♪ > > The live in the studio today.

> > And at a governor, Ned Lamont to > > for Connecticut Public on Frankie Graziano.

This is the Wheelhouse to show that connects politics.

The people we got your weekly dose of politics in Connecticut and beyond right here.

Connecticut's annual legislative session wrapped up a one month ago.

That doesn't mean the work is over for our state legislators, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has been busy looking into which issues lawmakers will need to work out in a special session and he's doing more things this hour.

He joins us to talk about it.

He says he's more busy in the summer than anticipated.

I think we're all feeling that way.

Do you have a question for Ned Lamont?

Maybe ask him how he somehow summer's going maybe ask more of a of a fastball question.

We're live this morning.

Give us a call.

888-720-9677, 8, 8, 8, 720-9677.

And without further ado, Ned Lamont is the 89th governor of the state of Connecticut.

Governor, great to have you on with us tonight to see if ranking.

Very nice to see you.

Right before the July 4th holiday.

Federal lawmakers passed the Trump domestic policy agenda.

I'm sure you'll love hearing this.

It's called the big beautiful bill.

It's something you've called reckless, cynical and mean-spirited wyke on at that.

Look, it's really damaging to governors across the country.

We've just put together balance budgets.

> > Keeping faithful are people taking care of the folks most in need making investments and then this comes along and that's going to slash Medicaid.

It's going to your nutrition and food.

Some of it.

I said cynical because all the goodies happen now that tax cut up.

This is wonderful and probably a lot of the worst of the cuts happen after the midterm elections.

But we have to think about that now and plan to make sure are our most vulnerable are unharmed.

I saw you the other day in Hartford and a feather federally qualified health center.

And that's where you're talking about with Medicaid there.

You and other state officials address the bill's impact on the social safety net.

What are you hearing from those local stakeholders at places like Charter Oak Health Center about Medicaid and the cuts that are coming.

That Medicaid is part of their life line and a lifeline for the people that they take care of.

Look, I thought Dozier is that you get rid of waste, fraud and abuse.

Instead, all they're doing is shopping.

These cuts onto the backs of governors on the backs of folks who really need it.

I don't think getting people off of health care off of Medicaid makes any difference at all in terms of cost?

Well, does the shift that it's going to be fairly qualified health centers to have to take care of people don't have insurance hospitals using uncompensated care, which means others are going to have to pay since Medicaid is and it's a bad move.

Will there be a special session this fall?

First of all, I want to ask you that.

And then if there is how does this big beautiful bill kind of change the business that you all have in front of you?

But there will be a special session we're fixing the housing bill.

First and foremost, Matt Brock wins in close to go.

She Asians with the leadership there.

I'd like to see that special session as soon as possible.

Maybe July's getting a little tight and timeframes that at least September.

But I think we have pretty good clarity right now about how you know, Trump budget's going to impact us.

Not as much in this fiscal year is as an out years, but still some things we probably want to fix the deficit.

You all were talking about this the other day.

I think you said 3 to 5 Trillion.

Are you getting closer to a number of how much you think that's good?

Put America in as far as a debt is it is a 3 trillion, 5 Trillion.

When you guys here.

First of least will agree.

It's going to make the city a bad situation, a heck of a lot worse.

And I don't think there's one Republican who was there in Washington 10 years ago to support a bill that makes the deficit this much worse.

Really punches the Titanic size hole that our kids and our grandkids are going to have to pay off.

We're doing the opposite in Connecticut.

We inherited a 35 billion dollar debt.

We've been paying that off methodically every year making life or a little less weighty in the future.

We can make investments.

We need to do last time here on the show in December right before Christmas.

I asked you if you're going to run for governor, you said you you already the governor.

But if you're going to run for a 3rd term, you said you had to wait until after the session, OK, sessions over help me understand where you're going to be at.

Are you going to run again?

The states and sort of perpetual campaign mode I was trying to put that decision off at least but the politics off as long as I could.

I said months, we got our budget done in the session was over, said, Susan, I are strongly considering doing this again and were strongly considering doing it make some sort of a formal announcement think, you know, later this summer or early in the fall later, earlier in the fall.

So he said the state's got a lot to do.

You're perpetually campaigning.

What's if there was a 3rd term?

Help me understand what the theme of that might be or at least something that you'd want to tackle that you haven't done yet.

We have a lot of unfinished business and we've built more new housing in the last few years.

And they did, you know, in previous decades makes a big difference.

But we need another 30, 40,000 units of housing spread all over the state.

Make sure that there's a place for young people to be.

Maybe the grandparents too downsize so they can stay in the community.

Love every business leader.

I talked to talks about workforce and work more workforce housing.

We got way to go on health care.

I mean, tried to bend the curve on pharmaceuticals, but health care costs are eating our budget alive as the state and really tough on working families as well.

That will be another priority for me.

I want to stick with housing.

