🔒Time to extend an olive branch to Trump

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Connecticut's Congressional delegation are likely still getting over their Election Day hangover, in which their candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost in a stunning upset to the bombastic and temperamental President-Elect Donald Trump.

For Malloy, who is unpopular at home and was for a time rumored to be in the running for a job in the Clinton administration, the election results were particularly disheartening.

But it's time for the governor and Connecticut's Democratic U.S. senators and representatives to put the hard feelings aside and begin to extend an olive branch to the Trump administration.

Showing a willingness of bipartisanship to a new president is the right thing to do, but more importantly Connecticut's top political brass must work across the aisle — now that Republicans control the legislative and executive branches — to ensure the state receives at least its fair share of federal funding.

Connecticut remains mired in a deep fiscal crisis, so every federal dollar the state secures could mean one less cut to services, or reduce the threat of further tax hikes. The state receives billions of dollars from the federal government each year (according to a 2012 Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee report, Connecticut received $7.7 billion in federal grants for state and local governments in fiscal 2010, which placed it 18th among all states on a per-capita basis), and with the GOP now controlling those purse strings, efforts to build relationships across the aisle will be as important as ever.

Under President Obama, Connecticut had a friend in the Oval Office. In fact, Obama and Malloy, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, were said to be close allies. Those dynamics obviously will change.

The stakes will become even higher in the years ahead as Connecticut looks for billions of dollars in federal funds to help pay for major infrastructure projects, including the remake of the I-84 Hartford viaduct. Rep. John Larson's vision to create a $10 billion tunnel system through Hartford will be nothing more than a pipe dream without support from a Trump administration.

Fortunately, Trump has signaled a desire to back a major U.S. infrastructure investment, so this is one area where common ground can be hatched.

Trump's desire to bolster the military — which could provide more funding to the likes of Pratt and Whitney, Sikorsky and other manufacturers that feed off the nation's military-industrial complex — could also benefit the state, but if Connecticut is going to get its fair share of the pie, relationships must start to be built now.

So far, there are some signs bipartisanship efforts will be made. In a press conference last week, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy said they will give Trump a chance to lead and even listed several areas by which they could work together. Of course, that goodwill didn't last long, after both senators and the rest of Connecticut's delegation put out press releases raising alarms about Trump's choice of Stephen Bannon, whose right-wing website Breitbart has been accused of peddling racist and misogynist comments, as a chief strategist.

That demonstrates the tight rope Blumenthal and company will have to walk with Trump, who we hope will conduct himself in a more statesman-like manner now that he is set to become leader of the free world.

And, to be clear, we aren't saying federal funds will be the answer to Connecticut's fiscal woes. Malloy and state legislators have plenty of work to do restructuring state government to make it more affordable for taxpayers, but any extra help we can get in the meantime would be a plus.