(Hartford, Connecticut) — Connecticut Democratic Party Executive Director Jonathan Harris this afternoon released the following statement upon the reported news that Tom Foley plans to announce his candidacy for Governor tomorrow.

“Mr. Foley has a lot of questions to answer. Did he really think taking these people’s jobs away and ruining their retirement security was the right thing to do, and the right way to make millions of dollars?

“After weeks of equivocating, did he really need to pander to the NRA by kind of, almost, maybe saying he would have vetoed the common sense gun safety bill Gov. Malloy signed into law?

“Does he really believe the people of Connecticut will allow him to buy an election?

“Does he still not think former Gov. Rowland did anything wrong?

“And what exactly has Mr. Foley been doing since he lost the 2010 race?  Spare us the ‘I started a think-tank’ nonsense. The Connecticut ‘Policy’ Institute’s been nothing but a political front for Mr. Foley, who helped created it and fund it.  What has he actually been doing, other than playing politics and pandering to the NRA?

“Under Gov. Malloy’s leadership, the private sector in Connecticut has created almost 50,000 jobs.  Landmark education reform is being implemented.  Thousands of people will soon for the first time be able to afford quality health insurance.  Government is smaller, leaner, and in many cases operating more efficiently and effectively.  And we went from having one of the worst budget deficits in the nation to having a surplus, and tens of millions of dollars have been put into the Rainy Day Fund for the first time in years.  As Gov. Malloy says all the time, we’re not where we need to be yet, and we have a ways to go.  But we are clearly headed in the right direction.

“Mr. Foley, on the other hand, mouths the same old platitudes and espouses support for the same old, failed policies of the past that hurt Connecticut’s middles class.  The policies that helped get us into the mess Gov. Malloy’s been digging us out of.

“Mr. Foley has a lot of serious questions to answer and Connecticut deserves to hear them. Again.”

###