Every day, Gov. Ned Lamont walks and talks a little more like a candidate for reelection, as was evidenced Thursday at an event promoting an “Early Childhood Endowment” that promises to create 1,000 child care slots through next June, then provide free or subsidized care pegged to income, beginning in 2027.

“I try not to think about the politics of it. Or the polls about it,” said Lamont, who signaled an interest in a third term a month ago without declaring his candidacy. “Trying to put that off as long as I can. But I don’t think I can put it off that much longer.”

The early childhood event was scheduled prior to news the previous day of a poll from a liberal coalition testing messaging to use against the fiscally moderate Democratic governor in a potential primary. But it was very much a response to weeks of grumbling that Lamont is not sufficiently progressive.

Beth Bye, the commissioner of the Office of Early Childhood, which has gone from a bureaucratic backwater to a high-profile policy shop, cast the new endowment as broadly transformative for working poor and middle-class parents struggling to climb the economic ladder in an expensive state.

“Parents in Connecticut are paying up to 25% of their income” for child care, Bye said. “That means it’s harder to buy a home. That means it’s harder to get a car, to get transportation to work. Child care costs, if you talk to any parents, are stopping the ladder of opportunity that our governor’s trying so hard to build.”

Bye said Connecticut’s approach to providing a stable source of funding for early education — an off-budget trust fund that required Lamont to compromise on his aversion to placing spending outside the state’s so-called fiscal guardrails — has drawn national attention.

It seems to have solved the riddle of how to raise teacher wages without making care more expensive, and lower costs to parents without lowering wages.

Bye spoke outside in a play area at the Trinity College community child center in Hartford, shaded by a towering grove of trees. Lamont stood with Treasurer Erick Russell, whose office is central to investments in a “baby bonds” program for children born to families receiving Medicaid and the new endowment.

Most of Bye’s professional life has centered on early childhood education. She is the former director of the Trinity center, and she was a state senator sponsoring the creation of the Office of Early Childhood

Two teachers, including one on maternity leave with a newborn who slept in stroller, were standing by to tell their stories of struggling to keep jobs in a profession that they described as a calling, albeit one that paid poorly. Three lawmakers, Democrats in varying stages of overall agreement with Lamont’s politics, would offer unstinting testimonials about the new trust fund.

One of the lawmakers, Rep. Brandon Chaffee of Middletown, is the parent of two young children. He said that he and his wife spend more on day care than they do on the mortgage for their home.

“This is a revolutionary investment in the future of Connecticut that will allow families to access the care that they need for their children, not just through available spots, but for reasonable costs as well,” Lamont said. “Providers will have new tools to support and expand their care centers, and they will be healthier with newly provided access to health insurance programs.”

A racially diverse throng of little kids greeted the 71-year-old governor, who became a first-time grandfather 14 months ago.

“I’m four and a half,” one girl shouted.

“Guess how old I am,” Lamont said.

All that was missing was a campaign video crew.

“I don’t think about it that way, but it’s item one in terms of making sure that we make life a little more affordable, especially for our young families,” Lamont said after the event. “This can save them seven, eight, 15 thousand dollars a year, and it’s item one in terms of opportunity for folks. That’s what we’ve been all about for the last six years. That’s what we’re going to keep doing.”

Also greeting the governor was Daniel Lugo, the new president of Trinity. He was accompanied by a senior Trinity administrator with a part-time job at the Capitol: House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford. 

They chatted amiably, despite Lamont’s veto of an omnibus housing bill Rojas helped negotiate with the governor’s office. The veto was part of the poll testing the depth of Lamont’s support among likely Democratic voters.

There was no mention of that Thursday. Rojas is currently engaged in trying to draft a new version of the housing bill ahead of an expected special session this fall.

The three Democratic lawmakers present to praise Lamont and Bye for passing a bill creating an endowment seeded with $300 million in surplus funds all had voted for the housing bill: Chaffee, Kate Farrar of West Hartford and Mary Welander of Orange.

Welander was not one of the suburban Democrats rattled by opposition to a bill that would have eased housing construction. One provision would have made limited housing projects a matter of right in commercially zoned properties.

“My district is tricky with housing, but I supported the bill and really did not get that much pushback at all, because people recognize that change is needed,” Welander said. She said she told the governor about the response from her constituents.

Her 114th House district stretches across the New Haven suburbs of Derby, Hamden, Orange and Woodbridge. She flipped a Republican seat in 2020, succeeding the former House minority leader, Themis Klarides, who did not run.

Regarding the governor, Welander said her constituents are uncomfortable with using any one issue as a litmus test. 

Farrar, who represents a solid Democratic district, said the “core concerns” of her constituents turn on the state meeting its obligations in a time of federal cut backs, a demand that could be at odds with a governor opposed to raising taxes..

“What we can do to raise more revenue so that we’re not putting people in a situation where they’re losing their health insurance, children going hungry,” Farrar said. “And they’re really looking to us to make sure that our leaders take that seriously and that we have a plan for what the next year and the years to come would look like.”