NEW BRITAIN – Less than 2 weeks until the polls are open and two of the men running for governor faced off in another debate on Thursday.
Incumbent Democrat Gov. Dan Malloy and unaffiliated candidate Joe Visconti took the stage while Republican Tom Foley went to another TV taping.
Foley said the decision to not participate in Thursday’s debate was made about a month ago. The main reason, according to him, is that his campaign couldn’t settle on terms of the debate.
Meanwhile, Foley hurled another accusation against Malloy on Thursday afternoon. He sent a statement to the media saying that UBS, a financial services company, is leaving Connecticut. Foley said that is indicative of failed economy policy by Malloy.
“Despite the fact that he’s handing out billions in taxpayer dollars in corporate welfare, he’s been very tough on business and he has not made Connecticut a good place for employees to grow their businesses and employ more people, so people who can, leave,” Foley told Fox CT.
Foley’s “corporate welfare” charge came up in Thursday’s debate.
Malloy defended his position on business and spoke of what he says are success stories.
“We have secured United Technologies’ presence in our state for years to come. Soon, Pratt and Whitney engineers will be producing more engines in any time since they have in 1983. They’re going to invest $500 million in a new engineering center. That’s important when you’re talking about aerospace,” said Malloy.
Visconti seemed to side with Foley on this one, calling Malloy’s policies “crony capitalism.”
“We’ve seen some of the governor’s programs, we’re learning it doesn’t work. They leave and then we have to chase their money to come back,” Visconti.
He and Malloy also strongly disagreed on gun policy. Visconti wants to dismantle Connecticut’s gun control law that Malloy supported and signed in 2013.
Visconti doesn’t plan to drop out of the race for governor, according to Jeff Weiss, who is with Visconti’s campaign.
Weiss said Visconti feels he owes it to the people who signed a petition to get him on the ballot.
Foley and Malloy are due for another match-up on Sunday. It’s expected to be their last debate before Election Day.
