Lamont Will “Respond To Charges,” Debate Malloy

Gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont has confirmed with me and WFSB’s Dennis House that he will take part in our August 3rd debate with rival Democrat Dan Malloy.  As recently as last Friday, he told me pretty definitively that he would not be joining us. The reason for the change of heart?  ”I’m really saddened about the way it’s devolved,” he told me.  He’s talking about the increasingly negative tone of the race for the Democratic nomination that he says “just degrades the political process.”

He started thinking about changing his mind after our interview last Friday, when he says “Dan went 100% negative on T.V.”

The first Malloy ad recalled Joe Lieberman’s spot from four years ago in their Senate race, accusing Lamont of cutting his workforce at Lamont Digital while paying himself a big salary. The second ad featured a headline about a racial discrimination lawsuit that was filed by one employee and settled seven years ago.

Lamont said that going on our debate would be the “best way to respond to the charges.”

But he’s been running a negative campaign of his own – most recently a spot about corruption in the city of Stamford while Malloy was mayor.

In a statement, Malloy said, ”I hope Ned will agree to a wide open format that allows us to engage each other directly in a real conversation,” Malloy said. “Ned himself has said he doesn’t like the ’1 minute canned response format.’ I couldn’t agree more. So let’s not do that.”

We’re not ready yet with details about the format for the debate – which will be moderated by House and me.  If you have questions for the candidates, we’re collecting them online at YourPublicMedia.org – just click on “You Ask The Questions.”

The debate will air first at 3 p.m. August 3 on WFSB and WNPR, and then be broadcast again in prime-time at 8 p.m. on CPTV and WNPR.

This story was originally written for Where We Blog.