Lamont, Stefanowski, Hotaling make last-minute appeal to voters

Nov. 2—MOHEGAN — The three top candidates for governor met at Mohegan Sun on Tuesday for the final debate of the gubernatorial race, and, with a week until Election Day, it was the candidates' last clear opportunity to stake their claim for office.

Tuesday night's debate capped the first day of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities' annual Convention and Exposition. This debate was markedly different from the previous NBC/Telemundo debate, given that it was in front of an audience of the governor's peers in government — state legislators and public employees, as opposed to the studio debate, where the candidates were only in a room with themselves and the moderators.

Independent candidate Rob Hotaling, a senior vice president at Webster Bank and a Cheshire resident, again joined major party candidates, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont and Republican Bob Stefanowski, on the debate stage. The candidates have met at various forums and speaking engagements throughout the campaign, but Tuesday was only the second actual debate.

Recent polling from Quinnipiac University and WTNH/The Hill/Emerson College has shown Lamont leading Stefanowski by 11-15 points and Hotaling polling at about 1%. Hotaling has spent more than $43,000 of his own money on his campaign, whereas Lamont has spent almost $15 million and Stefanowski more than $9 million.

Stefanowski, the Madison businessman who lost to Lamont by three points in 2018, has sought to cast himself as a moderate, repeatedly saying he is a "fiscal conservative and social moderate" on the campaign trail. But he has faced criticisms for playing to the conservative, Trump-supporting side of the GOP, especially in his reluctance to directly confront the election-denying wing of his party.

Lamont, a Greenwich businessman, has run on his record managing the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and on the state's projected $6 billion surplus. Just as state Democrats have questioned Stefanowski's past as a payday loans executive and his business ties to Saudi Arabia, Republicans have cast doubts on Lamont's dealings with the State Pier Project in New London and his administration's transparency under the Freedom of Information Act.

Local issues

CCM Executive Director Joe DeLong brought up the State Pier overruns on Tuesday, noting that the project swelled from an initial projected total of $93 million to more than $250 million. "Couple that with two federal corruption investigations (of the project)," DeLong said. "Do you think the project is a massive mistake?"

Lamont called the project "one of the most important investments we've made in Southeast Connecticut."

"There's more housing being built in New London today than the last 20 years combined" he added, saying that part of the reason is jobs promised by the coming wind power.

"Bob wants to tear up the contract and walk away from the utilities," Lamont said, arguing that the deal isn't as bad as it's been made out to be, with Ørsted loaning $75 million for the project and New London getting an allowance with a host city agreement.

"Someone at the table needs to represent the taxpayers," Stefanowski said. "Who's picking up the $210 million overrun? Eversource? Nope. Ørsted? Nope. You are!"

Stefanowski said he won't scrap the project but he advocated for bringing stakeholders back to the table to renegotiate the deal.

Hotaling said the State Pier project is "the right project, we need clean energy, it was just mismanaged." He said he would have removed operations management before Lamont did.

Stefanowski did not answer a question about the state's energy costs, taking the time to respond to an earlier barb of Lamont's that the Republican challenger enjoys "bad mouthing" Connecticut.

Lamont said the state's decision to keep Millstone Nuclear Power Plant running with an extension several years ago avoided a "devastating" scenario.

"We doubled down and locked in the price at 5 cents a kilowatt-hour," Lamont said, extolling the state's commitment to nuclear energy and hinting at extending the Millstone deal.

Lamont also shouted out the State Pier project, saying the state has "Wind power right here in New London, right Mayor (Mike) Passero?"

Back and forth on budget

Throughout the campaign, and on Tuesday, Stefanowski noted that the state's budget surplus is owed to federal COVID-19 relief funding, not Lamont's leadership.

Lamont has said that paying down pension debt at the current level would reduce taxes by $450 million annually for state residents. The state's overall pension debt is around $41 billion. The governor has criticized Stefanowski and Hotaling for being too willing to spend the state's rainy day fund.

Stefanowski has said the surplus monies should go to the Connecticut taxpayer. He has said he hasn't seen any real benefit from the budget surplus, while Lamont has cited improvements in DMV wait times, access to daycare and availability of capital for small businesses.

Of the state's rainy day fund, Stefanowski has said he wants to spend more than $2 billion on "giving the average family back about $2,000 dollars." Stefanowski and Republicans across the state have campaigned on the difficulty people are having paying electricity bills, gas, rent, property taxes, and the like.

Stefanowski began a chippy night of back and forth upon the first question, saying, "The governor is living in a different state than Rob and I are" when discussing the budget. He repeatedly called the budget surplus a $6 billion slush fund that he wants to return, in part, to taxpayers.

Lamont said later in the night that candidates used to argue about deficits, but since his tenure, "we're arguing about surpluses." He said that a $650 million tax cut passed in the last legislative session shows he would not raise taxes.

Hotaling pointed out that the rainy day fund is meant to address a recession and have "the proper reserves in place."

Stefanowski criticized Lamont for supporting President Joe Biden's economic policies, giving Lamont the opportunity to say his opponent "was endorsing Trump hand over fist."

Affordable housing

A law meant to bolster the number of the state's affordable housing units — known by general statute 8-30g — has become the crux of the housing debate since Stefanowski said he wanted to repeal it because, he posited, it threatens local zoning control.

