The first televised debate in Connecticut’s general election campaign for governor took place at University of St. Joseph in West Hartford last night. The Republican nominee in the race, Bob Stefanowski, declined to participate. That created an opportunity for a low polling independent candidate in the race to introduce himself to a statewide audience.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel, a former CEO of MetroHartford Alliance business group, had 4 percent support in the first Quinnipiac University poll released in the race. So Griebel took full advantage of being one-on-one with Democratic nominee Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. Even before answering the first question he spent time touting his 25 years of business and public policy experience in the state.
“Through these 25 years here in Connecticut, I’ve developed a personal reputation for action, candor, respect for others and a focus on the common good. And I provide this summary to illustrate that I not only lived and worked in Connecticut for 25 years, I’ve worked for Connecticut.”
Democrat Lamont urged the audience to encourage Griebel.
“He and I have done a lot of bipartisan work at different colleges and working on the issues. Give him 10 percent but not out of my share. But I wouldn’t mind seeing him around. We are running against a guy who wouldn’t even show up. Thanks for being here, Oz.”
Both agreed that putting Connecticut’s fiscal house in order would be their first priority.
Though they had some different ideas about how to raise revenue, both agreed that Republican Stefanowski’s plan to phase out Connecticut’s state income tax would be a bad idea.
Lamont is proposing a $700 property tax relief.
“Property tax relief, I think, is one way for us to say we get it. We know this is an expensive state, and we are going to work seriously to take care of that. Property tax is the biggest tax the middle class pays, and it makes a difference.”
Griebel says he would eliminate the business entity tax and the gift and inheritance tax.
“One of the reasons people are leaving is that they don’t want to die in Connecticut. So let’s give them a reason to stay by eliminating that. Then we’ll get their personal income tax, their sales tax, their gasoline tax, their contributions to philanthropy.”
All three candidates will take part in five other scheduled debates before the November election.
This story has been updated to reflect that the candidates will be participating in five debates. An earlier version had four.
