This is where we live on Connecticut Public.

I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil.

It's after Labor Day and that means campaign season is in full swing.

Today, we sit down with Republican Bob Stefanowski, the party's nominee for governor.

There's a little more than two months to go before Election Day, and we're in our new studio, which means our conversation isn't limited to a live radio stream.

You can also watch online at Connecticut Public Website, Facebook page or on YouTube.

This is Bob Stefanowski, second time running against Ned Lamont.

He lost to the incumbent in 2018 by three percentage points.

Stefanowski, a former business executive, wants to make Connecticut more affordable and safer.

And he recently told ABC radio, quote, The government is getting in between parents and their kids.

Later this morning, he and running mate Representative Laura Devlin will release their parental bill of rights.

Now, what questions do you have for Bob Stefanowski We want to hear from you, too.

You can add your question on our Facebook page or on Twitter search where we live.

Or even better, you can call in and ask the candidate yourself.

Our number, 888-720-9677.

That's 888-720-WNPR.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

Now we're waiting for Bob Stefanowski to arrive in our studio here in Hartford.

But joining me now is Christine Stewart, who's editor in chief of News Junkie.

Christine, it's so good to talk with you in person.

Good morning.

So you've been covering many campaigns for many years.

I wanted you to give us some of your takeaways so far with this gubernatorial campaign.

So this gubernatorial campaign, we didn't have primaries, right?

So so we had Governor Ned Lamont, we had Republican Bob Stefanowski, and we've had them since May.

But obviously, we're past Labor Day now and the campaigns are picking up.

And this is a rematch, but this is kind of an interesting rematch.

So this is a rematch in which one of the candidates is kind of remaking himself.

And I spoke with him on Friday, and we talked about how he is not the same candidate as he was in 2018, that he is a different candidate.

And I think that, you know, we've seen a lot of staff changes with his campaign.

I think that he's more accessible to the media than he was previously.

So it's going to be a little bit of a different campaign, I think.

When you talk about Bob Stefanowski telling you that he's a different candidate different campaign.

Remind us back in 2018, so he was the newcomer and there was he forced a primary and he was able to get the endorsement.

And so now that people know the name.

What are you seeing from his campaign around our state?

Yeah.

So he wasn't only a newcomer in 2018.

He was a newcomer who bypassed the convention process.

He went out and he got signatures and then he surprised everybody.

I think it was maybe there were like seven, six, seven candidates on the ballot and he won that night.

So it was a different campaign in that I think that there were a lot of out-of-state people who were working on it and the candidate was not as accessible and they ran it more like a national campaign, which doesn't work in Connecticut.

Connecticut is very parochial and you really have to know Connecticut and all its idiosyncrasies in order to be a successful candidate in the state.

To that point, you mentioned the changes to his campaign staff.

And we think about bringing on Patrick Sasser, who is a firefighter in Stamford, really led the no tolls movement in our state that really bogged down Governor Lamont's first year in office.

And so now that he is advising Bob Stefanowski, you know, are you seeing anything different in the ground game?

I'm not necessarily seeing anything different in in the ground game.

I think that, you know, Patrick is really good at the ground game.

It was a grassroots campaign for four tolls that he actually waged successfully.

Right.

We don't have tolls still in Connecticut.

And I think him and Bob's friendship kind of started when they started going out of state at the beginning of the pandemic to purchase masks when when you couldn't find them anywhere.

When we think about Labor Day and the two months to go before Election Day, I just had on prime time television at my house last night, which is unusual because my kids take over the TV most of the time.

And it was commercial after commercial after commercial.

So talk about the money involved in this gubernatorial race.

Yeah.

So we have the money from the candidates.

The candidates are millionaires.

They just released their their tax returns.

And obviously, it's two millionaires running against each other.

But we also have some outside money that's coming to play in Connecticut.

So we have some outside PAC money, one that's focused on.

Parents.

We also have the Democratic Governors Association supporting Governor Lamont.

So, Christine, Stuart's going to stay with us as we hear again from Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski, who is now has now arrives.

We're going to take a quick break and we come back.

We'll take your questions for him.

888-720-9677 or find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

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This is where we live on Connecticut Public Radio.

I'm Lucy NALPATHANCHIL.

Well, a rematch against Democrat Ned Lamont ended Bob Stefanowski's favor.

We're talking to the two time Republican gubernatorial candidate.

As Election Day draws near a little more than two months to go before November 8th.

What questions do you have for Bob Stefanowski?

You can join us.

888-720-9677.

That's 888-720-WNPR.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

And this conversation is streaming live on all our digital platforms.

Bob Stefanowski, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

I'm sorry.

I'm a few minutes late.

Labor Day, school busses, rain.

You got it all today, right?

