Where Did the Money Go?

Where Did the Money Go?

By Ray Pavlak, Winsted

Do the words of our proud English language have any meaning except what the user wishes them to mean?

Most of us have seen the recent TV ads released by the campaigns of John Rowland and Bill Curry, candidates for Governor of Connecticut. Bill Curry, the challenger, asks a simple question of his opponent, Governor Rowland: Where have all the millions and millions of dollars in surplus—which were on hand at the time Mr. Rowland took office eight years ago—gone? Governor Rowland, who was entrusted with a gigantic surplus, now presides over a huge deficit of some $200 million. Okay, Mr. Rowland, it is time for an accounting of your stewardship of the people's money. Where did the money go during your watch?

What has been Mr. Rowland's response? First, he tells the voters not a word about how he got himself and the state in such a financial hole. Nothing about the Patriots fiasco, CRRA's huge loss to Enron, Treasurer Sylvester's loss of pension funds, the Adrien's Landing black hole, Waterbury's rebuilding, or making UConn into a mega-university while tuition skyrockets, etc.

Second, he attacks the resume of Bill Curry, implying without evidence that his challenger has misrepresented himself.

Third, he strings a line of questions about Mr. Curry's voting record on taxes, voiced by a paid narrator, along with old photographs of Bill Curry shown of context, to leave the viewer with the impression that Mr. Curry cannot explain his actions. (By the way, Governor, when are you going to repeal the income tax as you promised to do once you were elected?)

Fourth, Mr. Rowland's narrator tells the viewers that since Bill Curry cannot defend his actions on taxes, Curry has had to sink to the level of personal attack, of negative campaigning. What twisted logic is this?

Bill Curry asks the Governor plain and simple: Where has all the surplus state money gone? John Rowland does not give any answer at all. Rather he has a slick, Madison Avenue-style TV ad pasted together that puts words into Bill Curry's mouth. Mr. Rowland, on the other hand, just poses for TV clips in which he acts very official as he goes about business.

And should his lack of response not be insult enough, our esteemed Governor has the gall to have his mouthpieces accuse Bill Curry of negative campaigning! What a despicable performance by Mr. Rowland.

Connecticut voters are not going to fall for this kind of gobbledygook. Unless John Rowland can justify his actions over the last eight years and account for the loss of a surplus and for the compiling of a large deficit, the people will see that it is time for John Rowland to be gone!