But for someone invite folks to give us a call, we got the governor live in studio and you may join him and ask him a to date.

720-9677, 8, 8, 8, 720-9677.

The governor is standing by waiting to take your cause.

I know he's excited to do so because he told me.

So in a video that we did together the other day, the housing veto is a signal to some that you're going to run again.

Dan Haar, he's a columnist at CT Insider.

He says it boost speculation and quote, the better to beat back a Republican challenge.

What do you say to those who are cynical about the reason why the housing veto was made that they're cynical.

Look, I talked to mayors and first selectmen both sides, the aisle all over the state.

They thought the way the bill was presented to me was a little ambiguous.

It sounded like a mandate seemed little heavy-handed, although the bill said Towns take the lead.

So I'm working with the legislative leadership, make sure that as the title suggests, towns take the lead.

Show us the number of units you're going to do.

We're gonna put those units may be Make it easier.

And we're going to be there as your partner going forward.

Can you help us with what actually happened with the veto?

I think people want to know like.

Were you prompted to veto it?

How involved are you in the bill?

I know you said you.

We wish you you might have had a little more influence in there.

But I understand the bill might have been vetted through your office.

So help us understand where the veto came.

Let's say their 2000 bills that circulate their way through Legislature.

I can't get involved each and every one of them.

But I really paid attention to a half dozen of them.

But we do have legislative our team.

Is there any to you know, meetings as they weigh in on this?

I didn't get is focused on this.

As I said, could of I I knew it was towns.

Take the lead.

I had to get into details a little bit to make sure there's some ambiguity there that was really scaring the heck out of a lot of our local mayors and first selectmen with so so then eventually there's that tractors.

And there's people that are criticizing the bill.

What are they telling you?

What are they telling your office?

I'll tell you what I'm telling them, which most of our towns are taking the lead.

Most of the towns of Yemen, our Department of Housing, their plan, we're building a lot of housing is not just in the cities, but, you know, Wilton has added more do housing just about any town in the state on a per capita basis.

But that's not good enough.

So we're going to double down on that.

Make it easier to build housing faster, to build housing and they do that by making sure our mayors or lack there alongside of us, not opposing us.

We have a comment from one of our listeners who is paying attention.

That's why I was looking at my my might whatever this is here.

I want to say laptop and it's an iPad here.

Doctor Karen, U.S. early for 2 from Hartford.

I live in elderly public housing.

How can the governor help us move out of that with the Trump budget?

It's going to be harder to buy.

Grocery was when SNAP gets canceled or at least if there's cuts to snap.

I think this what this person is trying to get retired doctor.

would like you to talk about how families and how these these the situation is here with the big beautiful bill are going to impact families.

I think the elderly are getting hit hard.

you know, mention housing.

I was in New Britain yesterday.

We opened up by another 154 units of housing on an old mill that you convert housing for folks who live in New Britain.

Lot of elderly able to be there right now.

Look, we've eliminated Social Security tax up to $100,000 here in the state of Connecticut making a difference and IRAs and pensions as well doing what we can to help our seniors make sure they can age here.

You do want to go to Florida, watching kids grow up and zoom.

Come on or being there in July when it's 100 degrees.

Plus, the humidity just help me out with this, though.

So I asked you about people being cynical earlier.

So we talk about the tractors.

People that wanted you to veto the bill.

What about people that say that this is some of the most meaningful legislation.

Maybe it's progressive Democrats, whoever it is, these people want to know how you're going to help out with housing and how you're going to be able to maybe get somebody in New Canaan to get behind one of these proposals.

What do you say to a progressive Democrat?

Maybe?

Well, look what we've done so far.

We double down the investments the state is making in the in housing a transfer act and other things.

We've sped up.

The environmental permitting process.

I want affordable housing guy.

You take this both ways.

You know, we clipped The Revenant said here's the new housing said didn't get quite as much money as I wander from the governor.

But I got a lot faster and that's why we're building the housing right here.

So are striking those dollars to make sure it's affordable for everybody.

Look like I said, well done of all places is grown more housing just about anybody else.

So it is spreading around.

But there's some that are outliers are going to push them harder.

We're asking people to call in today to talk to the governor, 888-720-9677.

That's the number to call 8, 8, 8, 720-9677, also got a few questions from Instagram.

Thanks to our great social team here in Connecticut Public.

Governor Lamont Greg, Austrian ski wants to know if you'll ask lawmakers to amend the housing proposal as part of the special session.

Yes, but I'm doing this in association with them.

Mayer's First selectman.

Most Jason Rojas and Bob Duff, who took the lead in the Legislature.

Make sure we get on one page somewhere we passed.

We can all get behind together.

All right.

Help me understand what's going to get your yeah here on the bill.

What do you need to see?

And they're exactly over.

Can there be can there be some people always talk about the carrot and the stick.

Some people are saying, hey, maybe this is too much of a stick.

Maybe some people are hoping you can lean on the municipalities a little more.