Hotaling said 8-30g needs to be revised, noting that it has 18% compliance from towns. He also had choice words for Stefanowski: "Bob says repeal the whole thing," but he's got nothing to replace it.

"Bob says, 'Get rid of 8-30g, details to follow,'" Lamont said. "I believe strongly in local control of housing. We desperately need more housing." He said the law only applies to towns that "refuse to come up with a plan."

Stefanowski again said, "We need to get rid of it," and to work closely with towns rather than punishing them.

Guns, crime, policing

The three candidates embody their party's positions on gun control, with Lamont advocating for stricter measures, Stefanowski uninterested in imposing more regulations, and Hotaling somewhere in the middle. Hotaling has said he supports "common sense gun laws" but also doesn't plan to install stricter gun control laws if elected. On Tuesday, he said he is opposed to assault-style weapons being available to the public.

While overall crime in the state has decreased, violent crime including murder and rape are up, according to the latest reports.

"This Governor has decimated law enforcement across this state," Stefanowski said, later calling Hotaling and Lamont "soft on crime" and "anti-police."

Lamont said, "You're not serious about crime unless you're serious about guns" and supported "getting assault weapons off the street." He added that the state has more state police today than four years ago.

On police accountability, Hotaling asked whether the other two candidates had ever been stopped, threatened and shouted at by police.

"I have," he said. "When you've gone through an experience like that, it makes you think differently." Hotaling said he is pro-police, but accountability is needed.

"The George Floyd thing was a tragedy, the proper response was made, those cops need to be held accountable. But Governor Lamont, your police accountability bill has created a sense of leniency and corruption in the state," Stefanowski said.

Lamont characterized Stefanowski's comments after the recent shooting of two Bristol police officers as "the cheapest grandstanding you can do."

While Stefanowski has said he wants to repeal parts of the police accountability law passed two years ago — most significantly, qualified immunity — Lamont has said there's no need to revise the law.

Following Tuesday's debate, though, after defending the law, Lamont told reporters that if there was a serious legislative effort to improve the law, he'd hear it out.

Qualified immunity partially protects police officers from being sued. It was limited by the police accountability law passed in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The law makes it so officers can be held liable if they've knowingly violated a person's rights.

Stefanowski said the limiting of qualified immunity is to blame for the reduction in the state police force. He has made the issue a pillar of his campaign, consistently bringing it up at public safety-related events.

Abortion and vaccination

All three candidates have said they are pro-choice, though Lamont and Democrats have questioned Stefanowski's commitment to abortion rights.

The candidates maintained their positions on abortion on Tuesday. Lamont brought up Stefanowski misspeaking last week, saying it may have been a window into how his opponent actually thinks about abortion. In an apparent departure from his position last week, Stefanowski said during a gubernatorial forum that people should not get abortions after the first trimester of pregnancy. He later said he misspoke, and returned to his position that he wouldn't change any of the state's laws.

"I worry about Leora Levy and some of the other folks Bob has endorsed because they want to outlaw a woman's right to choose at the national level," Lamont said.

Stefanowski again called the abortion issue a distraction from more pertinent issues like inflation, saying he wouldn't change any of the laws. He didn't say if there was a number of weeks in which he'd outlaw abortion; Lamont and Hotaling adhered to the 22-week standard of Roe v. Wade.

Lamont has said Stefanowski is "scaring the women of Connecticut" on the issue, and that Stefanowski's $5,800 contribution to the anti-abortion Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, Leora Levy, was proof.

The governor said Stefanowski is supported by PACs that want to restrict abortion. He said Stefanowski's running mate, Republican state Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield, supports the state's safe harbor law but that Stefanowski "won't comment on it."

Lamont signed a bill into law from the most recent legislative session strengthening abortion rights and access in anticipation of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The legislation protects out-of-state women from prosecution for getting an abortion in Connecticut and Connecticut medical providers from legal actions taken against them from another state.

Stefanowski said he will not change any of the state's laws relating to abortion, including the safe harbor law.

All three candidates said that they don't support mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for schoolchildren.

"The risk there is very, very small," Stefanowski said. "We need to give parents back the right to raise their kids."

"I don't believe we should be forcing vaccinations on children," Hotaling said. "We shouldn't force anyone to put anything in their body unless parents are comfortable."

"Bob's flirting dangerously with the anti-vax crowd," Lamont said. "I didn't mandate vaccinations for kids during the worst of COVID."

Speed round

Asked whether Killingly's high school team the "Redmen" had an offensive mascot, Hotaling and Lamont said yes; Stefanowski said he would leave issues like that to individual school districts.

Asked about whether they're all right with displaying pride flags in classrooms, Lamont and Hotaling said "why not?" and Stefanowski said he would leave it up to individual school districts but he'd "be OK with it."

Lamont caused a stir among the crowd when he said former Independent Governor Lowell Weicker was the best Connecticut governor of his lifetime. Weicker ran unsuccessfully for president as a Republican. Hotaling agreed with Lamont's choice. Stefanowski said former Gov. Ella Grasso, a Democrat, whose son has endorsed his candidacy in the past, was the state's best governor in his lifetime.

s.spinella@theday.com