In their first televised debate in an increasingly nasty race for governor, Democrat Dannel Malloy and Republican Tom Foley clashed sharply Tuesday in a feisty contest over the death penalty and which candidate was lying about his record.
One of the biggest issues facing the next governor is whether to abolish the death penalty, which has become a huge issue in Connecticut following the guilty verdict against Steven Hayes. Hayes was convicted Tuesday of three murders in the slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters at the family's home in Cheshire in July 2007.
"If there was ever an instance where capital punishment ... should apply, it's this case,'' Foley said in response to the first question of the one-hour debate. "I support the death penalty. First of all, a majority of the citizens in Connecticut support the death penalty. ... I will not change the law.''
Foley said he would veto a bill that would abolish the death penalty in the same way that Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill last year. Both chambers of the Democratic-controlled legislature voted to abolish capital punishment, but the bill never became law because Rell vetoed it.
"I will veto any attempts to abolish it,'' Foley said.
Regarding his long-stated opposition to the death penalty, Malloy said, "Let's be very clear. ... I want to be very, very, very clear. ... If these two gentlemen are sentenced to death, that sentence will be carried out. Period.''
Malloy said he would abolish the death penalty only in future cases - not in those currently in the process.
Malloy then said that he has experience in the criminal justice system because he tried 23 felony cases and had convictions in 22 of them during his years as a prosecutor in the early 1980s in Brooklyn, New York.
"No one is going to protect your family as well as I will,'' Malloy told the TV viewers and the audience in the Belding Theatre at the Bushnell Center For the Performing Arts in Hartford.
"Dan, you're a lawyer and a prosecutor. You should know better,'' Foley responded in one of numerous testy responses by both candidates.
"Tom, why don't you tell the people of Connecticut the truth?'' Malloy said, adding that the longest-serving prisoner on death row has been there for 22 years. In fact, Robert Breton has been on death row since October 1989 - 21 years.
Click here for pictures from the debate.
Hayes now faces the death penalty, which could be his sentence after a separate trial by the same jury that found him guilty. That phase of the case is expected to start on October 18 in state Superior Court in New Haven.
Hayes, who has been held in custody since the day of the crimes, was found guilty Tuesday of three counts each of murder and the kidnapping of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters.
In the much-anticipated debate that was broadcast on Fox CT and co-sponsored by The Hartford Courant, Foley and Malloy took the stage in a race that polls show is too close to call. The latest Quinnipiac University poll had Malloy ahead by three percentage points, but the race is too close to call because the margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points. A second poll of nearly 1,600 voters, released Tuesday by CT Capitol Report, showed Malloy ahead by 2.6 percentage points with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points and 7.6 percent undecided.
The clashes were so sharp at some points that the two candidates were talking simultaneously, and it was difficult to hear the points they were making as the rhetoric increased at the same time. Some viewers believed that Malloy came across as angry, and the combatants clearly clashed more sharply than Blumenthal and Malloy had on the previous night on the same stage.
In a year that many insiders believe is the best political year in Connecticut since 1970, the polls currently show that there are statistical ties in the two biggest races: the governor's contest and the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Linda McMahon
After debating the first question on the death penalty, the candidates then looked at two political attack ads that have been running on the Connecticut airwaves.
"Dan Malloy's new negative ad? Three lies in 30 seconds,'' one of Foley's ads says.
In responding to Foley's ad, Malloy said, "Tom doesn't like to tell the whole truth.''
In the same way, Foley took issue with Malloy's statements in recent years about the creation of jobs - dating back to his 2006 race for governor.
"Dan is misrepresenting his record'' on jobs in Stamford, Foley said, adding that there was a net loss of jobs during Malloy's 14-year tenure as mayor. The state's labor department says that the total number of jobs in Stamford fell by more than 5,000 during the Malloy years.
Foley and Malloy have been clashing recently over their records, past accomplishments and failings. In particular, Foley has been hammering away at Malloy's record in Stamford, where he served for 14 years as mayor. Malloy has touted his accomplishments, but Foley says the real story is that Malloy raised taxes, increased spending, and presided over a city that has lost more than 13,000 jobs since the peak employment year of 2000.
In two of his own commercials, Malloy declares that, if elected, he would cut the governor's staff by 15 percent. But Foley counters that, although the commercial makes it sound like a bold proposal, the official count from the legislature's nonpartisan fiscal office is that there are 37 permanent, full-time employees in the governor's office. As such, cutting the governor's staff by 15 percent would be about five people.
Foley mentioned that number Tuesday night, telling Malloy that "you need to do more homework before you put yourself up as governor.''
"Tom, you really don't understand government at all, do you?'' Malloy responded in one of many exchanges where the animosity between the two candidates was on public display.
The second political ad that was shown on television and to the live audience was Malloy's ad about ad about The Bibb Company, which Foley owned before leaving as chief executive officer in August 1996. The mill later closed in 1998 after Foley had left as CEO.
"It's not only false. It's lying. I never fired anybody at Bibb,'' Foley said of the commercial. "I had nothing to do with making that decision'' to shut down the mill in Georgia. "The objective of my opponent is to scare state workers. ... But state workers have nothing to fear from my being governor.''
"The town disappeared. It was dissolved,'' Malloy told Foley. "You destroyed their lives. You destroyed their futures. You destroyed their pensions. You destroyed their town.''
He later said that the state-employee unions "are afraid that Tom is going to do to Connecticut what he did to The Bibb Company down in Georgia.''
Regarding Bibb, Foley responded, "I never fired anyone in the company. ... You're misrepresenting what happened. ... Just be truthful. That's what we're asking.''