The Man Behind Malloy

The election is over, not the campaign. As Gov.-elect Dan Malloy prepares to raise taxes and cut spending to erase a staggering deficit, he is turning again to his uber-flack and alter ego, Roy Occhiogrosso, to shape and sell a message.

"It's not about spin. It's about telling your entire story," Occhiogrosso said. "He has a very clear sense of what he wants to do. It will be my job to help shape the narrative that will allow him to tell the story on his own terms."

Occhiogrosso, 45, has been looking over Malloy's shoulder for six years, framing a narrative for his friend and client through scandal and success, and losing and winning gubernatorial campaigns, each by heart-stopping margins.

In victory, the task gets harder. A candidate is free to persuade, seduce and inspire with a gauzy, soft-focus sense of the possible. As governor, Malloy will be judged on performance, primarily by how he erases a deficit of more than $3.5 billion, a sum equal to one-fifth of state spending.

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