So actually, right after the show, you're going to be heading into a press conference, really releasing your parental bill of rights.

Tell us about it and why now?

Well, one of the things I and a lot of people across Connecticut have found concerning over the last four years, is government kind of getting in the way between a parent and their child?

And I fundamentally believe I grew up in New Haven.

I had two terrific parents.

And parents should be making the decisions about where their kids go to school.

Parents should be making decisions, decision about what social issues to talk to their kids about when they're where they're in grade school.

Parents should be making the decision whether their kids wear masks and if they want to put a mask on their kid for COVID, that's perfectly fine.

But for those parents who don't, it shouldn't be required.

So the theme at today's press conferences is giving parents the right to raise their kids, which which shouldn't be up for discussion .

But it actually is right now in Connecticut.

You know, we've lived in an extraordinary time two and a half years now since this pandemic began.

So when some of our listeners hear that you say it should be the parent's choice whether a child wears a mask, we know early on in this pandemic we were listening to public health experts and they advise that that would help keep this respiratory virus from spreading.

And so maybe you can explain a little bit more about, you know, what you mean when parents should have more say in a pandemic before the vaccine was available, when people were dying, you know, thinking about, you know, the choice of wearing a mask or not.

I think early on it made some sense.

And in fact, I worked with the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven.

We handed out 1.5 million surgical masks.

But but you also need to look at the science.

And kids of that age or just a minute probability of getting seriously ill.

I mean, there's a lot more things that are more dangerous to kids than than, you know, COVID.

Fortunately for kids and their immune system, what we should've done is protected the elderly, which is a whole nother topic.

But, you know, I just think parents should have that right.

And you see some of the social issues in kids today as I travel the state, not now, but a couple of months ago, you would see kids still wearing a mask because they were afraid to take it off.

And and that has an impact on a kid's social development.

So, again, if a parent wants to put a mask on their kid to go to school, perfectly fine But if they don't, I don't think the government should be stepping in and mandating something like that.

This parental bill of rights that you're releasing.

Tell us more about, you know, what you'll be discussing, because when we think of parental bill of rights, we've heard that from Congress.

We've heard from some members of Congress, Florida and Texas lawmakers bringing up parental bill of rights.

And so what exactly are you proposing?

We're not doing anything radical like Florida and preventing things from being talked about.

This is more about kitchen table issues being spoken about at the kitchen table.

We need to promote diversity.

We need to promote differences of choice and be very tolerant of that and help kids.

But this is about if, you know, if a parent wants to talk to their kindergartner about, you know, issues like that, that's up to them.

But it should be at the kitchen table and it should be their decision.

It shouldn't be forced on kids that can barely tie their shoes There's an element of this parental bill of rights which talks about school security.

You think about the security we put around money in the bank or pieces of artwork in a museum.

Why aren't there more technology being used in our schools?

We're going to provide Laura and I money from the $5 billion surplus we have in the capital.

And we're going to.

Why not have panic buttons in each classroom?

Why not have self-locking doors in all these buildings?

So we're going to audit the buildings of the the schools of the state of Connecticut, make sure they're as secure as they possibly can be.

This is our most precious asset.

Why don't we have the technology applied to our school that we see in banks and museums?

And we're going to do it.

We're going to make kids safer.

You can join us with our conversation with Bob Stefanski, the Republican gubernatorial candidate here in our studios where we live.

Our number 8887209677.

You can add your comment to Facebook or Twitter.

Again, you can find us online as well as this stream.

When you talk about US school safety, we know that there were proposals and efforts after the Sandy Hook tragedy, which unfortunately will be ten years this December As governor, what would you do to make.

Mandate that schools release their school safety plans to state officials That has been an issue.

According to the Connecticut Mirror.

Some schools are not following that mandate to make sure that those plans are filed with the State Department of Ed Well, they should all be filed.

But I think the first step is local control.

You've got school boards.

You've got parents.

You have towns with very different profiles, unfortunately, very different levels of security.

But we also need to resource the schools.

I was talking to a security officer in one of the large cities.

They're supposed to have 90 people in the school, security officer to watch the kids and they only have 30.

And when I asked why, he said, well, we don't have the funding for 90.

So how can that be in a state where we've got 5 billion of excess money that we're adequately resourcing our schools to provide the security?

And I'd be willing to bet when we do this audit, we're going to find extraordinary things about some schools.

Some of them may be fine.

But I think we have to look at every school.

Kids are our most important asset, and that should come first.

And I don't think we've put enough focus on that.

You hear about ventilation systems, 47% of the systems in school are obsolete.

What's more important than clean air for our kids?

You hear about teacher shortages in Hartford starting the year with 90 substitutes.

Why weren't we on this all summer?

We need to allocate that money.

We need to prioritize it for schools and keep our kids safe.

