One of the state's largest unions will be spending $400,000 to target minority voters in the state's cities over the next four weeks to help Democrat Dannel Malloy in the governor's race.
The Service Employees International Union says it will target "mostly African-American, Latino, and sporadic voters'' in order to "broaden voter participation in communities with historically low turnout.''
The multi-pronged effort involves knocking on 50,000 doors in Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and Norwalk in a massive effort for Malloy and other endorsed Democrats. The plan also includes telephone calls and four separate mailings in an overall outreach drive that starts this week.
Malloy has received major support from unions in the race against Republican Tom Foley of Greenwich and Independent Party candidate Thomas E. Marsh of Chester. Foley says that Malloy is "in the pocket'' of the unions and will have difficulty closing the projected $3.4 billion state budget gap because of his support for the unions.
In the same fashion, Foley said he expects that the Republican Governors Association will start running commercials in Connecticut "and match what the Democratic Governors Association is doing - to level the playing field.''
Starting last Wednesday morning, the Democratic Governors began broadcasting an anti-Foley commercial that focused on The Bibb Company that Foley had owned in the 1990s. The historic Bibb textile mill closed in 1998 - after Foley had stepped down as CEO in August 1996. The ad said that Foley "devastated a community and thousands of lives'' in Georgia as he and his company "made millions.''
Foley's campaign is now monitoring the amount being spent by the national governors group.
"Their TV buys are public information,'' Foley said in an interview on Sunday. "We know what the DGA is doing.''