With a week to go, the reelection campaign of Gov. Ned Lamont finally is putting some muscle behind a shot at “the other guy,” the governor’s standard reference to his challenger in next week’s Democratic primary, state Rep. Josh Elliott of Hamden. A new 30-second spot mentions 240 votes missed by Elliott, but the real hit delivered by a well-chosen surrogate, Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven, is the amplification of the governor’s larger claim that the 41-year-old Elliott just isn’t a player.  “He was never there for us when we talked about ICE,” Walker says, speaking to camera. “He was never there when we talked about education in our schools, but he’s always there for that photo op. Josh Elliott cares about Josh Elliott.” Walker’s mien is angry, her tone sharp. And it’s no accident the sharpest criticism to date of Lamont’s white liberal suburban challenger is not coming from the wealthy Greenwich governor but from a Black urban woman with deep progressive credentials.  “He is not our guy, and he is not the person we want for the next four years,” Walker says of Elliott. “I want a governor who is battle tested, and that is Ned Lamont.” Elliott said that, over the course of his 10 years in the legislature, he has been present for 95% of the votes taken. “Appreciate that he is taking our campaign seriously. Only took him 13 months,” Elliott said in a text. “He’s making his voice heard,” Lamont said “I got to take it seriously, and I got to go out every day and tell people I want this job.” The governor’s campaign said the 240 votes missed by Elliott occurred over the entirety of his 10 years in the General Assembly, with 110 missed roll calls on the House floor and 130 in committees. Elliott missed 43 floor votes in the most recent session when he was campaigning for governor; the other 67 were spread over the previous nine years, meaning he missed an average of fewer than eight votes a year over that time. One of them was a roll call vote on a Republican amendment that would have weakened a police accountability bill that passed after an all-night debate in 2020. He had gone home to walk his dog and fell asleep. The hostile amendment failed on a tie vote, 72-72, at 7:40 a.m., with Elliott among the seven who missed the vote. He was present to vote with the majority for final passage on an 86-58 vote at 9:03 a.m. Lamont acknowledged the new tone of his advertising after a labor rally in New Haven, but he was not exactly in go-for-the-jugular mode — even after a series of recent Elliott ads questioning the governor’s ethics, his commitment to fighting the Trump administration and his values. One suggested he is not a Democrat. Elliott’s ads were titled, “No More Ned.” The governor’s new spot was called, “Never There.” “The other guy’s been punching me nonstop for the last six months,” Lamont said. “Maybe it’s time to stand up and tell him what we’re about.” Maybe, indeed. Early voting opened Monday, and the primary is next week. The only public tracking poll showed the race tightening since May, with Lamont still holding a 21-point lead, 48% to 27%. Walker is the long-serving co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, a spot that often has put her in conflict with the governor over spending priorities, but ultimately requires a degree of pragmatism in getting a budget that can pass muster by diverse Democratic caucuses and their governor. “Welcome to politics,” she said Tuesday. Lamont said the no-nonsense message in the ad was Walker’s. “The Toni ad was the Toni ad,” Lamont said. “You know, she stepped up, she said, ‘I want to do this. I know both players pretty well, and I’ll tell you why I support Ned Lamont, and he gets stuff done, and his door is open, and we see him all the time —unlike the other guy.’ I appreciate that.” Lamont spoke about the ad after a labor rally in New Haven that underscored how a diverse labor movement has lined up behind the notion of continuing a constructive partnership with a governor whose personal brand is fiscal responsibility and whose great-grandfather was a Wall Street giant. One of those who spoke was Ed Hawthorne, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. He had blistered the governor for vetoing a bill that would have provided jobless benefits for strikers. On Tuesday, Hawthorne ignored the veto and talked about the labor bills Lamont signed into law, including a measure that raised the minimum wage from $10.10 to $15 in roughly annual $1 increments, then indexed the wage to the cost of living. It’s now $16.94. On Wednesday, Lamont will announce what the minimum will go to in 2027. ...read more read less