Gwen, you can join us.

8887209677 or find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

You talked about schools, keeping them safe, making sure there's proper resources to have added security.

I know that you're a parent.

I am as well.

And we think about the school environment.

It's not just making sure that the doors are locked and bad people can't come in, but making sure that they have supports their social emotional learning And there was a shortage.

You talk about school security.

Maybe there are no security guards or particular sorrows in schools, in particular districts.

But the idea that there's a shortage of mental health, clinicians, social workers and as governor, how would you prioritize that?

A lot of it's funding.

When you look at over the summer, there's social issues and there also are learning issues.

The state of the town of New Haven released last week, I think it was.

15% of the kids are testing at the age appropriate level in math.

That's not good.

We need to put more resources, put more funding.

If we have to pay teachers more to get get good teachers, we should be doing it.

I mean, I'm I'm a free market person, Lizzie.

If there's not enough teachers, that means there's a reason for that.

Either it's a lack of respect or a lack of pay or a lack, I'll even say it, a lack of the right pension program.

But this is our most important asset.

So if we have a shortage, we need to find a way to motivate people.

I think we put the governor put 15 million this summer towards remedial training.

That should be $100 million.

Every school should have tutoring opportunities both during the summer and after school now.

This is a real problem from COVID that is going to filter through our system for the next three, five, seven, ten years, and we better address it before it's too late.

We're already behind on it.

And Laura Devlin and I, my lieutenant governor, are going to be laser focused on this, getting our kids back up to speed to where they need to be.

Just a couple more questions on education.

When we think about teacher shortages, do you think that, you know, we hear from teachers who are leaving the profession.

They are disheartened by politicians who accuse them of teaching certain things in class, thinking about ways to limit curricula.

I'm wondering how you would respond, considering that that's one of your platforms.

Looking at what's being taught in schools, do educators know best?

It's not about arguing with teachers.

It's actually the reverse.

It's working with teachers.

There are some terrific teachers out there.

I'm sure you've had some terrific ones that you still remember.

I went to the public schools in North Haven.

It's about working collaboratively with parents to teach reading, writing and arithmetic.

And that's what our schools need to get back to, in my humble opinion.

It's also about teaching kids the trades because college is not for everybody, is terrific for some people, but encouraging kids to go to the trade school.

Small and medium sized business across Connecticut is dying for kids with basic engineering skills and computer drafting skills.

So it's working to get the right curriculum and in my humble opinion, leaving the kitchen table issue to the kitchen table for the parents to address.

Getting back to the curricula question the State Department of Ed is currently updating the state social studies standards to be more inclusive and state specific.

So if you were elected governor, would you move to halt this process given the inclusion of LGBT history in the conversation?

I think the the importance of it.

It's part of our history.

Racism is part of our history.

We need to teach kids about that.

I don't believe, though, in assuming that kids are guilty just because of our history.

History is important.

We need to teach it.

They need to understand it.

They.

Need to be able to to simply they need to be on the stand to understand it.

Deal with it.

Support it.

But I don't think one of the issues I've had with and not so much in Connecticut, although you saw it happen with the Greenwich assistant principal last week presenting this level of guilt on kids just because, you know, they're either privileged, not privileged.

I don't think that's the right way to go.

Have you heard what you've been hearing from residents who say their kids feel guilty because they're learning history?

If you look at some of it, yeah, you hear the stories of of, you know, kids that are, quote, privileged, you know, feeling guilty that they are.

And the goal should be to make everybody equal, to provide all the kids the right opportunity, to not frown upon the ones that are aren't, but to get everybody the same level, to teach them the basics school so they skills so they can all be successful in life.

And that's what schools are about.

It's not about pointing fingers, it's not about arguing with teachers.

It's about having the support for all the diversity in our schools, celebrating it, embracing it, and making kids feel good about themselves.

And at the end of the day, the governor doesn't have a purview over what's taught in school.

Does the local school board's voted in by the residents?

He does.

I mean, he's got influence.

Certainly, he did issue a statewide mask mandate for kids So when he wants to do it, he certainly can.

And I think to build up our curriculum in the right way to support the safety of our schools, to fill the the unexplained vacancies of teachers throughout the state, to improve the physical safety.

That's something that the governor should be priority one, particularly when you're sitting with $5 billion of money to use for it.

Why is that not being given back to us to improve our schools?

That's going to be a day one initiative for Laura Devlin, and I hope.

You can join us again.

Bob Stefanski is my guest here where we live.

Our number, 8887209677.

Or find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

We've got some listeners who've commented online, Nancy, says, I think this parental bill of rights is a dog whistle and a way of falsely labeling the current administration as being against parents.

How would you respond?

I think there has been too much government intervention in school.

