The Other Dem Primary in Connecticut

I'm not trying to totally hijack this blog for the discussion of Connecticut politics, but this diary may have broader implications for Democratic politics and those who care about it.  (And, let's face it, a lot of Nutmeggers are intensely following this blog these day.)  While the Dem primary between Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman is the main event in CT right now, there is another vote on August 8th - to choose our Dem nominee for Governor.  Tonight, the two Dem candidates had their only (I think) televised debate... and kudos to the local ABC affiliate for broadcasting it in primetime.  I wonder if the pundits tomorrow will call it boring, but I thought it was inspiring.

The two candidates, John DeStefano who is the mayor of New Haven and Dan Malloy who is the mayor of Stamford.  These are both two successful mayors with a lot of ideas for the state.  

For most of the debate it was a discussion of serious policy ideas and issues.  They spent a lot of time reciting a list of achievments for their respective cities.  There were multiple occassions where they said they agreed with one another.  About midway through, one of the questioners tried to provoke some fireworks by asking the candidates to distinguish themselves.  (As a personal note, I wanted to see that a little because I don't really know enough about these two yet.)  That got them mixing it up a little, but the issues they were arguing over included who had a better plan for universal health coverage and who was more intensely serious about supporting public financing of campaigns.

Granted, neither of these candidates are an incumbent fighting to hold onto power, but it does show what can happen when we have good, vigorous primary races in our party between two seemingly decent candidates.  Important ideas are discussed.  Politics becomes uplifting instead of juvenile.  One can have a little hope that we can use our democratically elected government for the common good.  I hope the party will embrace primaries as a chance to restore democracy.  But, unfortunatley, I fear the power of incumbency changes the nature of elections and what it means to run for office.  It could be about so much more.  We don't need the Republicans on this one.  Let them be the party of special interests and entrenched power.  Dems need to represent the people again and good, solid primary competitions are a powerful tool for democracy.

I just know the media pundits will rip this debate tomorrow as boring and uneventful.  They don't give a shit about whether the policy ideas mean something to Connecticut residents.  They only value the entertainment angle - which is a shame coming from so-called journalists.  But this was an excellent, eventful debate that served the party and state well.  I feel good about both candidates - and in contrast am even more upset with Joe Lieberman now more than ever.  I certainly came into this year upset with Lieberman and hoping he would be challenged.  But, I would have respected him if he came out and embraced this primary as a chance to really talk to CT voters about the issues and the motivations for his seemingly bizzarre actions.  He has more than let me down with his behavior during this campaign.  I think the CT Democratic Party is in good shape with leaders like John DeStefano, Dan Malloy and Ned Lamont.  I'm sorry Joe, but you are no longer a leader of this party.