The Foley Malloy Debate

Tonight it was the turn of Dan Malloy and Tom Foley to hold a televised debate in Hartford. The debate between the gubernatorial candidates was quite different from yesterday's debate in the senate race. In this debate, the words liar, lies and lying came out loudly and often. Indeed, it seemed as if each candidate had his own set of facts that he was using.

On the whole, Dan Malloy seemed to be on the attack the whole time. Even when he was questioned on his record, he responded by attacking Foley. Tom Foley seemed more intent on telling the voters his view for what needs to be done in Connecticut over the next few years. Many times, Foley seemed surprised that Malloy was questioning the accuracy of what was being said.

For me, the key to the debate is who was telling the truth. My sense from watching was that Malloy was playing fast and loose with the facts. For example, he went from claiming that he had created jobs in Stamford while he was mayor to admitting -- after Foley cited the exact number -- that the number of jobs had declined but that it was the fault of the economy.


Another example came when the questions turned to Malloy's attack ads against Foley with regard to a textile firm Foley used to own. Malloy says that Foley fired thousands of people at that firm and then took it into bankruptcy so that it was forced to close. Foley explained that he bought the company, reorganized it and hired thousands of new workers; then he sold it and a few years later the new owners went under. Malloy's answer was that Foley was CEO when the firm filed for bankruptcy. As best as I can now determine, I now understand that the tru facts are that Foley bought the company and put it through a chapter 11 reorganization. That allowed him to get new financing and to expand and hire new workers. After a number of years, Foley sold the firm to new owners. The new owners failed to make a go of it and put the company into bankruptcy again and shut it down two years later. What all this means is that Malloy is misleading people with his ad. Yes, when the first reorganization took place, Foley was in charge, but that one led to more hiring and expansion of the business. The bankruptcy that led to mass firings and the death of the business came years after Foley sold the business to others. Malloy is clearly playing fast and loose with the facts.

There were also disagreements over facts like how well the Stamford School system dtudents do on state reading and achievement tests. I cannot see how this could be the subject of dispute, but I did notice that when Foley pointed out how the Stamford School system did not do that well under Malloy, Malloy responded by citing slightly different statistics. Again, it seemed that Malloy was trying to wriggle out of a tight spot.

At other times, it seemed that Malloy was prepared to throw everything possible at Foley. First Malloy told us that Foley would not give any concrete facts about places where he would cut the budget. Foley responded with details about a specific mental health facility that could be privatized to give the same care but also to save the state about 25 million dollars per year. Malloy switched gears and said that the current situation was set up by Republican governors.

There were some other strange moments coming from Malloy. My favorite of these was Malloy's answer that he was in favor of doing away with the death penalty which he followed by speaking on and on about how hard he would fight to make sure that those sentenced to death already would be executed. Huh? Is he saying that he was for the death penalty before he was against it?

On balance, after pondering what was said, I think Foley performed much better than Malloy. Indeed, that impression gets stronger the more I think about the debate.