But help me just to just kind of just just kind of helping with the playbook here on how it's going to get the governors stamp of approval.

A mayor's hey, first selectman.

Here's your opportunity.

You many of you most of you will give us your plan going forward.

You're acting on it and where your partner there, whether it's, you know, new rail station or high school or water and sewer will be there to help you do it pushing even harder to make sure you make this decision on what you determine what your town is going to look like in 10 years.

But you got to think about it.

You can't just say no to many people around here just say no.

Can you point to other successes that you had in the 2025 legislative session?

And we're talking about it special session that maybe coming up in September.

But help me understand other successes, you might have had here in the 2025. proudest of is we've talked about it for years, which is early childhood education.

And we made a a 25300 million dollar down payment on that endowment over a few years.

We're going to be rough ride free early childhood for all families earning up to about $100,000 here that saves families 6 or $7,000 a year allows mom and dad to get back to work.

And most importantly from a gives that could the very best head start every kindergarten teacher I talked to says I can tell that kid that comes from a really good Pre-K program at Best Buy sitting in that seat.

She said about how you gave her a phone call.

Can you help us understand a little bit behind the scenes on how that all came together.

At least this proposal where you're trying to make sure that most people in Connecticut pretty much all of them will have some kind of help with childcare.

That is the best and he's been pushing pretty hard, but she's been pushing on an open door.

So we've been thinking about how we do this in a way that's consistent and reliable going forward.

That's why it created an endowment.

This endowment is just for early childhood education.

You can't, rob, but you can't take it away if there's a downturn in the economy is still have them and counting And so these kids can count on it.

Hey, we got a phone call somebody from New London.

Here's Cape Gabe wants to know about schools this year.

We just talked about child care.

Let's talk about schools.

Go ahead.

Game.

> > Yeah.

Hi.

currently a teacher in Connecticut and I teach in New London where our budget was severely cut this year.

We had to cut a bunch of staff not as much as New Haven, which cut even more.

But I thought it was an interesting you're talking about early education where our budget cuts have led to cutting teachers from our early education programs as well where they have less or no arts available to them because all those teachers worry they're completely removed or cut back so much that they don't have as much as they used to.

So I'm wondering how you're going to support our teachers when at the local level Tamara level, they want to take money away from schools and at the state level, we're losing funding and grants so that we have less and less teachers.

But more and more students.

> > Gabe, thank you so much for the call.

Go ahead.

Governor.

Well, at the state level, you're not losing money or grants.

We've held every town harmless, our state funding for K through 12 education every year I've been here, including in this budget making a difference.

It was tough because they're the lecture money during COVID and that's not there anymore.

That was COVID related.

We tried to do everything we can to increase our funding for education.

We've got the lead programs were knocking on doors.

So those kids maybe don't feel comfortable getting back to school.

They're coming back in the classroom.

Now we have a Prentiss teachers to Robin spending that 3rd year at the teachers college in the Ivory Tower studying in a book you're in a classroom as an apprentice teacher.

We do have again to make your job easier.

And I want to thank you.

I thank each and every one of our public school teachers.

We have the best in the country.

We're standing by.

I want to have a little fun with games question because you're saying you're doing everything you can.

I understand this within what you can do with budget reserve because there's going to be Democrats, some people in your own party.

They're gonna say that you could do more with budget reserves.

How to help us understand how far you could really dip into that.

You've done it for Medicaid here, especially for some our emergency dollars.

But I was poking fun at your earlier in the year when we were talking about special education funding and how you guys were able to find 54 million dollars, which is it seems like it's a lot of money, but you guys had to do a lot of work to find 54 million dollars, I think was 14 in the first year and then 40 in the second year.

So help us understand what you could do.

I guess.

Can you go into budget reserves to get more money for education or is this what you could do the best that you could do essentially?

So we had no rainy day fund to speak of some years.

Back now.

We've got 4 billion dollars in there.

I know it's burning a hole in everybody's pocket.

run again for governor is spending 3 times over.

It's there for really good purpose.

You know, going back a 8 years ago.

We're lurching from deficit, the deficit, raising taxes, deficit, education funding was getting cut at the state level.

We're not gonna let that happen during that.

If we have another recession, they always come.

I'm gonna make sure that we don't have to raise taxes and tell Gabe we can continue to provide the funding people.

That's what the rainy day funds about.

You're right in this day and age with President Trump making some sudden and severe cuts, we're going to have to look at the rainy Day fund as well.

There to see.

I can't make it up all.

It's going to be billions in cuts, but we can help.

Let's spend the last couple of questions here talking about energy cause.

I know you're excited about the bipartisan proposal.

I do want to talk about that because I know there's going to be re pairs out there.

They're gonna like that's great governor.

But why the h*** am I paying so much for my electric bill?

We're going to talk about that in a second.

We're also going to get to a kolr.

I imagine that one sticking point.

