Running Connecticut Like a Mayor, Not a King

BY PETER APPLEBOME  |  NEW YORK TIMES  |  LINK TO ARTICLE
“Let’s play a game,” says Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, an unexpected suggestion from someone whom no one describes as a fun and games kind of guy. But then comes the game. “Name a governor of New York since Al Smith who hasn’t been the emperor of New York,” he says, part of a conversation about governing and communication styles. He runs briskly through a long list of storied names including Roosevelt, Lehman, Dewey, Harriman, Rockefeller, Cuomo the Elder and Cuomo the Younger. “New York likes to have emperor governors. That doesn’t fly in Connecticut.” No one has yet suggested that Mr. Malloy, who gives his second State of the State address as governor on Wednesday, is auditioning for the role of emperor of Connecticut. A more common description is that he sees himself as the mayor of Connecticut, a no-nonsense blur of activity trying to fill every pothole and overhaul the state’s budget at the same time.
To Mr. Malloy, Connecticut’s first Democratic governor in 20 years, the results are clear. “We took the largest per-capita deficit in the nation, and we wrestled it to the ground by cutting expenses, by increasing revenue and by restacking our relationship with our employees, which we did at the negotiating table,” he said at his office at the statehouse. “There’s no other state that accomplished that.”
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