A recent Hartford Courant-Sacred Heart University
poll demonstrates that Governor Ned Lamont, as well as Democrats in the
General Assembly, have intractable policy problems.
Lamont’s policies are largely the same as those of former
Governor Dannel Malloy, whose poll ratings were abysmally low when he left office
after two terms. The latest poll results blow out of the water an always dubious
theory that Malloy’s disapproval poll numbers, hovering around 25 percent
during his two-term administration, were low because the former governor was a
bristly character. Lamont, Malloy without the quills, everyone will agree is
far more eupeptic than Malloy.
Lamont’s approval rating remained at 24%,” the Courant story
notes, “but 47% of respondents said they
disapprove of how he is handling his job, a seven-point increase from a poll
conducted in May. Twenty-nine percent said they were unsure about how Lamont is
doing.”
The breakdown cannot cheer Democrats: “Lamont’s approval
rating was 40% among Democrats surveyed, compared to 17% among independent
voters and 10% among Republicans.” Democrats are losing the affections of independents,
who are more numerous than Democrats in the state.
During the presidential off year elections, Democrats
swamped Republicans in the General Assembly by campaigning vigorously against
President Donald Trump, who was not on the Connecticut ballot, a stratagem that
worked well before the Mueller report had been released and the possibility that
Trump had colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin to deny Democrat
presidential nominee Hillary Clinton her reserved spot in the White House was
yet a live wire. Mueller had successfully prosecuted some Trump associates on
what are called process crimes, but his report vindicated Trump supporters who
claimed that charges of collusion were, as Mark Twain once said of the premature
news reports of his death, greatly exaggerated.
In 2020, barring a successful impeachment that removes Trump
from office – an impossibility since the U.S. Senate lies still in the hands of
Republicans -- Trump will be on Connecticut ballots. Democrats even now are
busily tar-brushing Connecticut Republicans who fail to denounce the nominal
head of their party. A move by some Democrats to remove Trump from the
Connecticut ballot in 2020 appears to have been shelved. National and State
Democrats may be putting all their campaign eggs into a basket without a
bottom.
In the interim, two reports may be released before Election
Day: one by the Inspector General exploring the abuses
of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rooted in a highly suspect
“dossier” -- really a somewhat fanciful opposition research document --
financed through Democrat National Committee funds collared by Hillary Clinton,
and a second report, a prequel to the Mueller Report, to be issued by
Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham.
It will be nearly impossible for U.S. Senator Dick
Blumenthal to "Kavanaugh" Durham, because Durham had been highly recommended to
Trump as the U.S. Attorney from the District of Connecticut by both Connecticut U.S. Senators Blumenthal and Chris Murphy. Blumenthal’s
recommendation was unimpeachable: “I know John Durham well, having
known and worked with him over many years. He is a no-nonsense, fierce, fair
career prosecutor. He knows what it means to try some of the toughest cases
against career criminals. He knows what it means to try to stop the opioid
crisis in this country. He knows what organized crime does to the fabric of our
society. He is exactly the kind of person we should have in this position.”
The most important feature of the 2020 election, the dubious
impeachment effort aside, is that it will not resemble Connecticut's 2018 election.
As many voters in the state feared, Lamont has shown himself
to be, on policy issues, Malloy without the quills. New to the political game –
Malloy had served four terms as Mayor of Stamford before he became governor –
Lamont has been less competent than Malloy in fooling all the people some of
the time. Toll averse voters will recall Lamont’s truck-only toll tax, followed by his 50 gantry toll tax, followed by his bridge only toll tax. Malloy
pledged not to raise income taxes and did so: Lamont pledged not to raise the
income tax and proceeded to “broaden the tax base” by levying taxes where even
Malloy had feared to go.
The chief characteristic of the Malloy administration was his
dedication to progressive ideals. He raised taxes, causing an exodus of
taxpayers from the state, because he and the state’s now progressive Democrat Dominated General Assembly
were loathed to introduce long-term permanent cuts in spending, a policy that has
made a wreck of Connecticut, now known outside its borders as a “sink-hole
state.”
Other than raising taxes – yet again! – the ruling Democrat
Party, whose political barracks are chock full of progressives, is incapable of
filling the ditch. That is what the recent polling of tax-whipped voters suggests.
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