Hartford, CT – Republican candidate Tom Foley has now failed twice to qualify for public financing – and his inability to competently complete a $250,000 endeavor doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in his ability to manage a nearly $20,000,000,000 state budget.

Republican leaders are now decrying how hard it is to qualify. GOP Chairman Jerry Labriola called the Citizens’ Election Program a “labyrinth,” claiming that “You have to demonstrate extraordinary organizational skills.”

If a gubernatorial candidate can’t be organized enough to manage a $250,000 effort after two tries, how in the world is he going to manage almost $20,000,000,000? The $250,000 public financing effort is about one thousandth of one percent of Connecticut’s budget.

“Think about it – if you can’t competently submit paperwork for $250,000, then how are you going to handle a budget that’s $20,000,000,000? By percentage, if Tom Foley were traveling to the bottom of the sea, he would make it a third of a foot down. If he were traveling all the way to the moon, he wouldn’t make it half way up Mount Everest,” said Devon Puglia, spokesman for the Connecticut Democratic Party. “Voters need to consider this budgetary comparison carefully – this is a barometer of a candidate’s competence, and Tom Foley doesn’t seem to have a speck of it. The Foley campaign is dodging important questions because they approached this process recklessly. Now, questions abound as to not just whether he has the capacity to run this state, but whether he can even put together a competent campaign organization with about a thousandth of a percent of the size of Connecticut’s budget.”

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