Tuesday night’s debate included a lot of fighting between Dan Malloy and Tom Foley. The two candidates attacked each other relentlessly from the beginning. Dan Malloy threw the first punch, when asked about jobs:

“Maybe you want to hire someone who’s actually done the things that Tom spends so much time talking about.”

Malloy went on and discussed the number of companies and jobs that he brought to Stamford during his tenure as mayor. Foley went on the offensive when it came to taxes and the budget deficit:

“The average tax bill on a household in CT is $8,600 and the average income is 68,000. That is too much. My opponent wants to raise taxes to reduce the deficit, I’ll do it by reducing spending.”

Tensions remained high as Dan Malloy directly insulted Tom Foley:

“Well, that’s the thing about Tom: he makes some good points, and then he leads into things that simply aren’t true.”

The debate included a section where the candidates were allowed to question one another, and eventually the moderator, Carl Cameron, was forced to put an end to the bickering:

“Gentlemen, if either one of you would like to answer your simultaneously asked questions, we’d be happy to wait.”

However, not everyone was displeased by the fighting. Professor Bilal Sekou said it was an interesting change of pace:

“I think what was interesting even as they mixed it up, I think for the viewers they got to see just what the differences really were.”

Dan Malloy continued to attack Tom Foley, bringing up his past business history when he discussed lowering the deficit by cutting agencies and raising taxes.

“Most of those unions didn’t support me in the primary and you know that…now, sure they are, because they’re afraid that Tom is going to do to CT what he did to the BIB company down in Georgia.

The infighting, juvenile at times according to Professor Sekou, continued to be a prime focus of the debate to the end.

Article By Alex Katz