Newtown, CT – New Picture Of Conn. Governor Emerges In The Aftermath Of School Massacre

Newtown, CT – As the Newtown community continues the emotionally-grueling task of burying their dead, a kinder, softer picture of Connecticut’s first-term governor, Dannel Malloy, has emerged.

Over the course of two decades in public service, Mr. Malloy, 57, has earned a reputation for being aggressively ambitious while remaining seemingly stoical with other elected officials and members of the public. But in the wake of last Friday’s deadly rampage, Governor Malloy has been thrust into the unlikely role of consoler to both the grieving families and a shattered state.

As reported previously on VIN (http://bit.ly/12AInqY), a crying Governor Malloy personally undertook the dreaded task of notifying the victims’ families that their parents and children were dead.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/R5vuCA) Mr. Malloy said, “I think there is a sense, fed by the media, that I am this unfeeling automaton that just comes to work every day and goes to work without feeling. I reflect on what I do before, during and after I do it.”

Exhausted, the governor – who has pledged to attend as many of the 26 funerals as he can – said there is no script for how to deal with a tragedy of this magnitude. “It’s been a brutal week. I haven’t thought about much else but the firehouse.”

Republican Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, whose district includes Newtown, waited outside the room at the firehouse while the governor delivered the devastating news to anxious families. He later saw Mr. Malloy sitting by himself on a stool near the firehouse kitchen. “He was sitting by himself, and just, you know, staring,” Mr. McKinney said. “I saw him in a way that obviously I’ve never seen him. Just as a guy with a really heavy heart.”