You may have that you kind of almost had to concede when the when the new president was elected.

Was that there's going to be less credits essentially for people that are doing right by the environment, by by having energy resources available.

So that might be coming down in the big beautiful bill.

Looks like a lot of turning back of the Inflation Reduction Act what President Biden worked on.

So just help me understand your concerns about where the country is going in terms of maybe using more fossil fuels.

Pull the lens back and look at the far as fires in L a look at the flooding in Texas North Carolina and that there are impacts of climate and what would happen in Connecticut.

Dana Naugatuck Valley that flooding crosses 10's of millions of dollars and rather than try and deal with some of the root causes of Now they want to roll back on FEMA, which is the way we help people there.

Anyway, I think the credits they had for renewable energy made awful lot of sense.

What I can stand about the federal government, the on again off again on again off again as a business guy.

That's a lousy way to run a railroad.

We don't know what we can count on what we can invest up on right now and he's not get rid of all the credit.

He's just going to give a credit the coal instead of wind go figure as before.

That's the energy bill that we all hear here is bipartisan.

It's an effort that was worked on by both parties.

I think Ryan Fazio was pretty involved in it as well.

The Republican senator from Greenwich.

So a lot of people may want to know you guys are working on the public benefits charge in order to try to make sure that people do spend a little less money on their electricity.

Can some of what you all are doing in SB 4 mitigate what's happening at the federal government with all this back and forth.

Let's say last summer was a really hot summer and people saw their July and August energy bills and and went ballistic.

So that resulted in this energy bill.

We worked on together with them.

The Republicans on a very bipartisan basis taking some of public benefits and putting that over the bonding, you not really saving money, you're just shifting the money A little bit we're going to continue, you know, to work on turned down the air conditioner just a little bit because even though rates are going down on July 1st, it could be your bill goes up a little bit because of how hot the weather has been.

And we're doing everything can.

We're bringing down solar from Maine.

We got on Sherwin from Maine and I'm also talk in terms of nuclear powers to get more generations so we can have more generation which will bring down the cost of electricity over time.

We have one last question for you, governor.

It's not coming from me, though.

It sounds like it's going to come from Michael from Stratford.

Go ahead.

Your energy related question.

Hi, good morning, governor and will house.

> > I just had a quick question.

Which will the state continue to be in a second offshore wind?

> > Seems like a really positive direction for > > Thank you, Michael.

Here's the deal.

Michael, a I like offshore wind.

Donald Trump hates offshore wind.

He likes call.

I'm not a big fan of cold.

So you gotta find where we are.

So my instinct is just not going to be a lot of new offshore wind over the next 4 or 5 years.

As you know, we've got state pier.

We got revolution, wind revolution, winds going to turn on in a little over a year.

That's going to add a lot of capacity to our carbon free capacity to our overall grid.

That's gonna make a difference.

20 quality minutes with Governor Ned Lamont were happy to give that to you here on the Wheelhouse.

Thank you, governor, for coming on the show.

We appreciate it very > > 20 minutes anyway, thanks.

much.

I appreciate you spending that much time with us and then some.

Thank you, governor.

After the break, some analysis on what we just heard from a panel of experts, including list graduates the last coup and mark past because they're standing by waiting to talk about what we just heard.

What are your thoughts?

Give us a call.

888-720-9677, 720-9677.

And stay tuned to the Wheelhouse.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Is the Wheelhouse from Connecticut Public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

Thank you so much for joining us on the show this morning.

Governor Ned Lamont just joined us on the Wheelhouse.

A lot to dissect in an attempt to understand what direction Connecticut is going in.

I got a great panel to help us to that.

Mark Cascio kiss past Connecticut nears Capitol bureau chief.

He co-founded the Mirror actually as well.

So good to have you on.

Good to be here.

You're always working, including a trying to get a comment from the governor right beforehand.

So that's got to stay to know that a 16 year old.

Well, this is a convenient store.

You know you Graham.

Yeah, you grab that you can off the shelf.

I'm always learning from Mark.

I appreciate it very much.

Liz Grant with Republican analysts and co-owner of the jury group List.

Great to see you here today.

Good morning.

Great to have you up.

And you I have to say my.

My stomach drop.

> > Dillard, I'm very familiar with being in the circumstances.

Cousins.

I did the same in my yard and I went up to the governor has okay, do something for social media.

Some people are coming out so we can get some phone calls and I think it works so that we can get people in here because we want to bring the politics.

The people.

> > And if somebody is going to bring the politics of people, you want to be the professor the last week who associate professor of politics and government at the University of Hartford is a good morning for a king ago.

Hoax.

Okay, a tire and forget for a second.

I got we hope you'll join the conversation.

8, 8, 8, 7, 2, 0, 9, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 720-9677.

Mark, you've now heard Governor Lamont on Medicaid for the umpteenth time and he'll soon call lawmakers into a dress.

