“I am going to be pro-business,” promised GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob Stefanowski at a chamber of commerce-sponsored confab Thursday morning at Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals Inc. in North Haven.
This came as no surprise to the 60 or so mostly business types in attendance at the breakfast session. The question is, will Stefanowski have the opportunity to advance his “pro-business” platform from the bully pulpit of the governor’s mansion?
With just 19 days to go before Nov. 6’s day of decision, the answer to that question remained far from clear. Stefanowski boasted that he’d slashed a 13-point early-October deficit in the polls to “zero” now, though Lamont still held a 47-39 percent edge in the most recent (Oct. 10) Quinnipiac poll, with independent candidate Oz Griebel tallying roughly 11 percent.
Stefanowski’s campaign has been hampered by a 2-1 advertising spending deficit to the self-funded campaign of Lamont, the Greenwich Democrat who amassed a billion-dollar fortune by betting on cable TV in its early days in the 1980s.
Lamont, who has spent more than $12 million on his campaign as of this week, wasted no time in going negative against his GOP rival. Stefanowski was portrayed as a vulture capitalist for his stint as CEO of DFC Global, which markets short-term, high-interest “payday” loans now severely restricted by usury statutes in at least a dozen states — including Connecticut. Lamont has also hammered away at the ‘A’ grade Stefanowski gave to President Donald Trump for his job performance in office.
Taking the high road
For his part, the 56-year-old Stefanowski has largely declined from rising to take the negative-advertising bait. In reaction to a perceived anti-GOP gender gap among likely voters, Stefanowski’s campaign ran a flight of TV spots portraying the businessman as an amiable “Mr. Fixit” doing household chores for his wife and daughters — symbolizing the repair job he’d perform on Connecticut’s $40 billion biennial budget.
Stefanowski’s message is simple: cut taxes, reduce out-of-control state spending and introduce a stern regimen of fiscal discipline to state government, beginning with the imposition of zero-based budgeting (“just like they do in the business world”) throughout state government.
The crux of Stefanowski’s tax-cutting pledge is elimination of the state’s income tax over eight years — a pledge Democrats (and some state Republicans) portray as a pipe dream.
“Before 1991 [when the state income tax was enacted under the administration of then-Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.], Connecticut had the fastest growing economy in the U.S.,” Stefanowski told the business group. “Now we’re at the bottom nationally.” He also has pledged to scrap the state’s business-entity tax.
Opportunity knocks?
In addition to bringing the costs of doing business in Connecticut under control, Stefanowski promised to improve the business climate by helping to create a better-prepared and more highly skilled workforce. In particular he said community colleges, trade schools and apprenticeship programs could play a more active role in preparing workers for the 21st century workplace.
Which in turn would create more opportunity for young people to build careers and lives in Connecticut. Young people like Stefanowski’s 24-year-old daughter Lauren, whom the candidate said planned soon to relocate to California because, she told her father, “‘Dad — there’s nothing to do here’ in Connecticut.” But for now, he added, “She’s the best educated barista in Madison, Connecticut.”
Contact Michael C. Bingham at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com
