Voters Express Resignation in Connecticut Governor's Race

HARTFORD - At the It's a Gee Thang barbershop in the neglected North End, the clippers have gone quiet and the only hair being sculpted sits on a plastic mannequin's head.

Its gregarious owner, Lebert Fitzgerald Lester II, poised for business in a scarlet bow tie and black smock, said he hoped for a reprieve from Connecticut's economic gloom when he voted for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy four years ago. Mr. Lester's quiet shop, struggling under the weight of rising taxes and a burdensome accreditation process for his barber-training academy, attests to the fact that not much has changed.

'The governor is doing what he can,' said Mr. Lester, a Democrat like Mr. Malloy. 'But as a businessman I'm thinking about myself first, and taxes are something that I hate. I built this place from a clipper and an outliner. I don't want to give anything to the government.'

Days before the polls open in an election that Thomas C. Foley, Mr. Malloy's Republican challenger, has cast as a referendum on the incumbent, voters across the state are struggling to reconcile themselves to their downsized prospects. For public employees who once sought a raise, or storekeepers hoping for a bump in demand, merely getting by in a stalled economy evokes a mixture of gratitude and resentment.

In dozens of interviews outside bodegas and golf courses alike last week, many residents still bristled over Mr. Malloy's decisions early in his term to raise taxes and to coax concessions from unions.

Others have come to view the same choices with grudging admiration, relieved that a governor finally made the hard choices required to keep the state afloat.

Support for Mr. Malloy was often accompanied by a shrug and backhanded praise. Ron Brennan, an 86-year-old salesman at Deep River Hardware Company, near a bucolic bend in the Connecticut River, said approvingly of the governor: 'I don't think he's destroyed anything.'

The store's owner, Art Davies, countered that in his zeal to woo large corporations, Mr. Malloy had let middle-class business owners flounder. 'They want to take care of the big guys,' he said, 'but in the meantime, they're dragging everybody else down.'

On Sunday, Mr. Foley, a former private-equity executive, rolled through western Connecticut on what he called a 'new direction tour,' promising to pay for planned tax cuts by cutting health care costs and what he called 'corporate welfare.'

The same day, Mr. Malloy enjoyed a visit from President Obama, who told nearly 2,000 rambunctious supporters at a high school gym in Bridgeport that Mr. Malloy had 'made the tough calls.'

'And while it has not always been easy and it's not always been without sacrifice,' Mr. Obama added, 'there is progress here in Connecticut to be proud of.'

The campaign - a rematch of the 2010 Malloy-Foley contest - has not been easy for voters, either: It has muddled party allegiances and exposed divisions among families and friends.

Carl Hinebaugh, 54, a Republican from Waterford, echoed one of Mr. Foley's slogans when he said he was considering retiring to Panama to escape the cost of living. But he said a dropping unemployment rate and disgust at Mr. Foley's harsh handling of unions during his private-equity career had moved him solidly to Mr. Malloy's side.

Arguing with a few Republican friends at a coffee shop in Groton, he said, 'Come on, if you're a realist, you can't help raising taxes.'

'I'm not saying Malloy is the best guy in the world, but I think Foley is the Antichrist,' he continued. 'Malloy stepped up to the plate when the shooting happened in Newtown.'

The strict gun-control bill that Mr. Malloy signed in 2013 has also alienated some working-class voters in eastern Connecticut. Paul Planchon, 31, a welder at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, said hunters had been unfairly punished by the new rules, which banned many assault-style weapons and large ammunition magazines and introduced background checks.

'I want to like Malloy,' he said, but referring to the gun-control law: 'I think it's abusing citizens more than stopping actual criminals.'

Even in industries enjoying job gains that have been trumpeted by Mr. Malloy, some workers were skeptical of his approach. While Mr. Malloy offered some companies huge subsidies, they said, he had forgotten how expensive it was for smaller businesses to hire new workers.

Jim Burns, a product manager at an aviation parts business in Bloomfield, said the costs of hiring a full-time welder were so high that he planned to ask a neighbor for part-time help. While Mr. Malloy has often cited increased jet-engine orders at Pratt & Whitney, Mr. Burns said such growth was a cyclical response to global aerospace-industry trends.

'At least Foley's talking about change,' he said.

For the state's union laborers, change has taken various forms during Mr. Malloy's tenure. Jay Valentin, a program director at the state's Blue Hills substance abuse center in Hartford, was looking forward to a raise until Mr. Malloy negotiated $1.6 billion in union concessions in 2011, forcing workers to accept fixed wages.

'I was affected, but not as hard as I could have been,' said Mr. Valentin, 56, of Meriden. 'I got to keep my job.' And Mr. Malloy's conciliatory approach helped. 'He apologized. He talked to people about it,' Mr. Valentin added.

People at the other end of the economic spectrum said they felt pushed out of the state by its onerous estate and income taxes.

Bill Loftus, 56, an investor in Westport, said Mr. Malloy's decision to raise taxes would only compel more retirees to flee to Florida.

'This is a really bad state to die in,' Mr. Loftus said, referring to the high estate taxes.

Still, his enthusiasm for Mr. Foley was muted. 'I guess I'm voting for him,' Mr. Loftus said, 'but I'm not really sure why I'm doing it.'

Jamil Ragland, 29, a single father from Hartford's North End, said his vote for Mr. Malloy would also be halfhearted. He cited the governor's support for charter schools as an example of a tendency to latch onto national trends at the expense of underprivileged constituents.

'I feel more anti-Foley than pro-Malloy,' he said.

On Nancy Kalal's farm in East Lyme last week, ladybugs buzzed outside her kitchen while she surveyed her cattle. As employees of Pfizer have been laid off, she said, she has watched customers who used to buy beef disappear.

Mr. Malloy's tough stance during labor negotiations in 2011 convinced her that he wanted unions to share the burden.

'At least he's thinking outside the box,' said Ms. Kalal, 61, a Republican. 'I worked my little tush off for years. Unions need to give more.'

Back in Hartford, Mr. Lester tried to coax customers inside his barbershop with a discount timed to the part of the month when benefit checks start to run low.

He described how Mr. Foley's business expertise had made him think about crossing party lines. But he worried aloud that Mr. Foley's pledge to cut taxes could exacerbate the problems of underserved urban communities.

'I cry about taxes all the time, but I like to look at the totality of the situation,' he said. 'Is the tax increase necessary to keep the state running?'