This issue.

I would imagine somehow, but is the new wants.

He's trying to convey or at least what's happening with Medicaid here is you've tried to talk to him that there's only so much the state can do to backfill whatever is going to be missing from the federal government.

Well, 2 things there's only so much the state can do and it's also unclear at this point still, what is the state will need to do?

> > Because the Medicaid, a lot of the Medicaid cuts are triggered by other things, right?

They'll be a a work requirement.

Well, almost 3 quarters of the people in Connecticut who are on Medicaid are currently working part-time.

We were 70%.

Yeah.

70 73% of the numbers that they've put out based the reviews, a census that and whatnot and then the other thing is, you know, the state may be more responsible for SNAP the Food assistance program.

Well, that also has triggers in it.

And that trigger is the Trump administration's bill will require the states to have an error rate of 6%.

Connecticut currently has error rate of 10%.

So there's still a lot that they need to suss out has to truly what the impact of the cuts will be in Connecticut and has the governor said to you a little while ago, you know, the effective dates of those cuts really won't be felt until 2026.

So it's going to be interesting what it is attempt to do in the special session this fall.

Now the other shoe that will fall as there will be presumably.

I also continuing resolution.

In addition to this one big beautiful bill and the question is what other changes will occur.

That kinetic will have to respond to Joe Courtney said I think 190,000 people could be dropped from health care coverage.

Is that kind of the scale that we're understanding?

You're saying it might not take place until about 2026.

In the middle of 2026.

That.

> > And that's how the bill is drafted.

But yes, in addition to Medicaid, there's also the question of one of the biggest impacts of the Affordable Care Act under President Obama was the expansion of Medicaid and which was that expansion was 90% coverage by the feds as opposed to the typical 50, 50 split but that's the other question of how much more difficult will it be for people to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act?

The Center of Budget and policy Priorities.

I got this research from the LaMont team here.

They they they responded to my requests here, a national nonpartisan think tank.

> > They say 34,000 state residents could lose some or all of their snap benefits.

So we're just trying to give you a scale here of what the issue could be like here in Connecticut along we had the governor's answers to my questions.

But we're going to get some more pass analysis soon.

But are you getting a sense that the state's going to you do everything they can for Medicaid?

I guess just that couple quick comments to what has was saying.

You know, certainly they tried to delay a lot of the pain until after the midterm elections, which I think is > > very strategic on their part.

I think the real harm here in the potential for harm is that the work requirements.

And I think we need to be cautious about, you know, sort of looking at them in a benign way because ultimately this has been tried out in several states and it's been a failure.

And part what has happened is that the paperwork become so covering some that people aren't able to do it and that's how people end up dropping off the program.

And so Republicans say we're not cutting anything.

They actually are trying to create a process that will be so difficult to manage on the part of people uploading information online where you may not have Internet access, you may have to go to a McDonald's parking lot to fill out the forms for your Medicaid.

For example, in your health care.

And so that's the real risk.

I think the other thing is this has been framed around discourse talking about able-bodied people.

But we know a lot of the people who are Medicaid, elderly, we know a lot are also children.

And so when we talk about kicking people off of Medicaid, parents, for example, potentially, you know, losing their access to health coverage or SNAP.

We're also talking about harming children, which may have harmful effects.

The carry-on for a very long time in their life terms.

And so, you know, certainly Connecticut will try to respond.

I don't know how effective it will be able to respond in the short run because there's so much about this.

We don't know because again, they delayed some of the most painful part of this into a couple more years.

One of the point you may be trying to make here is that when you try to put work requirements on somebody's essentially you're trying to wean them off of Medicaid.

I would imagine b***.

> > Income.

It's is in such a way that not everybody is going to be able to even whatever they make.

It may be able to be whole by whatever.

> > And the governor made a really important point that I think a lot more of us who think about this worry about this should point out is that people will still access health care in some way.

And so the question will be how Connecticut residents pay for this, the taxes and federal taxes or you will pay for this because you're insurance will go higher.

The cost of coverage for people who have health issues or go higher because doctors and hospitals need to charge us to make up for the losses that they may incur while trying to help people who need access to health care.

Governor Ned Lamont hasn't confirmed whether or not he's running for a 3rd term.

> > We're not sure if he's running yet, but after his housing be do use of the word cynical.

The law.

Some people may be cynical.

It seems that some Republican lawmakers and municipal officials, though, are happy with the governor right now.

How might that hurt or help his chance at a 3rd term?

Plus?

> > Look, I think when you're talking, I don't think that the governor's veto of the housing bill was a signal.

I think the governor listened very clearly to what was being said by people in his own party.

Right.

There were a lot of Democrat legislators that voted against that bill as the governor will tell you and others in the building will tell you that there are Democrats who voted for the bill that asked for it to be vetoed because they heard from their mayors and first selectmen who are also Democrats.

That said this is a bad bill.

This is not what we need at the local level.