I'm not trying to blame anybody, but I think government, again, in my humble opinion, I respect your listener, has invaded every nook and cranny of people's lives, and I think it's time for them to step out.

The majority of people that I talk to want to raise their kids.

They think they know best, and I think that's appropriate.

Our job for government is to provide adequate funding, to provide safety, to provide good teachers, to provide optionality with respect to schools, and to let the kids learn.

When you talk about extra resources to deal with teacher shortages, you'd mentioned, you know, $100 million should be spent.

Lisa writes, You know, where would this money come from?

Can you be specific?

We have a $5 billion budget surplus.

That means that the governor has collected $5 billion more than he needs right now, and that comes from taxpayers.

I don't know why he won't give some of it back to us.

He should.

Particularly when people can't afford to buy gas and food.

And I hear stories about people making decisions between food and prescription medicine because they can't afford both.

We're sitting on $5 billion yet.

We have a shortage of 90 teachers in Hartford this morning.

It makes no sense to me.

I'm going to address it.

We're going to give some of that money back to taxpayers.

Again, you can join us.

8887209677 to ask your question to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanski.

When we think about the challenges facing Connecticut.

Unfunded pension liabilities is number one.

And so when you think about how to use surpluses now to provide immediate relief, whether it's teacher shortages or a tax relief, if you were governor, how would you plan to continue to help pay down those pension liabilities?

Bob The pension plan is an issue, but I wouldn't say it's priority one right now.

I mean, it is literally this is a rainy day fund, $5 billion.

And so happens it's a rainy day today.

But when people can't afford food, when people are filling half of their oil tank because they can't afford to fill the whole thing, when people are lucky enough to be planning a vacation and then they have to change it When kids are struggling in school, paying down long term liabilities is fine.

But we have a real crisis in Connecticut right now.

Despite Governor Lamont's ad saying he cut taxes, he has raised taxes.

He promised a $700 property tax cut.

On average, property taxes went up by $500.

People cannot sustain the 40 year high inflation.

And quite honestly, Lucy, people can't afford another four years of Governor Lamont, you think of one thing that's better than it was four years ago.

Is it public safety now?

Is it parental choice in education?

No.

Is it affordability?

No.

Is it infrastructure?

No.

He hasn't earned the right to have another four years and we should try something different again.

You can join us 8887209677 or find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

So what would be your plan to help provide relief, making it more affordable?

You know, again, the Governor Lamont and the General Assembly passed $600 million in tax relief.

Again, half of that, I believe, is from the federal funds.

And so what would be your plan when you ran in 2018?

You mentioned I'm going to get rid of the income tax.

Have you completely walked away from that idea?

Well, first of all, governor did cut 600 million, part of it's temporary.

But what he fails to mention is he raised taxes by 2 billion.

His first year in office.

And you can't just look at your election year you have to look at.

So he's raised taxes.

Number one, we put out a proposal which, a, we should get rid of the diesel tax until the end of the year.

He actually raised the diesel tax.

We should lower the sales tax rate.

There's a $400 million unemployment insurance was sitting on the backs of small business that is crushing small business that most states have used the COVID money to pay that off.

We should be doing that.

But it's not just taxes.

It's electricity rates.

I mean, we should be regulating.

I'd like to replace Pirro with a real board, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, replace that board and have some representatives for rate payers so that we can get under way the second highest energy costs in the entire nation.

So there's a lot of things we can do to get the costs down but we need to be in power to do it.

And the governor, if don't forget, he's had emergency authority for two years, I doubt that I'll have that.

But if I had it, I would have changed a lot of this stuff already.

We'll work with the legislature to get costs down.

But but the affordability in Connecticut is not where it needs to be, and it's infinitely worse than it was four years ago.

But back to my other question about the income tax.

I've completely walked away from that idea to get rid of the income tax in the state of Connecticut.

What we realized over the last four years, income tax is important, but just as important as the property tax, the car tax.

Another thing the governor said he was going to lower, most people's car taxes went up.

So it's those checks that they have to write.

And here's what I like to get the income tax down over time.

Absolutely.

But it's much broader than just the income tax.

It's insurance costs that just went up another 13, 14%.

Medical insurance people are getting nickeled and diamond every single area.

One of the things we proposed last week, there are 344 taxes and fees in Connecticut and many of them, the bottom 200 produce less than one quarter of 1% of the budget of Connecticut.

Why do we have that bureaucracy?

I'm going to instruct my department revenue services under one, stop collecting the 200.

There's things like a hypnotist registration fee.

I mean, maybe hypnotists need to be registered, but why charge them?

So it's not about having the proper qualifications, but having all this bureaucracy all of these taxes that generate basically nothing So we can simplify Connecticut.

We can make it more affordable.

I think they generate about 50 million.

