There has been plenty of discussion this week about the public financing of campaigns, culminating in a special session today. The Hartford Courant’s Daniela Altimari has a great write up on what happened at the Capitol and some fiery comments from Senate Minority Leader John McKinney. You gotta love Daniela’s headline:
http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2010/07/crap.html
Some people I’ve spoken to this week don’t feel wealthy candidates should turn to taxpayers to pay for campaign ads, especially negative ones. Republican Lt. Governor Michael Fedele has unleashed some new negative ads this week aimed at Tom Foley, ads, that you, the taxpayer, paid for. Those ads on commercial television debuted simultaneously with some amateur video on youtube of Fedele with his Ferrari. You can read about it and see it on Kevin Rennie’s blog:
http://www.dailyructions.com/mike-fedele-im-rich-ha-ha-ha/
To be fair, Democrat Dan Malloy is also taking public financing and is also using taxpayer money for negative ads. Foley and Ned Lamont are also running negative ads, but the taxpayers aren’t getting the bill.
I was asked by a viewer how a man who drives a $200,000 car can qualify for public financing. Trinity College professor Rennie Fulco, that public financing is not based on need, although the purpose of it is give other politicians who are not wealthy, a chance to compete against wealthy ones.
Which brings us back to the Ferrari. It was a big blunder for a gubernatorial candidate to bring that car to the Capitol during a recession and period of record unemployment and foreclosures. No one argues that.
Fedele has every right to own that car. The son of a blue collar immigrant from Italy, Fedele earned every penny he has the hard way. He is an American success story, and an expensive Italian sports car is one of the fruits of his labor.
Cars and politicians are a funny mix. Vehicles have to be carefully chosen so they don’t negatively impact a politician’s image. In the 1990s, then Hartford Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry had a Lincoln as her official city vehicle that she drove through one of the nation’s poorest cities. It made her look out of touch. There are some politicians who drive cars made in Japan. When a local company wants to ship jobs overseas, how can that person condemn that business from the seat of a car made by foreign workers overseas?
Some are wondering how can a politician who drives a Ferrari can ask for a handout from the taxpayers.
I asked Fedele’s running mate, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton about it. His response? “Dan Malloy took public financing and he is just as wealthy as Fedele.”
Tune in this Sunday at 11 AM for Face the State.
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Dennis House 
Dan Malloy is as wealthy as Mike Fedele? I think not. Mark Boughton needs to get his facts straight. That’s flat out false. An outright lie.
Please please fact check this and don’t just report it like a monkey Dennis.
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$200,000 car?
Not even close; Mike’s 10 year old 360 Modena cost him close to half of that. Were it a more common (and more boring) vehicle such as a Mercedes S Class, no one would even blink.
That Fedele owns such a beautiful Pininfarina designed car shows both superb taste and is the happy ending to America’s favorite story:
Immigrant boy comes to America, works hard, starts company, stays straight and works harder; prospers and winds up in a Ferrari.
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ACR I totally agree with you. Fedele’s hard work ethic and success prove he’s the better candidate. Honestly who care about who has more money? Malloy will tax usout of existence, just like lamont would.
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Dennis – Fedele drove his personal vehicle to the Capitol for a FUNDRAISER for sick kids, along with many other owners of collectible cars. He’s done this for years to help the kids. I am personally proud of him for doing it this year, even though it has wound up as campaign fodder for a fading Foley. Foley’s big negative hit on Fedele “He owns a Ferrari!”
Stop the presses! Surely Face the State must have better things to address – or, maybe not……. it is getting more like “Entertainment Tonight.”
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No, no, no,…Fedele drove his car to the Capitol for the yearly Concorso and two day event put on by the local Ferrari club. The festivities included a cocktail party, a picnic, a full blown judging competition and one small part of the lengthy schedule was to drive sick kids to the hospital.
I wonder why ACR knows so much about the exact year of Mr. Fedele’s car and how much he paid for it? The first year for a 360 was 1999 and we don’t know what year Mr. Fedele bought the car or how much he paid for it. Even if ACR’s story were true, there are very few people who can afford to spend six figures on a used car or pay for the upkeep of an exotic Italian sports car.
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Dennis you are on the job and I love it. Anyone that didn’t think that the negative ads were going to come are in denial, its just a part of the political game to rip down the other person in order to win.
The type of car the candidate drives plays into the candidates actions. It is a shame that taxpayers have to pick up the bill, but when you stop an think about it this is nothing new.
Taxpayers are always picking up the tab!
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Who cares?? I mean really. Neither one of them will be getting my vote. Can we focus on the issues please and not the amount of money the candidates have!
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If it came down to nicest cars, Fedele would win with his Ferrari and his wife’s Maserati. I am shocked and ashamed that our lieutenant governor drives around such expensive cars when we are in such a tough time in our economy. Oz Griebel doesn’t have the nicest cars or the money, but his ideas and work ethic are unmatched by any other candidate, Republican or Democratic.
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Why is the collumn headlined with what is the briefest of comments in the last line of the piece?
If Mark Boughton was to check, I think he would find that Malloy hasn’t criticized or even mentioned Fedele’s worth, or lack of it. He has his own opponent at the moment.
The truth is that anyone with a spare 20 or 30 mil to pop into a race for the top can run. If not, just don’t advertise or mount a campaign.
Seriously, the Citizens election election program should be redesigned to a point where the program buys radio and tv time, or contributes the State mailing frank; and doles time and money out in some appropriate manner. The program would make efforts to see that the use of state dollaers would be used for voter education rather than the usual campaignb tripe.
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I hate to say it but Boughton is going to need to substantiate that. I haven’t heard that from anyone else. Of course the fact that Fedele is making the taxpayers foot the bill for his campaign is pathetic. I just don’t understand how he thinks that is acceptable. He can very clearly fund his campaign himself. To me that just says he doesn’t think that he is worth making an investment in. If he won’t put his own readily available money on the line, than I don’t have the confidence to vote in him.
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