The continuing clash between Republican gubernatorial candidates Tom Foley and Mike Fedele over negative TV ads escalated Wednesday during a three-way debate between them and their fellow Republican gubernatorial contender in next Tuesday's GOP primary, R. Nelson "Oz" Griebel.
During the televised hour-long debate, co-sponsored by Connecticut Public Broadcasting and WFSB-TV, Channel 3, Foley tangled with Fedele, who is the state's lieutenant governor, over Fedele's use of money provided to his campaign from the state's public financing system, commonly called the clean elections program.
Fedele has recently been airing ads criticizing Foley's ownership and management of the Bibb Co. in Georgia, a textile manufacturer that the Greenwich multimillionaire bought through a junk-bond-financed leveraged buyout in 1985. In 1996, Foley relinquished executive control and most of his 95 percent stake in Bibb during a bankruptcy restructuring, and the company later closed.
Fedele blames Foley for the closing and the loss of thousands of jobs. Foley says although he retained a 7 percent stock interest after 1996, he had no management control of the company and its decisions when the biggest Bibb plant closed for good in Georgia in 1998.