Lamont Will “Respond To Charges,” Debate Malloy

Ned Lamont relaxes in the WNPR lobby, prior to an appearance on Where We Live - Photo by Chion Wolf

by John Dankosky - Gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont has confirmed with me and WFSB’s Dennis House that he will take part in our August 3rd debate with rival Democrat Dan Malloy.  As recently as last Friday, he told me pretty definitively that he would not be joining us. The reason for the change of heart?  ”I’m really saddened about the way it’s devolved,” he told me.  He’s talking about the increasingly negative tone of the race for the Democratic nomination that he says “just degrades the political process.”

He started thinking about changing his mind after our interview last Friday, when he says “Dan went 100% negative on T.V.”

The first Malloy ad recalled Joe Lieberman’s spot from four years ago in their Senate race, accusing Lamont of cutting his workforce at Lamont Digital while paying himself a big salary. The second ad featured a headline about a racial discrimination lawsuit that was filed by one employee and settled seven years ago.

Lamont said that going on our debate would be the “best way to respond to the charges.”

But he’s been running a negative campaign of his own – most recently a spot about corruption in the city of Stamford while Malloy was mayor.

In a statement, Malloy said, ”I hope Ned will agree to a wide open format that allows us to engage each other directly in a real conversation,” Malloy said. “Ned himself has said he doesn’t like the ’1 minute canned response format.’ I couldn’t agree more. So let’s not do that.”

We’re not ready yet with details about the format for the debate – which will be moderated by House and me.  If you have questions for the candidates, we’re collecting them online at YourPublicMedia.org – just click on “You Ask The Questions.”

The debate will air first at 3 p.m. August 3 on WFSB and WNPR, and then be broadcast again in prime-time at 8 p.m. on CPTV and WNPR.

Connecticut Loses Out Again In “Race To The Top”

by John Dankosky – Connecticut has failed in its second bid for federal education grant money under the Obama administration’s “Race To The Top” competition.  It’s encouraged states to revamp their education systems, and Connecticut did just that, creating a new teacher evaluation system, strengthening high school graduation requirements, allowing retired teachers to be rehired, and clearing a path for more charter schools.

The U.S. Department of Education told the state Tuesday it won’t be one of the 19 state finalists in the second round of the $4.3 billion initiative.

The law also gives parents a greater voice in how non-performing schools are managed.

The remaining $3.4 billion in the initiative will be awarded in September.  Governor Jodi Rell released this statement:

“This is a profoundly disappointing decision. We submitted a very strong application that offered a clear blueprint for achieving our goals. Our application was overwhelmingly backed by an extraordinary collaboration of government, education, businesses and local officials.

“This decision is an affront to all the dedicated individuals who worked long and hard to make our case. However, it cannot and will not lessen our commitment in providing the best education we can for our children.”

UPDATE:  This response from the Ned Lamont campaign

“A lack of gubernatorial leadership in Hartford has cost Connecticut yet another opportunity to take advantage of federal money to help prepare our kids to compete in the 21st century economy.

“We need a governor who will head down to Washington and fight for our share of the funding the Obama Administration has put on the table. As governor I’m going to get back on offense and take advantage of every opportunity to make life better for Connecticut families.”

Monday’s Where We Vote: A Lt. Governor Debate

by John Dankosky – I’m done talking about, or writing about debates in the state’s race for governor until next week.  But we will host a lively exchange Monday morning on Where We Live between Democratic candidates for Lt. Governor, Mary Glassman and Nancy Wyman.  This race has already had its own drama, surrounding – what else? Debates.

Glassman is the Simsbury First Selectman who ran for governor herself earlier this year, only to join the ticket of front-runner Ned Lamont.  Wyman is the long-serving state comptroller, whose role has been recently to explain just how completely out of whack the state budget is.

We won’t be taking live phone calls – but we’d love to hear your questions for the candidates.  Leave them here, email wherewelive@wnpr.org, tweet us @wherewelive, or check us out on Facebook.com/wherewelive.

Dan Schorr: “Watchdog” and “Giant”

Daniel Schorr, photo by Paula Darte for NPR

by John Dankosky - Connecticut’s journalism community is reacting to news of the death of Daniel Schorr. Before coming to NPR, Schorr briefly worked at CNN, helping to start the fledgling news network.  Ed Alwood, now a journalism professor at Quinnipiac, started at CNN in 1985, the year Schorr left.

