03/04/09 Greenwich Resident Ned Lamont Muses Over a Run Against Rell

Three years after an unlikely quest for the United States Senate established Ned Lamont as a national Democratic figure, he said he is weighing another electoral adventure: a challenge to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, one Republican whose political fortunes have not fallen with the Dow.

With the same bluntness he once directed at Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and the war in Iraq, Mr. Lamont said Mrs. Rell and the General Assembly have failed to tame Connecticut’s deficit. He said he would have offered a a more urgent budget address.

“To me that was the opportunity to stand up and say, ‘We’re confronted with a $4 billion deficit,’ “ he said during a telephone interview from his office in Greenwich on a snowy morning. “This is the time for Connecticut to change the way we do business. And I have to tell you I’m going to bring labor to the table, and they are going to be part of this solution.”

He is months away from a final decision, but after previously disavowing any interest in the job, Mr. Lamont said that a gubernatorial campaign grows more intriguing as the economy worsens and the deficit deepens, all harbingers of a protracted budget fight in Hartford.

Mrs. Rell has not yet said whether she will seek another term.

“Hartford can nickel and dime around the edges,” said Mr. Lamont, the founder of a cable-television company, Lamont Digital. “They can add 3 percent here, take off 4 percent there,” But you worry whether they can make the big differences that we need to do.

Mr. Lamont said Mrs. Rell and the Democratic-controlled legislature are more intent on gamesmanship than confronting what even some Republican legislators privately concede: in addition to the budget cuts proposed by the governor, tax increases and labor concessions must be part of the mix.

“I think she punted,” Mr. Lamont said of the governor’s two-year budget proposal, which the legislature’s nonpartisan budget office says may be out of balance by more than $2 billion. “Frankly, the legislature hasn’t stood up and come forward with anything very cogent. To me, both the legislature and the governor are playing a game of cat and mouse.”

Rell administration officials said that they are in talks with public employee unions about the state budget. Mr. Lamont’s comments are unlikely to endear him to Mrs. Rell or legislators, whom he has been trying to influence on finance issues as part of a new nonpartisan group of labor, business and political leaders.

Led by William J. Cibes Jr., a former legislator, state budget chief and chancellor of the Connecticut State University system, the members describe themselves as “a working group of civically involved citizens.” They have produced a short-term plan to close the deficit and also issued a long-term “Blueprint for Connecticut’s Future.” The group hopes to be a continuing presence in the budget debate, but if Mr. Lamont runs for governor, his role in the effort could be compromised.

“He can’t help himself,” said Thomas J. D’Amore Jr., a former campaign adviser who said that Mr. Lamont’s occasional impolitic statements are a virtue. “He is so absolutely and disarmingly refreshing.”

Mr. Lamont insisted he was rooting for Mrs. Rell to succeed on the budget, despite his criticism and musings about opposing her.

“I’d love her to call me,” said Mr. Lamont, who described the labor and business contributors to Mr. Cibes’s group as ready to help build a consensus for tax increases and labor concessions. “I’d love to be right there. They just need somebody to convene ‘em and bring ‘em together. If I could help, I’d love a chance.”

Even Mr. D’Amore described that hope as unrealistic: Mr. Lamont can offer himself as a candidate or an honest broker on the budget, not both. “You cannot have that both ways,” he said.

Unlike 2006, when Mr. Lamont was the only Democratic alternative to Mr. Lieberman, he could face a four-way battle if he seeks the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year. James A. Amann of Milford, the former state House speaker, declared his candidacy last month. Mayor Dannel P. Malloy of Stamford and Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of Middletown have exploratory committees.

They already have promised to abide by Connecticut’s new voluntary system of publicly financed campaigns, which limits participating gubernatorial candidates to $4.5 million over a primary and general-election campaign. In 2006 Mr. Lamont spent nearly $17 million of his own money in a $20 million effort to unseat Mr. Lieberman.

“I believe in public financing,” Mr. Lamont said. Waiting a beat before dropping his voice to a stage whisper, he added, “Now I do.”

Mr. Lamont, who challenged Mr. Lieberman over his support for the war and President George W. Bush, won the Democratic primary and the allegiance of liberal bloggers, but the senator was re-elected as a petitioning candidate. Mr. Lamont was co-chairman of the Obama campaign in Connecticut, the same title Mr. Lieberman held in John McCain’s campaign.

Mr. Lamont’s friends say he has been vetted for a possible post in the Obama administration, but nothing has materialized.

His role models for chief executive include the president, but also Mayor Michael R. Bloombergof New York, who drove to the Stamford train station in 2006 to endorse Mr. Lieberman. Despite the slight, Mr. Lamont said he admired the mayor, whom he recently encountered.

“I said, ‘Why in God’s name would you want to bend the rules, end term limits, run for re-election in New York City during this extraordinary headwind, where all you can do is struggle?’ “ Mr. Lamont recalled. “And he said, ‘This will be my opportunity to lead. During the good times, I didn’t have that opportunity. Now I will.’ I love that response.”

Source: MARK PAZNIOKAS, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/nyregion/connecticut/08ctcol.html

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