50 million on a $24 billion budget.

But what would you take away in terms of.

You know, I hate to keep defaulting to this, but we have the luxury of a $5 billion budget surplus.

That's 1% of the surplus.

Why wouldn't we eliminate those taxes today?

And people are going to say, well, you can't do it.

Well, let the other side of the aisle come to me.

If they want to sue me for not collecting a hypnotist registration fee or an interior design license or a tax on things that you buy out of a vending machine.

We got real problems in Connecticut.

Part of what a leader does is they focus on the important problems like education.

We haven't talked about crime.

It's absolutely out of control.

Our police forces have been decimated by this police accountability bill that the governor passed.

So we're going to turn it around.

This is not going to be easy, but we're going to have the right intent, the right leadership, and we're going to do it.

Before we take some calls that you've mentioned, this $5 billion surplus, but what happens in the next recession?

Listen, we're going to make a proposal in a couple of weeks to give a substantial amount of that back.

But if you can't get through a recession of 2 to $3 billion, then something's wrong.

Government spending is also on the rise.

Governor Lamont inherited a $20 billion budget.

It's now 24 billion in this current year.

I don't know about you, but I don't see 4 billion of added benefit to the infrastructure or education or cost of living.

So we need to be cognizant of supporting areas that need to be supported, but we also need to make sure we don't waste money.

The pier over in New London is a great example.

It's $150 million over budget and it's between Eversource Orsted and Connecticut.

You want to guess who's picking up 100% of that overage the taxpayers of Connecticut.

And you know why?

Because they don't have a seat at the table.

Think of what we could have done with that 150 million we could be full up on teachers at Hartford.

State Troopers were supposed to have 1400.

We're down at about 850.

We could be hiring state troopers.

This is our money and that's how we're going to treat it.

We're not worth it.

It's not Governor Lamont's money.

It's not Congress, the legislature's money.

This is taxpayer money.

We should start treating it that way.

We're going to take some calls from our listeners again.

You can join us 8887209677 or find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

Mudassar is calling in from Glastonbury.

Good to see her.

What's your question for Bob Stefanski?

Hello.

Good morning, Bob.

Hi, motor there.

So I'll just I have a question.

Currently, I've been reading a report that had showed that out of the six counties in Connecticut, five of them have a affordable housing rate that is much more better than almost all of the entire Northeast USA with the exception of Springfield County.

And the measure that they're using is the media income versus how much the House is going to cost.

So it's saying that counties such as Hartford, the median income is still a house, only cost about 4 to 5 times more than the median income, where places such as Long Island, it's up to seven or eight times New Jersey similar.

Rhode Island is similar.

So my question is, if you were to take over the governor's office, what initiatives are you going to take to ensure that Connecticut housing become even more affordable?

Because I'm looking at the map.

Connecticut is green and everything around it is yellow.

Thank you, Mudassar.

Let's ask Bob.

Stephanie.

Yeah, I'm actually surprised to hear that that we're better than this location because I don't think we've done the best job.

The threshold is generally 10% that you want to be affordable.

Many towns can't can't do that.

So I think it's a couple of things.

Number one, it's enforcing that that 10% rule.

Number two, the default shouldn't be I need to move out of the city to get affordable housing and in the suburbs.

I grew up in New Haven and I remember when my parents were on Dixwell Avenue and when my parents said, We're moving to North Haven, I cried for about a week.

My in-laws were in the next apartment up and we had crazy Southern Connecticut students on the top floor, but we loved it there.

So the first thing is you shouldn't have to leave your neighborhood in your family for affordable housing.

The second thing is, if you do, we need to provide that availability.

But I do think the local towns should have the first say in this.

We need to hold them accountable for 10%.

But in a lot of cases, the developers are coming in and they're putting 15 storey, you know, apartment buildings next to a Cape Cod house.

And I think it's the right balance.

We have to force affordable housing.

We have to get people that optionality.

But it's got to be the right balance between the town and given developers all the power.

But it sounds like that you're saying that the status quo should keep moving forward because local zoning boards already have that authority to say, we don't want this particular development in our town.

So how do you ever get that affordable housing, these multifamily units in a particular town?

I would argue that they don't lose the 830 G allows a developer to come in and they've got the presumption of truth on their side.

So we need to do a better job of providing it.

But I don't think having developers coming in with with in many cases, not al cases, their main focus on making money rather than providing true affordable housing is the right answer.

There have been examples, again, of local zoning boards saying that they don't want particular multifamily units because they want a single family home on three acres.

And so, again, how do you get more affordable housing around our state without saying that people should just stay in the cities?

Well, I think the first thing is you have to look at the data.

And again, I'm surprised we're green relative to other.

But if there's a town, I don't know whether 10% is the right ratio or not, but we should be enforcing that And if towns can get to that level, that's fine.

