It's really getting ugly out there - and I wish it would stop - I'm especially upset that the Lamont-Glassman campaign is now attacking Malloy-Wyman - I really had respected their restraint up until now.
One of the latest salvos began with a Courant article questioning Dan Malloy's oft-repeated claim of bringing 5,000 new jobs to Stamford, (an issue which has received much attention here.)
While Democrat Dannel Malloy says repeatedly in his campaign for governor that he created nearly 5,000 jobs during his 14 years as Stamford's mayor, state labor statistics show that employment in Stamford actually dropped during Malloy's tenure...
UBS, a huge employer cited by Malloy and formerly known as Swiss Bank, agreed to move to Stamford after major tax credits were offered by the state in the early 1990s during more than two years of negotiations with then-Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. The 15-year $165 million incentive package was approved by the state legislature in a special session Oct. 12, 1994 - more than a year before Malloy became mayor.
Ned Lamont's campaign responded to the article with this:
Lamont Campaign Calls on Malloy to Take Down Misleading TV Ad
New Haven, CT - In light of today's front-page Hartford Courant story revealing that Dan Malloy misrepresented his record of job creation as mayor of Stamford, Ned Lamont's campaign called on him to take down his new television ad that highlights Dan's claim that he created 5,000 jobs. Dan's claim ignores the fact that Stamford lost 13,000 jobs and unemployment increased by 58.7 percent during his tenure as mayor.
"Job creation is the single most pressing concern to the people of Connecticut in this economy, and I'm disappointed to see in today's Hartford Courant that Dan Malloy is inflating his record on this issue. Unfortunately, it's something that career politicians do all too often," said Lamont campaign manager Joe Abbey.
"The facts brought to light today show that despite the claims Dan makes in his TV ad, the city of Stamford lost 13,000 jobs during his tenure as mayor. He should do the right thing and take this misleading ad off the air."
Malloy fired back:
MALLOY RESPONDS TO LAMONT'S ATTACK
The following is a statement from Dan Malloy, the Democratic Party's endorsed candidate for Governor:
"My record on jobs and economic development is crystal clear: during my time as Mayor, Stamford added nearly 5,000 new jobs. That's an indisputable fact. Actually, that number is probably conservative. RBS, UBS, Purdue Pharma, Bank of Ireland, Jeffries, Thomson Reuters, Fuji, NBC, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Carol Lee, Aon Insurance, Greenwich Associates, Lloyds of London, NBC, Rockefeller & Co., Unilever, Columbus Circle Investors, Burlington Coat Factory, Modells, Hampton Inn, Rochdale Securities, Gartner Group - all of these companies, and others, brought new jobs to Stamford. As a result, small businesses across the city flourished from this increase in people working in Stamford.
"So why is Ned Lamont attacking my record on jobs? Because he doesn't want to talk about his own. In his time as CEO Ned laid off most of his workforce, while paying himself hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those are the facts. We'd have more facts if Ned would release his business and personal tax returns for the last 10 years. I'm happy to do the same. For a guy who claims to have 'hired hundreds of people' I would think he would want to release these records.
"My life and record are open books. Ned's should be too."
None of this is going to help us elect a Democratic governor.
Meanwhile, the Lt. Governor race had its own share of attacks and counter attacks. It all started with Nancy Wyman's campaign questioning Mary Glassman's fund raising:
Statement from Patty McQueen, spokesman for state Comptroller Nancy Wyman, Democratic endorsed candidate for Lieutenant Governor, on today's fundraising appeal (copy attached) by Wyman's primary challenger Mary Glassman.
"More than a month ago Mary Glassman's campaign announced she had raised the $75,000 necessary for public campaign financing, yet she hasn't applied for the grant yet. Her campaign said yesterday that she would apply in July, but today they sent an email appeal for donations.
"What is going on? Has the Glassman campaign already raised the money or not? If they've raised it, why are they asking for more donations today? If they have not raised the necessary funds, why mislead the public with statements that they have? And how is Mary funding her campaign expenses? Mary's email appeal actually says 'transparency' sets the Lamont-Glassman apart from others. If that's really true, they could start by answering some of these questions."
Glassman cites Wyman's failings as reason Conn. needs new leadership
A report issued this week by the Connecticut Auditors of Public Accounts revealed multitudes of underlying problems with the state's Core-CT system that have been unresolved and date back as far as 2004.
The Core-CT system, which was implemented by Nancy Wyman, is responsible for accounts payable, cash disbursements, payroll management, and is used in critical state accounting operations. However, the auditor's report reveals that there have been operational issues since the system was started, and many issues that the auditors have cited in reports since 2004 have been repeatedly ignored.
"It is clear that the Comptroller's office ignored the recommendations of the auditors to improve a financial system critical to the accounting system of state government," said Mary Glassman, who is the First Selectman for Simsbury and running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with cable entrepreneur Ned Lamont. "The government and legislature recognized the need for improvement and assigned 20 new staff people, costing hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars, and still the recommendations were not followed." "The taxpayers of Connecticut deserve better," said Glassman. "The Comptroller's office needs to explain to the people of Connecticut why deficiencies cited six times have not been addressed," she said.
Core-CT was initially implemented at a cost of $130 million, and its operating costs for the 2008-2009 fiscal year totaled $4.8 million. Despite these investments, the report found that Core-CT "still has significant deficiencies that should be addressed promptly by state Comptroller Nancy Wyman."
Among the issues cited in the report was the failure of the Office of State Comptroller to provide an updated State Accounting Manual. The manual has not been updated in nine years, and despite what the auditors referred to as "general user frustration in managing the complexities of the Core-CT system," it wrote that the "Office of the State Comptroller referred to the online information available in the Core-CT website as an adequate alternative to an updated State Accounting Manual."
Since 2004, the auditors have called on the Office of the State Comptroller six times to fix the issues they have found with the Core-CT system. They found multiple instances where grant transfers were not properly coded, and the report says that there where also "instances where bank information for certain employee or vendor direct deposits was erroneously changed in the Core-CT system by user agencies, resulting in direct deposit payments being deposited to the wrong accounts."
Furthermore, the report found that "there is no accounts receivable balance to track payroll overpayments due the state." These shortcomings come during a time where Connecticut's debt is rising, and revenue is increasingly valuable to state functions.
In addition, "erroneous CFDA numbers that were identified in our audit of the 2007-2008 fiscal year were never corrected by the Office of State Comptroller." Finally, the report stated that "as a result of grant transfer miscodings, we found a reported imbalance between grant revenue and disbursement accounts that totaled over $40 million."
"The reason we need new leadership is that we need to do things better, faster, and cheaper," said Glassman. "It is clear that we cannot continue to run an office that has repeatedly failed to make changes, and is costing Connecticut taxpayers money due to mismanagement of state funds."
"The Lamont Glassman administration will act immediately with the next State Comptroller to carry out the significant recommendations by the auditors. The auditors are watchdogs of state government finance, and as such we need to pay careful attention to their recommendations and implement them as soon as possible in the interest of good and honest government. The auditors are the best check we have as to how well state agencies are carrying out their fiduciary responsibilities. The Lamont Glassman administration will value their input."
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