So I think it's disingenuous to sort of say this is a Republican partisan effort.

I think that this was a bipartisan cry at the legislative and municipal level to say this is not good for Connecticut.

I think that when you're looking at the solution, obviously the governor has to bring all the stakeholders to the table and hopefully that includes a bipartisan panel of Republican legislators and mayors and first selectmen to craft a bill that works for everyone.

But I don't think the bill itself has an effect on the governor's re-election.

I do think it will have a material effect.

Legislators.

I think the Republican message there rightly should be that if you elect more Democrats to the Legislature, this is the kind of legislation you are going to get and how many vetoes will the governor be able to effectively perpetuate whether it's a Republican governor or a Democrat governor and they're a Democrat legislators who voted for that Bill who live in towns and districts in places that are against him.

By the way, that's not just a suburban issue.

There are a lot of urban legislators who were against it as well.

> > Mark does what the governor said today about why he vetoed the housing bill.

Jive with your understanding of how it actually played out.

Well, a couple of It is answer that their 2000 bills and he only gets to a chance to really look at it doesn't I don't think that's a winning answer for him.

Now or in the future.

If he runs but his the thing that is consistent about Ned Lamont, you know, by Connecticut's standards, he is more of a centrist and leftist.

He always wants to see.

A sort of a bipartisan, at least a bipartisan gloss on these very difficult things he has from the moment here.

And the first time has been very has a tent to take positions that would push, push the municipalities to change their zoning he is really emphasize carrots more than sticks.

You know, he talks about transit oriented development and he was in New Britain yesterday with a Republican mayor who also has embraced what you can do if you have available land near the busway.

And that's what Mayor Stewart is done in New Britain.

So there's a certain consistency to his position.

The inconsistency was his administration was at the table when they negotiate the final version.

So for him to suggest that he was surprised by what's in there that doesn't fly to the extent that if he didn't know, he certainly should have now.

I want to get your assessment on the situation of a law from this perspective.

I understand you spoke to Aaron Box from the Connecticut Open Communities Alliance about.

> > Her thoughts on the veto.

What are we missing from this conversation or what did you want to hear from the governor?

I mean, to be perfectly transparent.

vice chair of the board for can Communities Alliance and transparent.

And actually, I was actually as surprise and county, a cynical in terms of the decision to actually veto.

> > This bill, I think the government this has been one of the most high-profile pieces of legislation throughout this session and certainly in recent years in terms of the amount of press coverage and discussion about the bill, you know, Connecticut as a state in we have a high sort of rate, one of the lowest rental vacancy rate of any state in the country.

So we need access to rental properties.

We need access to affordable housing in our state.

We're a state where we're well behind and housing permits in terms of actually with construction of and the list sort of goes on and on in terms of why something like this was need that in so the governor's office was walking hand-in-hand with legislative leaders in crafting this legislation from the very beginning was so like Mark, I was all Our eyes that he actually said he didn't follow this bill.

Didn't know a lot about it because think about the position you talk to Jason Rojas is the is the backdrop.

I want to put your but think about the position he's in.

He kind of gave it his best shot.

I would imagine.

> > He thought that he had a buy-in from the governor's office.

Whatever he's saying in 45 days, local officials would be thinking about being a pin for election.

How does that you got to help us understand it.

They're gonna actually this meaningful change.

They thought they were going to enact is is there now not a path.

Jason Rojas, the House majority leader who is one of the prime sponsors, made a very > > relevant point.

When the governor said, you know, I now want to really come in a meeting and invite the mayors and first selectmen to come in and sit down and the point Jason Rojas mate is many of these men and women will be on the ballot.

This fall and the idea that going into a campaign season, they're going to sit down and sign off on something that's going to put greater pressure on many of these municipalities to be a little bit more open to afford housing to some zoning changes to density changes.

That seems to be very unlikely that was representative rowhouses point.

And I think I think is correct with who has some small experience in these matters might agree with Jason on that, you could say, well, I mean, it can cut both ways, right?

I mean, if if you're at the table and you're and you're advocating for an outcome, you know, you can go back to your constituents and say, look, I'm at the table and I think this is particularly important.

> > For Democrats who are running for reelection in their municipalities because there is a lot of tension there mean there are a lot of Democrat municipal leaders who were against this bill and they have Democrat legislators in the lead and who voted for it.

Right.

So there is a a grassroots level tension there between these parties.

So when you're talking about having a seat at the table in Democrat towns that that is likely a very important thing for Republicans who are at the table.

They're going to be able to say to their constituents, I'm fighting to make sure that we maintain local control of our zoning, which is important and it is as as crazy an awful is that are, you know, 169 little fiefdoms can seem to others.

It is the way we do things but land of steady habits.

And so that means something to people.

And that's why they choose where they live and their community.

So I do think it has an effect on their on their local elections and it doesn't have to be one where they stay out of it.