But if they can't, you got to talk about different ways to get it.

Is there to find is it something like that?

But again, I do think the primary driver needs to be the local city to figure out how they best comply with that.

And I love diversity.

Right.

You know, you should be surrounded by different types of people and different socioeconomic class.

That's good for kids.

One of the reasons we moved out of Fairfield County is we wanted some more diverse communities.

So I think it's really important to try to develop that as well.

You're hearing Bob Stefanski, the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Again, you can ask your question of the candidate 8887209677.

We just have a few more minutes.

I wanted to take a call from Julia in Trumbull.

Julia, go ahead.

Hi.

Thank you for taking my question.

Hi, Julia.

Hi there.

I'm calling because, you know, I, I hearing you say that you would like government to be less in our lives.

And yet, as a former teacher, I'm appalled at your statements about inserting government into curriculum.

However, my real question is about a woman's right to choose I have heard your answers to questions about the Roe versus Wade decision recently from the Supreme Court and they weren't very specific.

So I want to ask you, do you support a woman's right to choose abortion?

And will you fight for that right and oppose oppose those candidates and individual who want to close it down if you're elected governor?

So I'm glad you asked it, because Governor Lamont has been spreading a lot of mistruths about this.

I absolutely support a woman's right to choose.

Roe v Wade is codified in Connecticut state law.

That's the way it's going to stay.

I will fight to keep that law in place.

It's as simple as that.

Now, Governor Lamont's going to have a lot of ads out there saying the reverse, because he doesn't want to talk about the economy.

He doesn't want to talk about crime.

It bothers me that a sitting governor is lying about my position.

But here today, I'm going to enforce the state law.

It's not going to change.

Roe v Wade is codified.

A woman's right to choose will remain in Connecticut.

I can't see it any clearer than that.

But I can tell you you're going to hear campaign ads coming out of the governor's office all summer saying that's not right and let's say I get it.

You know, I skipped this show last time around and I feel bad about it in 2018.

I want to be I'll be on the show every week because I know there's many of your listeners that are not my biggest fan.

There may be some.

I'm just saying, give me a chance.

I'm a different candidate this time around.

I am fiscally conservative.

I'm socially moderate, and I'm going to be a great governor for Connecticut.

I just ask your listeners, please give me a chance.

Don't believe the attack ads you're seeing out there from Ned Lamont every 5 minutes on TV.

I've got three daughters.

I grew up in Connecticut.

I'm trying to help the state.

That's what I'm trying to do here.

To that point, Bob, and we're glad that you're on the show, this is the second time now this campaign season.

When we think about the number of unaffiliated voters in our state.

What is it about your message that will appeal to them?

Fiscal discipline.

Number one, Connecticut is crazy, out of control with respect to spending, giving people the right to live their lives as they see fit.

Again, I don't after the last four years, I don't know how you check the box and say, let's give the governor another four years.

There's not much that's better.

We've had fought I know most of your listeners probably are Democrat or independent, probably not a Republican.

I don't know.

I don't want to characterize we Have some Republicans.

But we've had 40 years of a Democratic controlled legislature.

Why wouldn't we at least try something different with a reasonable guy who's going to try to make it lower cost to live here, who's very respectful of other opinions?

When I govern, I'm responsible for all of the people of Connecticut.

There's too much demonizing going on right now.

So whether your listeners support me or not, I'm going to support the heck out of them when I win because they're my constituents One other change from 2018, you got the cross endorsement of the Independent Party this time around, you're suing the Independent Party after they endorsed Robert Houghtaling and his running mate.

Based on that procedure, this running mate is Chip Beckett.

Why are you doing that?

Well, the chairman admitted he violated the rules.

Just for example, there were three people.

Two were on the ballot.

I was a write in candidate.

If you didn't spell ski right.

The chairman voted three, two times.

And I'm not going to tell you some of it's not from me, but it's as much for the people who came out that voted for me, that wanted me to win.

The people that came to you had to be there in person.

We had a sight impaired person get a ride up from Stanford.

We had one witness for Litchfield County who drove 3 hours to be there.

Those people deserve to have a much a say in this outcome, as anybody.

And whatever the ruling is, I'll abide by it.

That's fine.

But I felt the need based upon the people to supported me and the fact that the chairman admitted he he violated his own rules.

We're just going to see what the court say and we'll live with it.

Do you need that cross endorsement to win this race?

I don't.

You know, we've got so many people coming out, independents, Democrats, believe it or not, particularly moms, you know, who are tired of the mandates on their kids.

Democrats are going to come out, some of them for me as well.

It feels very different than 2018.

And I know you can't get confused by the roar of the crowd, but when I go to carnivals, when I go to parades, we got people running up to us and they're ready for a change and they're going to give me a chance.