“In the early days of CNN, we were unknown.  People would joke about us…they would call CNN “Chicken Noodle News.”  And Ted Turner was smart enough to hire some people at the very beginning who had some credibility, who had credentials.  These are the people who became the face of CNN at the very beginning.  And Schorr was definitely added credibility to this fledgling network,” Alwood told me.

Alwood says Turner even put a satellite dish in Schorr’s Washington front yard, because the nation’s capital wasn’t wired for cable yet.  But the relationship soured over journalistic ethics – including disputes that seem quaint in today’s 24-hour news world.  Like the time Alwood recalls that Schorr was asked to be a co-commentator with a politician.

“And Schorr did not see this as appropriate at all.  He did not feel that a politician should be put on the set with a journalist in an equal portion.”

The dispute put him at odds with Turner, who didn’t renew his contract – something the reporter called his “second firing.”

His first firing – at CBS – was actually a resignation after a dispute over leaked documents from the Pike Committee, which was investigating the CIA.  Schorr gave the documents to the Village Voice, and nearly faced jail time for contempt of congress.  Alwood said Schorr’s action still resonates for journalists today.

“I’m currently doing some research that involves journalists and their connections with the CIA.  And the Pike report, which Dan Schorr leaked, has been a tremendous help.  So, it’s somewhat ironic that on the day of his death, his work is still having an impact on people – and he’s one of those people,” Alwood said.

Friday’s Where We Vote: Ned Lamont Returns

Ned Lamont, taking part in the only televised debate this primary season - courtesy NBC Connecticut

Update: Here’s the link to the audio from today’s show.

by John Dankosky – Ned Lamont is still leading Dan Malloy in the race for the Democratic nomination for Governor – but that race is tightening, down to just 9 points. On his appearance on Friday’s Where We Live, I’ll ask about whether this might be due – in part – to his reluctance to debate Malloy multiple times on statewide TV.

This issue has dominated the last few weeks of the Lamont campaign, first with his rejection of a WTNH/New London Day debate, slated for next week – and then his campaign’s decision not to participate in an August 3 debate, presented by WNPR, CPTV and WFSB.  Dennis House of Channel 3, my co-moderator for that debate, writes that this really has become the story of the gubernatorial campaign.

And, it’s not just cynical, big-story loving media guys at newspapers, radio and TV stations who want to see the candidates debate the issues…it’s guys like former Governor Lowell Weicker, a Lamont fan who told Colin McEnroe that Lamont should debate.

As Dennis has already offered, we plan to keep a podium available to Mr. Lamont all the way until 1 p.m. – the time we start taping.  I know there are some who’ve wondered whether this really should be an issue at all – but we’ve all noted the lack of transparency, dialog and access provided by the current governor.  And the state’s media will continue to ask questions about whether this trend will continue into a new administration.

As a reminder, we’ll be taking questions here and at wherewelive@wnpr.org for the candidates in both debates, as well as our Lt. Governor debate between Mary Glassman and Nancy Wyman next Monday.

Can ADHD Affect Your Marriage?

by John Dankosky - Only a few days after our rebroadcast of a program about marriage with Tara Parker-Pope, author of For Better, she adds a new twist in her Well column at NYTimes.com.

An A.D.H.D. marriage? It may sound like a punch line, but the idea that attention problems can take a toll on adult relationships is getting more attention from mental health experts. In a marriage, the common symptoms of the disorder — distraction, disorganization, forgetfulness — can easily be misinterpreted as laziness, selfishness, and a lack of love and concern.

She suggests that people with A.D.H.D. might find coping skills to let them deal with their work – but this often doesn’t translate at home, leaving spouses concerned that they have no one they can “count on.”

Lamont On The Fence About WNPR/WFSB Debate

by John Dankosky - Ned Lamont’s decision not to engage in any more  televised debates leading up to the August 10 primary has made the media part of the story, in a way that I’m torn over.  On one hand, debates can be fairly staged affairs – long on talking points and short on real substance.

But there’s a time when they actually really do matter.  When you have a close race, important issues, narrow differences between candidates, and especially when one candidate’s refusal to take part becomes campaign fuel for his opponent, and raises questions about political strategy.

At last night’s taping of “Face The State” – which you can watch Sunday on Channel 3 – Dennis House asked Lamont, the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, if he would accept our offer to debate Malloy one week before the primary.  The forum would be moderated by Dennis and me, and broadcast at various times over WFSB, CPTV and WNPR.  It’s the biggest media footprint of any debate so far.

