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Little Ado About Something
Maybe we're getting the kind of governor's race we deserve
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Business New Haven
2/9/1998
By: Laurence D. Cohen
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We're going to start hearing it any day now.
The Connecticut governor's race is boring. Kennelly and Rowland aren't talking about “The Issues.” Barbara and John are focused on raising ten billion trillion dollars, all to be spent on dumb television advertising that won't accomplish much more than making sure all seven Democrats in New Canaan know how to spell “Kennelly” by Election Day.
Why so glum? What would be so terrible about a dull, below-the-radar-screen election season? It would be an accurate reflection of what the self-important political types will never say out loud: Maybe, just maybe, Connecticut is an easy state to govern. Maybe, just maybe, the relevance of government is assuming its rightful place in the lives of Connecticut voters: an inefficient, expensive vendor that usually shows up for work on time to plow the roads, lock up the bad guys, and recommend which dirty books the kids are going to read in their health education classes.
By almost any standard that the Census Bureau and the IRS can pry out of us, from number of color televisions per home to percentage of population covered by health insurance to family income, we're one of the fattest, happiest, least-angst-ridden state populations in the nation. And that isn't due to the population of rich folks in Fairfield County - even without Fairfield County, we'd still be the third- or fourth-wealthiest state population in the union.
Some states much larger or at least more problem-ridden than Connecticut limit their legislative sessions each year to as few as 60 days - which barely gives them time to ponder such important Connecticut issues as whether women are allowed to play golf at snobby country clubs on Saturday mornings.
As our state population transforms itself into an affluent, successful suburban workforce doing God's work for regional, national and international businesses, the nuances of political nit-picking at the State Capitol become less important than whether the chairman of the Federal Reserve woke up this morning with a tummy ache.
As a state and, to some extent, as a nation, we've signaled to our politicians that the excessive, money-is-no-object expansion of government and its meddlesome ways is not appropriate - and one of the results is a low-key race for governor in a state that doesn't need messianic leadership at
the top.
For the purists, the political junkies, the results are disappointing. State Democratic party chairman Ed Marcus is exhausting himself with accusations that Rowland has bad taste in rock music (with tickets he didn't have to pay for), or that he was allowed to plunder state police surplus junk to grab grenade launchers for his children; while GOP chairman Chris DePino whispers darkly that Marcus drives around in expensive foreign cars and bludgeons local Democrats into tossing him consulting work.
Not too compelling? What is their choice? As David Letterman said about the advantages of listening to the Super Bowl on radio: When the game gets boring, the announcers can make stuff up.
Rowland and Kennelly? For their part, they're sleep-walking through the early months of a campaign, in part because they sort of like each other, and in part because Kennelly is still more comfortable talking about the good old days on the House Ways & Means Committee than about whether Route 6 should be widened or replaced or repaved or something.
She'll get better, but she'll get better on the margin. There's not much of a target to whack. In a strange way, Rowland has been the beneficiary of a Democratic General Assembly that rounds off the edges of his “conservatism” - which he is inclined to round off, anyway. He got tough on welfare, but swallowed some warm and fuzzy loopholes. He's a privatizing fool, and an income tax-whacking true believer, but the Democrats keep both instincts a bit under control.
In some states, the politicians con liven up election season with abortion and condoms and other such stuff lurking under the rubric of “social issues.” But the Connecticut electorate has little taste for it - and neither do our two gubernatorial candidates.
To say that the race may be “boring” is not to say that it will be deficient. We have a governor not inclined to grandiose dreams that lead to big-government failure, speaking to a population that, in large measure, is comfortable and satisfied with that approach. If you want excitement, get a hobby. BNH
Laurence D. Cohen is a senior fellow at the Yankee Institute for Public Policy.
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