I'm just asking for a chance.

So if you don't need the cross endorsement, why sue?

Why not move on?

Because if you don't, if their names are not on the ballot, then that is also taking your choice away.

I owe it to the people who made the effort to be there that night, who cast a vote for me, who want me on that line.

And we shouldn't default to the people that the chairman likes who he cheated to.

And he admitted he cheated, too, to get his people on the line.

And again, we'll see it through.

We'll see where the courts rule and then we'll move on.

I want to get one more call.

Rebecca is calling in from New Haven.

Rebecca, you're on the show.

Quickly before we run out of time.

Rebecca Hi.

I had a question.

I had a question about do you have a message to disenchanted Democratic voters that are just looking for an alternative?

I I'm a registered Democrat and new to Connecticut.

And I've been really I feel really separated from the politics that are going on.

I'm actually a mom of three, and I think a lot of the men, it's the mandates that have been posed to my kids have been really difficult for me to square with making a vote for for Democrats this year.

Do you have a message for people that are feeling the same way?

Absolutely.

We're going to give rights back to parents.

It's all about parents raising their kid.

Government should provide the support, the funding, safe and clean school buildings, top notch teachers.

But the parents should be working with the teachers to figure out what the best thing is to be talked about in school and kitchen table issues should be talked about at the kitchen table between a parent and their child.

And we're going to bring that to Connecticut.

Again, you've been hearing Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanski here on the show.

We understand you have a press conference to address and then you've got to run.

We appreciate your time.

You were very nice to me.

I appreciate.

And with two months to go before Election Day, we'll have to have.

You back, do.

You?

Don't you name it.

I'll be here every week if you like.

I love to hear from your listeners.

This is where we live.

I'm loosing all the financial right After a break we'll hear Christine Stewart, editor in chief of CTV News Junkie, with more analysis.

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This is where we live on Connecticut Public.

I'm Lucy NALPATHANCHIL.

We just heard from Bob Stefanowski, the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

And later this week, incumbent Ned Lamont will join us in studio.

That's Thursday.

We hope you join us as well.

Now with me in studio again is Christine Stewart, who's editor in chief of News Junkie.

You can join us.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter at where we live.

So Bob Stefanowski, he showed up and he talked a lo about parental rights.

Does it surprise you that he has latched on to this particular issue?

No, I think parental rights, I mean, obviously, he's a Republican.

And I think that we've gone through the these past few years of COVID.

And I think that people feel a little put upon by some of these public health measures, which then, you know, they change their mind that, you know, this isn't what we need.

And so I think that he's tapping into what some suburban women are feeling in regards to their parental rights and the education of their their children and their ability to.

We weren't allowed to.

As a parent myself.

Right.

So for the past two years, we haven't been allowed to be in the classroom or our children were virtual.

So I think he's he's just tapping into those those feelings and those emotions.

But is that issue going to be the one that takes him across the finish line to a victory in the state of Connecticut?

Well, I think it's smart in that he needs those suburban Democratic moms to win.

And no Republican has been able to pull that off yet.

Not not even Linda McMahon, who ran for for U.S. Senate.

She was unable to to tap into that.

And I think if you tap into that, those are Democratic suburban women and unaffiliated voters.

And I think that that that is necessary.

But I think it's his message of affordability that is resonating with people.

And so Governor Lamont has a little bit of a different take.

On Friday.

I asked him, I was like, you know, don't tell me what you've done for these past four years.

Tell me about why you want to be reelected for another four years.

You know, what are you going to do?

And he said workforce and infrastructure were his his two top issues.

And I'm not quite sure that that motivates people to get out to the polls.

Obviously, Connecticut's a very heavily Democratic state And so that is the tendency, right?

I mean, Democrats tend to turn out and they'll vote for the incumbent.

So.

It's there's no polling this year in any of these races So it's it's really an unknown.

What's up with that?

We're.

Yeah I know where the polls.

When we think about when a caller called in asking about abortion and where Bob Stefanowski stood he actually got a little bit more passionate in his response And does he feel like the Democrats are skewing what he has said about abortion What's your take?

Yeah, no, I definitely think that they obviously tried to, you know, create a narrative that might not be the exact narrative that is Bob's stuff, analysis of narrative in that, you know, he supports Roe, Roe is codified in in the state of Connecticut.

And, you know, there there is a fear, though, you know, it's like, well, Roe is codified in the state of Connecticut.

So what does anybody have to worry about?

There is a little bit of a fear that, you know, people could go and try to chip away at some of those rights here.

And, you know, little by little, just little things.

We didn't have time to ask Bob because he was late about the fact that he released some of his federal tax returns before Labor Day.

Those tax returns showing that he and his wife made about 12 million each year over three years.

