Connecticut Governor's Race

 

Republican Bob Stefanowsk 

It looks like Republican Bob Stefanowski is not doing well in his quest to become Governor of Connecticut. After eight years of the disastrous administration of Democrat Governor Dannell Malloy, 2018 looked like the year when Republicans could not only win the Governorship, but also gain at least one of the legislative houses.

But Stefanowski’s campaign seems to be following the same path that led other millionaire candidates like Linda McMahon and Tom Foley to flop on election day. Each of them lost close elections because they could not overcome massive Democrat majorities in cities like Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven.

Stefanowski’s campaign seems to be conceding the urban vote in the hope of overcoming it with slight majorities in suburban and rural areas. His plan to eliminate or phase out the state income tax will not get him votes in the inner cities whose residents, including college students, are largely exempt. It won’t even help him win many votes among suburbanites who believe that it is either impractical, or that it will only add to already high property taxes. 

Stefanowski would be much better off in calling for a reduction in the state sales tax, a regressive tax that effects everyone in the state, even those in the inner cities. It is a regressive tax in that the poor pay the same rate as the rich. The tax is the same on diapers as it is on luxury items. I also suspect that a reduction in the sales tax would have great appeal among senior citizens. 

If you check out Stefanowski’s website, you will find a sound economic idea like eliminating business taxes is presented as if it would only benefit businesses.  He fails to point out that business taxes are really paid by those who buy the products and services provided by business. A business must inevitably pass on taxes and administrative costs to consumers or else it must go out of business. 

Stefanowski is a millionaire businessman, and he can’t help looking like a millionaire businessman even if he insists on calling himself Bob. But his campaign should not have been about business, or even about bringing business principles to government. It should have been about fairness for all the people of Connecticut. 

He could have gone to Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven and asked people if they had pensions that would guarantee them 70% of their highest salary after working only 35 years. He could have asked them if they even had pensions or benefits at all comparable to those enjoyed by state union employees. He could have asked Seniors if their Social Security checks came anywhere near the retirement benefits of public service workers.

Stefanowski could even have taken a more popular position on tolls and proposed just placing them on I95 at the Greenwich and Rhode Island entrances in the same way as New Hampshire and Delaware. In addition to raising money for needed infrastructure repair, such a moderate proposal would have been a popular vote getter. 

No matter how sound your policies may be, you must win the election to have any chance of implementing them. What’s the good of having good ideas, if you never get a chance to implement. Stefanowski’s Democrat opponent, the far-wealthier Democrat Ned Lamont from Greenwich, the wealthiest town in the state, does not look like a businessman. His strategy is to appeal to the Democrat base made up of public service unions, depressed cities, and suburban women upset about the supposed threat to women’s rights posed by the likes of Trump and Kavanaugh.

Democrat Ned Lamont

Stefanowski has little time left to make a dent in that coalition. Is it too late to go to Bridgeport and Hartford and express concern about the crime rate and the poor schools in those cities which have been controlled and mismanaged for decades by Democrats? It’s worth a try. Otherwise, he will share the fate of McMahon and Foley who spent millions only to come up short.

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