> > I'm sort of rather facetiously pulling up the Could general assembly statutes in front of me and I don't see this is all a joke, obviously, but I don't see where it says that there's local control.

I think you put this in your story, right?

There's no local cultural.

Yeah, we should do it by statute, at least by statute.

Well, and we should remind listeners that because owning is an authority of the state that's delegated to the municipality's.

And so that the legal underpinning and why the state can impose changes.

On the other hand, home rule is so ingrained in Connecticut culture, it may be moot point Maret and make a point and I agree it's absolutely a grant and grain and I think it's to the detriment of > > access to affordable and decent housing for a lot of people in the state because it is so ingrained.

But, you know, once again, I mean, this was a piece of legislation that made it out of the legislature and there have been a number of years in which these efforts really failed, right?

Got nowhere.

This is a piece of legislation, legislation that the governor and the governor's office was working with lawmakers to make possible.

And so was towns take the league.

You know, we can so talk about, you know, some of the detail of it, you know, certainly, you know, for viewers that would be sort of in line in.

But I think at the end of the day, this was one of the better efforts made in recent years to try to accommodate both the interest.

The needs of local communities to provide that care what to do, something to be provoked productive and building affordable housing.

And I think in many ways it really flex on just how challenging this issue really down to take the lead all they want.

I don't know if they're going to want to build affordable housing.

And I think it's really what might might be a good time to really think that why you're on the beach this year.

A lot of that most of it, I think, is only 7 miles that's public.

> > For folks in Connecticut, most of it, I understand if you go to other places in the country, a California, namely a lot of that has to be open.

But it is private in Connecticut.

Just throwing that into the conversation.

The housing bill isn't the only Bill Lamont vetoed after the session but not vetoed Senate Bill.

8, which would have provided jobless benefits.

The strikers in Connecticut.

I didn't really get time to talk to the governor about that.

But Mark spoke with at Hawthorn the president of the Connecticut a F L C I o the Labor Federation at said to you that the state elected Democrats, Democrats put this bill on Nets desk and he sided with Republicans.

We also had a call about this issue, Catherine, from Middletown says she thinks the veto highlights a deeper problem in the state.

What's your take on Kathryn's point?

Their mark and your take on how the governor handled the striking workers rights during the says unlike the housing the to the governor has been clear and he has been consistent regarding his opposition to providing jobless benefits for strikers.

There is an argument.

As to why this would not have to be as harmful as business people might.

> > I think this goes into the balance of power.

Labor management, you know, which is kind of a graduate level argument, not a sound bite thing, but Ned Lamont is like, as I said, he was consistent.

He was clear there was no surprise.

He's very comfortable with that.

With that veto.

But it is one of the things that adds to the tension between him and the political left and connect.

I wanted to make sure we got Kathryn's point in there, but we got to get the heck out of here because we have one more segment left and only a few minutes.

> > Left to talk about 2026 and the governor's race.

We've got a bunch of updates for you.

I asked the governor about it.

Let's talk about it more.

You're listening to the Wheelhouse.

Connecticut Public.

♪ ♪ ♪ This is the Wheelhouse from Connecticut Public.

Frankie Graziano.

Still with me, Mark passed Kiss, Connecticut Mears, Capitol Bureau chief list It's Republican analyst and co-owner of the jury group and the last week who associate professor of politics and government at the University of Hartford earlier in the show, spoke with Governor Ned Lamont, asked him if he drawn for another term.

He said he's thinking about it and he'll make a formal announcement sometime during the end of the summer or early fall.

I guess the goal post moved a little bit.

I've talked to him earlier in the year and he said maybe after the session, whenever there's a lot of business to take care of past, I know that if you are stewing in today and they wanted a more definitive answer, maybe they're disappointed.

But help us understand at least why he's not coming out with that yet.

And why hasn't exactly spell that out?

Because I'm assuming the governors running for a 3rd term.

I have a pretty good.

> > I mean, my experiences.

You don't announce something like that in the middle of the summer when you have the least amount of attention from voters, right?

I mean, so if you just look at media consumption goes down significantly over the summer of people are not in front of their television screens.

They're out doing activities, whether it's at the beach or what have you on vacation.

So you don't have the captive audience of you're in your intended voter number one.

And number 2, men from a fundraising perspective, certainly don't want to be announcing the summer.

It is the worst time of year to try and raise money.

Not that that's a concern of the governor's.

But, you know, usually you want a captive audience when you're making a big announcement.

> > And and and the summer is probably the worst possible time saying the governor is not going to get a lot of public funding.

> > I mean, it would be an interesting tactical for him to try and the public financing system.

I think I don't think that's going to > > All right.

Let's set the have.

scene here.

So we got a potential run for the governor that we imagine may be coming.

That announcement may be coming soon.

And exploratory run from Erin Stewart, a Republican.

We have 10 took or who firmly in the race from Westport.

She's their first selectman.

