Middletown Mayor Dan Drew outlines vision for Connecticut’s highest office

By Jeff Mill, The Middletown Press 07/12/17

Middletown Mayor Dan Drew officially announces that he is entering the Connecticut governor’s raceWednesday at the Mattabesett Canoe Club in Middletown. Jeff Mill / Hearst Connecticut Media

MIDDLETOWN >> Citing positive conditions in his home city, Mayor Dan Drew Wednesday called upon the people of Connecticut to join him as “one people united in common purpose” as he announced he is running for governor in 2018.

Under his administration, Middletown has been transformed, the three-term incumbent Democrat told supporters at the Mattabesett Canoe Club.

Drew announced Friday that he had raised more than $170,000 in campaign contributions for his gubernatorial exploratory committee.

“We’re a safe city,” a city that invests in its police and schools, “a prosperous city,” a city that “respects and values all its people,” Drew said.

But what’s happened in Middletown “is the exception rather than the rule,” Drew said. “The lie that what’s best for the rich is best for (everyone)” has fostered a nation so divided that “it’s hard to recognize the country we revere,” he said.

“Acceptance of trickle-down economics is a tacit way of conceding that the needs of working families will always come after the needs of the rich,” Drew said. “It’s a way of saying that things will only be good for all of us if they’re better for a small number of people.”