Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday that he couldn't understand the decision by the office of his Republican predecessor, M. Jodi Rell, to have the Department of Motor Vehicles issue dozens of low-number license plates to Rell, her family, and other political insiders near the end of her administration
But he also said he didn't know yet whether he would seek to alter the time-honored tradition of handing out such exclusive plates, which are unavailable to the general public, as political status symbols and perquisites.
"For the life of me, I don't understand quite what was going on around here in the final days of an administration in which the governor almost always comported herself with great dignity and honesty," Malloy said at a press conference, when he was asked about the low-number plate binge by Rell's office during the months leading up to his Jan. 5 inauguration. "I can only imagine that people got caught up in the closing days of the administration and somehow, some way, their judgment left them."