As you’ll read in his column, Ned said “maybe” – but his campaign said “no.”  The “no” is very consistent with what I’ve been hearing for the last few weeks as we tried to cajole them to take part.

Maybe, as Mark Pazniokas writes in The Connecticut Mirror today, some candidates really see these debates as “as another futile exercise, illuminating little about the abilities of the candidates to lead Connecticut.”

We, of course, see them in a different light – a chance to go on a job interview with thousands of people whose state you’re trying to lead.

Tom Foley, whose enormous poll lead gives him no incentive to debate the other Republicans in the race, has agreed to this WNPR/WFSB debate.  When he was leaving our studio yesterday after an appearance on Where We Live - an appearance, mind you, in which he probably said some things he wished he hadn’t - Foley told me that he’s happy to debate “anytime” and that pre-primary debates are “good practice” for the general election.

If Ned Lamont makes it through his battle with Dan Malloy, he’ll be faced with months worth of stories and questions about whether he’ll take on Foley in the fall.   And, I don’t mean with TV ads…

Monday’s Where We Vote: Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff by Chion Wolf

by John Dankosky – I think Colin McEnroe got it right about Peter Schiff. Every thing I’ve been reading, watching and listening to about him reminds me of this line Colin wrote in his blog: “He’s all about his ideas, and they tend to blot out the rest of the universe.”

This came after Schiff’s entertaining and very interesting appearance on Colin’s program last month. It solidified Schiff as a guy who is very able and willing to explain his ideas about the financial collapse and government overreach, but less eager to talk about some of the other issues at hand for a U.S. Senator.

Now that he’s officially on the primary ballot against Linda McMahon for the Republican nomination, we’re having him in as we re-start our “Where We Vote” series.  We’ll be talking about the financial services reform bill, his uneasy relationship with the tea party movement, and his fight against Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman in a battle of the “Stimulators” v. the “Austereians.” (In fact, I’ve begun to wonder, is Schiff running against McMahon and Blumenthal or Krugman and Bernanke?)

But, we’ll also be talking about things like education, health care, immigration…

We’ll be taking lots of listener calls at 860-275-7266 (9-10 am ET), emails wherewelive@wnpr.org and tweets @wherewelive.

Where We Live Enters “Debategate”

by John Dankosky –

CT News Junkie File Photo

I’ll admit to being confused by the back-and-forths over gubernatorial and lieutenant-gubernatorial debates leading up to the Democratic primary August 10.  Ned Lamont turns down a New London debate with Dan Malloy on July 27th, only to have his running mate, Mary Glassman pitch a “four-way” debate between her and Nancy Wyman and the two guys at the top of the ballots (her campaign says that that’s not really what she meant.)  It’s been no secret that Glassman is eager to debate Wyman leading up to the LG primary…and that Lamont has been equally nonchalant about the idea of debating Malloy again.

CT News Junkie File Photo

Either way, Where We Live is coming to the rescue.  On Monday, July 26th, from 9-10 a.m. we’ll host a live debate between Lieutenant Governor candidates Mary Glassman and Nancy Wyman.  We won’t have listener call-in, because we’ll be sticking to more of a “debate” format, but if you have questions for the candidates, post them here – or email wherewelive@wnpr.org, tweet us @wherewelive, or leave them on our Facebook page. The program will also be taped by CT-N for future broadcast.  Kevin Rennie expects there to be a bit of heat in the exchange, and folks like The Bristol Press have begun to let people know it’s happening.

Show listeners might recall that Glassman has some experience with this format – she took on Michael Fedele on Where We Live during the general election in 2006, when she was running with John DeStefano.  It was the only debate between Lt. Governor candidates that year.

Gov. Hits The Hub

by John Dankosky – For those who think I only cynically report news about Governor Rell NOT attending such events:

Public Schedule for Gov. M. Jodi Rell

Friday, July 9, 2010

Attend National Governors Association Meeting

Boston, Massachusetts

The Annual Meeting will officially begin at 10 AM with a news conference at the Massachusetts State House.

Meetings will then take place at the Sheraton Boston.  Highlights include:

11:30 AM session focused on health reform implementation

• 2:45 PM Conference Call – Gov. Rell will join Washington Gov. Gregoire to discuss Boeing’s formal bid for the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker contract.
• 3 PM – A joint session of the Health and Human Services Committee and the Education, Early Childhood and Workforce Committee focused on childhood obesity and nutrition. Gov. Rell serves as Vice Chair of meeting.