Connecticut Democratic Party Executive Director Jonathan Harris released the following statement:

“To read Tom Foley’s speech is like reading Alice in Wonderland.  It’s interesting, but it’s also untrue.  It kind of reminds me of Mr. Foley’s 2010 campaign, when he proposed eliminating a $3.5 billion budget deficit with $2 billion in cuts, many of them ones that had no chance of being achieved.

Mr. Foley’s critique of Gov. Malloy’s record is not just off by a little bit.  It’s dead wrong.  Gov. Malloy inherited a state that was hemorrhaging jobs, had the worst structural deficit in the nation, and a state that lagged behind the nation in implementing education reforms.  Two and a half years later, the private sector has created almost 50,000 jobs – the best 2 ½ year run the Connecticut economy has had since the late 1990s.  That’s 50,000 more jobs than Tom Foley was ever responsible for helping to create.  The deficit is gone, there’s a surplus, and more than $100 million was just put into the empty Rainy Day Fund.  And landmark education reforms are being implemented.

Mr. Foley has a long way to go before he can again attempt to buy his way into the Governor’s office, but his doom-and-gloom, the sky-is-falling critique of Connecticut is way off the mark, and his proposed solutions are every bit as fantastical as they were the last time he lost a race for Governor.  As the Governor says all the time, we’re not where we need to be yet.  But we’re headed in the right direction, finally.  Mr. Foley would have Connecticut make a u-turn and revisit the failed policies of the past.”

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