More than a week after Democratic front runner Ned Lamont called for its removal, gubernatorial contender Dannel Malloy was still running a television commercial Tuesday night that said he "helped create nearly 5,000 new jobs'' in Stamford.
Lamont made his demand on Monday, June 28 - saying that Malloy had misrepresented his jobs record as Stamford's mayor. Statistics from the state labor department show that jobs grew by thousands in the early years of Malloy's 14-year tenure, but Stamford has lost more than 13,000 jobs since the peak in 2000.
The charge by Lamont was the same as one made during the 2006 race when the campaign of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said that Malloy had misrepresented his jobs record by using the same 5,000 number. At the time, the jobs dispute was mentioned in some newspapers, but much of the political world was fixated on Lamont's battle with U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman during the hot days of August 2006.
Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy's chief strategist, said the campaign's third commercial had been sent to television stations Wednesday, but he was unsure exactly when the jobs commercial would stop running.
"We didn't take it down because there was nothing wrong with it,'' Occhiogrosso told Capitol Watch.
State Republican chairman Christopher Healy said he would not call for the immediate removal of Malloy's 30-second commercial - saying that could be done after Republican voters choose the party's nominee in the August 10 primary.
"I think the ad has been exposed for what it is, which is nothing but massaging numbers,'' Healy said. "No one can make him take it down. ... It's numbers mumbling. How do you come up with a number like that?''
Healy said the most important issue is the vision of the various candidates to cut the state's projected budget deficit of more than $3 billion for the 2012 fiscal year.
"It doesn't make any difference whether he created five jobs or one job because the only jobs the Democrats in the legislature care about are government jobs,'' Healy said of Malloy. "Government is too big. We can't keep carrying the weight of this government - not only the current employees, but the bloody retired employees.''
Occhiogrosso responded, "As for Chris Healy, my friend, I'd think he'd be a little more concerned about what's going on with Tom Foley.''