And also now we have developing news over the last 12 hours last 24 hours, Mark passed because we got so Jenna and Josh Elliott, who is one of the more liberal members of the General Assembly who has been hinting that the governor would not go unchallenged seeking the Democratic nomination.

So he filed his papers yesterday.

He did not have an announcement.

He is not taking a page from Liz Kerr and it says book which I agree with our whole heartedly print when it comes to somebody.

> > Who's trying to make that first impression for broader audience.

I it's less important for Ned Lamont seeking a 3rd doesn't have financial issues.

He doesn't have name ID issues.

But for anybody else.

Liz graduates is 100% right.

You know, just mark that.

Could you just send it to that Dylan race?

But, you know, a drop in doing that right now.

Dropping your papers and without an ounce.

But it's it's it's you know, it's kind of and I think he's going to a formal announcement Monday.

> > And I'm not cynical, but I think that that announcement doesn't come into after that special session because they think, you know, when the governor made the decision in the sort of floated out the idea of running for reelection.

And again, this goes back to my sort of thoughts about whether he was involved in too much about what was inside of that Bill.

I think ultimately, if we look at turnout in cities over the last few a presidential year, especially in an election cycles.

And governor cycles, turnout has been in decline in urban communities.

This governor realizes that he needs the votes in the he increasingly depends upon the votes of people who live in suburban communities.

And so I think ultimately this decision going into September and what they actually will decide if they have a special session will affect how he make that announcement.

Because I think ultimately shaping that outcome in a way that does not harm his prospects and some in the suburbs, I think will be really key for him.

And that's an important point belong because those voters are not turning out and voting Republican.

They're just not being turned out and that is the sort of been, I think.

> > You know, a conscientious effort from my conversations among Democrats who just said that they're just not doing tactically the voter turnout efforts in the cities that they used to do.

This is all about the least with Josh Elliott.

The governor getting a challenge from his party are from the left or whatever you want to say.

Is this a time where a primary challenger might have a better shot than 18?

And 22 mark or or yea LISC you go ahead when the threshold that kind of absorb his competition.

> > Is it going to I think if you look just on its on its face, the barriers to entry for candidates to get into a real primary.

> > Are nearly impossible, in first or financial threshold in order to get access to the States citizens election program.

You have to raise a very high threshold of qualifying dollars in order to get the grant and then run some sort of a real campaign in order to qualify for the primary in there for the primary dollars.

You have to obtain 15% at you're Democrat or Republican Convention or you need to go out and collect 2% of Signet to signatures from 2% of the registered partisans in your respective party for Josh Elliott or another Democrat that it's about 18,000 Ish.

Democrats signatures and given the rejection rate among those signatures of bad signatures, bad papers, all of those things of they have to go collect about 36,000 of them.

this in your way to pass a simple way to the simple way to say it.

Then for the layman out there, I'm layman Les Mans going to ask, do I have to be a self-funded candidate with traction to get on the ballot?

So a lot and I don't have them on in 2006 and ever going to get on the ballot an ugly, however.

But now it's it is certainly possible.

> > To qualify, but not a little is this point?

I mean, it's it's accurate.

What you said.

It is difficult, but it raises another question, which is what is Josh Elliott's?

> > True agenda and go.

Is he trying to make a point?

Is he trying to to make the governor think twice the governor to his to his point, he's not 100% committed by my the other.

So > > there has been hope on some uncertain labor unions, not all.

Can they basically her asked the governor have, can they make it clear that this is not going to be the easy glide to re domination.

We only got about a minute left in the show.

So we got to say Ryan Fazio, give us a few seconds here.

Ryan Fazio, the Republican from credit, he may be in the Not yet, but he may be at some point.

That's another one who will contemplate this over the summer has indications in the in the media anyway have been that he is a very strongly considering it.

But there again, you know, would be ill-advised to.

> > Start a statewide campaign from a place where nobody knows you from 10 in the summer and belong 20 seconds or less a progressive candidate.

Do they really have a shot?

I what they've outlined.

I think right now the thinking perhaps a well as per is the next governor race putting his name out there and maybe being a viable candidate afterwards.

> > I think and I know many women agree that that's a good strategy, right?

But in many seconds left it.

There's no way that progressives are going push the month for that to the left.

So you've been listening list grand with Republican analysts and co-owner of the jury group List.

Thank you for.

> > Being on the tank.

You for having last week who associate professor of politics and government at University of Hartford.

Thank you for coming on it.

And Mark past the August, Connecticut Mears, Capitol Bureau chief.

Mark, appreciate your insights today.

Thank you, man.

What a show we have.

Thank you to the governor for coming on.

Today show produced by Chloe Win edited by Patrick Scale.

You guys did a phenomenal job on the show.

So technical producer Dylan Ray special, thanks to the rest of our team here.

A Connecticut Public download the Wheelhouse where ever you Get your podcast on Frankie Graziano.

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