CT Blue

Ned Lamont and Mary Glassman visited Groton today, holding a forum at the Groton Municipal Building.

I must say that I think Ned’s stump speech has improved, and I am more and more sure that he’s the better of the two candidates. I’m particularly disappointed that Malloy appears to have decided to go negative. How refreshing it would have been had both candidates been willing to recognize that it’s more important to get a Democrat in the governor’s office than that it be either one of them in particular.

Here are Ned’s remarks to the assembled multitude. The turnout was good, by the way. The council chambers, where the meeting was held, was full, albeit with the usual SE Connecticut suspects.

It would be refreshing to have a Democratic governor, particularly one who wasn’t afraid to take some chances. I’m not sure that any of our politicians, including Ned, are willing to think as much out of the box as the situation demands. Ned mentioned that electricity is outrageously expensive in this state. Municipal electric companies, and by extension, larger, publicly owned and operated electric companies, typically have lower rates than investor owned electric companies. At the risk of sounding like a (shudder) socialist, it seems to me that the state has a role in providing any service that is both a natural monopoly (or functionally equivalent) or is an absolute necessity. There’s not much distinction between water and electricity in my book, and if the state can provide either or both more efficiently and cheaper, which it can, then it should do so. End of digression.

Getting back to Ned, it was a good meeting. I have to include Ned in that small subset of politicians who are also reasonably nice people. I hope he’s able to stay nice and that the campaign doesn’t turn nasty, at least until after the primary.