Opinion: Will GE’s departure be a political issue? You bet it will

Terry Cowgill lives in Lakeville, blogs at ctdevilsadvocate.com and is news editor of The Berkshire Record in Great Barrington, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @terrycowgill.

Now that some of the dust has settled after the announcement last week that General Electric would move its headquarters from Fairfield to Boston, a question my editor Christine Stuart asked shortly after the announcement (Will GE’s Move Impact The 2016 Elections?) has been answered.

If the reaction from Republican leaders is any indication, the answer is a resounding “yes.” And why not? There is very little to lose from politicizing it. After all, most Connecticut residents are either troubled, disturbed, or disgusted by losing the corporate headquarters of one of the largest and most prestigious companies in the world. And it would be almost impossible to argue that state government, with every branch and constitutional office under Democratic control, had nothing to do with it.

The only downside for the Republicans is that they might overplay their hand or run the risk of being labeled naysayers who are running the state’s economy down by bad-mouthing it, as Gov. Dan Malloy suggested last week on MSNBC and Senate President Martin Looney did, as quoted by Stuart.

See the complete story at CT News Junkie.