The Working Families Party has officially endorsed Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s reelection bid and, in a press release issued this week, Executive Director Lindsay Farrell detailed why.

She did not address the looming “why not”: The reason the Working Families Party chose not to endorse Jon Pelto.

Considering Pelto’s populist pretensions, “why not Pelto” is an important question. After all, Pelto’s support for the Working Families Party in Bridgeport was well documented, and the candidate has been casting himself as some sort of working man’s hero.

The now-obvious answer is this: Pelto is an opportunist, not a populist. He worked against union members when he was engaged in a hospital-based labor dispute. He’s worked on behalf of Connecticut Republicans on several occasions and has accepted Republican assistance and donations during his “campaign” for governor.

That’s why every major union in the state has snubbed Pelto and, in several cases, refused him a chance to even address their delegates and members.

What did Pelto think the Working Families Party was going to do, ignore history, throw a stone at reality and support a man who clearly wants little more than to take advantage of the ballot line the party commands?

As for why the Working Families Party endorsed Malloy, Farrell points to a few things: “We became the first state to guarantee paid sick time off to hundreds of thousands of service industry workers. We were the first state to raise our minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. We were one of the few states to balance the budget by asking the super-rich to pay their fair share instead of cutting essential services. And while some states eliminated workers’ rights to collectively bargain, we expanded that right to more workers.”

Can Pelto say he was a part of any of that? No. He’s spent the last few years criticizing Malloy every chance he gets.

Come to think of it, what has Pelto done for Connecticut’s real working families?

Anyone?

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