So he's a wealthy man, but not as wealthy as Ned Lamont.

Will we hear will we get more details from the Lamont campaign about his tax return?

We are expected.

So he released 18, 19, 20 in April, very early and they allowed us to look at the paperwork, but not necessarily take the paperwork with us.

And they provided as little details they could.

And he also doesn't file with his wife, who is way wealthier than the governor is.

So Bob files with his wife.

So that's that's a joint return.

So a little bit different.

But he said he's going to release his 2021 taxes as soon as they're done.

Do you think that has any play in this this race, or do typical voters care that you've got two wealthy man, two men running for for governor?

I don't think that they care.

I don't think that that's any sort of message that resonates with voters.

I mean, if I'm a voter, what are you going to do for me How are you going to improve my life?

You know, everything seems to be getting more expensive.

And Governor Lamont likes to tout the $600 million in temporary tax relief that he gave the residents.

But at the same time, you know, now we're going to see health insurance premiums go up.

And I know that the governor doesn't have a lot of control over all this.

All of it, you know, the utility costs are going up.

And so I think that Bob is playing on a message of affordability.

And I'm not quite sure, aside from workforce and infrastructure, exactly what Ned Lamont's messages for, why he wants another four years And I wanted to get your take.

You know, Bob Stefanowski spent a lot of time talking about this $5 billion surplus that the state of Connecticut has and the fact that there should be more relie going to taxpayers.

When I asked him about unfunded pension liabilities being a real challenge, he said it's not a priority for him right now.

It's getting the relief to taxpayers.

You've covered the capital for many years through many different governors.

How that surplus has been used in the past, you know, has been a sticking point.

So I'm wondering what your take was to that answer.

Well, it's interesting because it's a bipartisan budget in 2017 that got us to the point where we have a volatility cap, we have a spending cap, we have a revenue cap, and we have a binding cap.

And so the volatility cap says that if there's any revenue that comes in and our surplus is over 15%, which is $3.5 billion, then that additional revenue has to go to the pension fund to fund the pensions.

And so I think this year, I think we we've added an additional $400 million to the state pension funds.

And so basically the legislature on a bipartisan basis without the governor at that point, who was Governor Malloy, you know, tied the hands of exactly what you can do with this surplus.

So saying that we have a $5 billion surplus and that you can just use it any way you want is a little bit of a stretch.

Thank you for that clarification.

We'll be sure to react that to to Bob when he returns before Election Day.

You know, you know, we think about some of the comments that you know, he mentioned in this conversation Lynn wrote regarding his thoughts on kitchen table conversation.

It's so naive and a slippery slope.

You know, is he talking about sex education?

Is he talking about culture in our history?

And so what was your take on, you know, again, talking a lot about making sure that these kitchen table conversations stay at home and they're not in schools.

What was your interpretation?

Yeah.

No, that.

That was a very confusing I don't necessarily know what he means by that and I don't know why he seems to want to micromanage the state's education system and then at the same time says things should be left up to local boards when it comes to security issues.

So there seems to be a little bit of of confusion there.

I'm not necessarily sure what he means by that, and we should definitely drill down on that.

Do you think he's trying to embrace some of those conservative voters in our state who are upset with what they think is being taught in public schools?

He's trying to appeal to that base.

I don't think that there's any need at this moment to appeal to that base.

I mean, look, it's not a primary, right?

I mean, you don't necessarily I don't believe any of these conservative voters in the state of Connecticut are going to be voting for Ned Lamont.

So by default, even if he doesn't answer that, that question or kowtow to them that he is, he's going to get their vote.

I brought up the fact that in 2018 he wanted to eliminate the income tax and he has walked back from that.

But he wouldn't be he wasn't definitive.

He wasn't defeated.

Getting rid of the income tax.

So what's the takeaway there?

Yeah, there was no kind of like, you know, well, I made a mistake in, you know, saying that he could eliminate the income tax.

I mean, he could have walked it back a little further than he did.

He could have said, you know, hey, that was a mistake.

I didn't exactly understand.

And then he could have gone on to the other taxes that, you know, it is possible for for him to eliminate.

You know, and he did say that over time, he still thinks it's possible to reduce the income tax, but completely eliminating the income tax.

It was a joke.

And so and that's what his campaign was about in 2018.

And it seemed to be he was only a one issue candidate.

So I think that he's evolved to embrace these other issues.

You've been hearing.

Christine Stewart, who's editor in chief of CTV News Junkie.

Christine, always a pleasure to hear from you.

Thank you for your time today.

Thank you.

I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil.

Today's show, produced by Katie Peligro, special thanks to the content, operations and visuals teams for today's broadcast.

You can download where we live any time on your favorite podcast app.

Thanks for listening and watching.