1. @NedLamont is a curious candidate.
2. He’s the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor of Connecticut, but he doesn’t have a base of power.
3. Sure, he ran against and beat former U.S. Sen. @JoeLieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary (and then later lost to the independent in the election), but other than that, Lamont doesn’t have the constituency that, say, Bridgeport Mayor @joeganim has.
4. That means Lamont has a lot of legwork ahead. He’s been going from place to place, vowing to bring more attention and money to CT's aging cities. In the process, he must convince rank-and-file Democrats he understands their needs despite being a millionaire from Greenwich.
5. Here’s the thing about being rich: It’s only a problem if Lamont lets it be, as when voters see through fake outrage over bread-and-butter issues no millionaire has even been outraged by.
6. It would be better if Lamont didn’t pretend to relate to party regulars as he appears to in his latest television spot.
7. A friend of mine on Twitter reacted this way:
8. Americans don’t tend to begrudge the rich for their wealth, so it’s not clear to me why Lamont feels the need to act like he’s raging over things he’s never had occasion to rage over.
9. All he has to do is say he’ll fight for the little guy — because it’s the right thing to do. Coming from a millionaire, that will look and feel impressive.
10. But I might be making more out of this than I should. Dissecting the politics of being a millionaire without a constituency might be old ways of thinking applied to new political realities. In the past, local politics was local. But now, almost all politics is national.
11. This is partly due to changes in campaign finance laws. Outside money has an enormous impact in small races that would not normally garner national attention. (CT has laws barring some outside money.) But the biggest reason for this shift is to due changes in the media.
12. Remember that most people get their information about public affairs from the media. The less local media does, the less people know about what local elected officials do, and what local candidates for elected office want to do once in office.
13. According to @dhopkins1776, author of “The Increasingly United States,” local voter turnout has taken an enormous hit since the news moved from traditional to online media. The professor of government wrote in FiveThirtyEight:
14. Hopkins: “While in theory those citizens could be going to the websites of local news outlets, research has found that they emphatically are not, so the shift to online news has meant a shift away from local content, too.
15. Hopkins: "Americans are moving away from media outlets that are likely to have some state and local coverage and toward those that do not.” fivethirtyeight.com/features/all-p…
16. What does this have to do with Ned Lamont? With fewer people paying attention to local politics, more are paying attention to national politics. More importantly, they are applying national concerns to local affairs.
17. So in the end, it may not matter that Lamont is wealthy and doesn’t have an identifiable base of power. What matters most (probably) is that he’s not a Republican.
18. I could be wrong. @CTGOP believes @GovMalloyOffice’s unpopularity makes 2018 a GOP year. But with the governor leaving and Trump continuing to embarrass the country, @CTGOP may be making the same mistake I made: applying old ways of thinking abt campaigning to a new reality.
19. Concerns about the president is getting so heated that former Republicans like Steve Schmidt (John McCain’s strategist) and former FBI Director @Comey are calling on voters to put Democrats in power in November for the sake of the country.
20. That may not be felt locally, but it’s hard to see why it wouldn’t. A better bet would be against anyone with an R next to his name.
21. If you read this, you must be from Connecticut. Thanks for your time. Please support local journalism by subscribing to your local newspaper. nhregister.com/opinion/articl…
