and changing the way business is done in Hartford.”
Branford financial analyst Christopher Duffy Acevedo of Branford has been relatively quiet during the campaign, but he was invited onto the stage for the evening.
“Being pro-union is not being anti-business,” Acevedo said. “I don’t see why people see unions as a challenge. … We’re in this together with the unions.”
“I’m not standing before you as Republican. I’m am standing here as a Yankee,” he said.
Playing off Foley’s comments that Hartford is broken, Chester First Selectman Thomas E. Marsh said that the cities and towns are not broken.
Griebel said the governor needs to attract private-sector investment, working six or seven days a week to recruit solid-paying jobs to Connecticut. He repeated his motto of thinking big, speaking clearly, and acting decisively.
Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green’s take is at http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/03/gop-gov-gettogether.html
In photo: From left, Chester First Selectman Thomas E. Marsh, financial analyst C. Duffy Acevedo of Branford, former U.S. Ambassador Tom Foley of Greenwich, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Newington Mayor Jeff Wright, Simsbury business executive Oz Griebel, former U.S. Rep. Lawrence DeNardis of Hamden, and Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford stand at podiums for the Republican gubernatorial candidate debate in West Hartford. (Jessica Hill / AP)