Buoyed by positive polls and a favorable tailwind generated by an unpopular president, Gov. Ned Lamont soldiered through his second and final debate with Republican Ryan Fazio on Tuesday, hewing to a central message of him steering Connecticut to fiscal stability and growth after a lost decade of chronic crises.

Fazio, a 36-year-old state senator from Greenwich seeking statewide office for the first time, once again was the aggressor, this time emphasizing mandates, property taxes and other issues of particular interest to the live audience: the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities convention at Mohegan Sun.

Lamont was more relaxed than in last week’s debate in a largely empty TV studio, playing off an audience with familiar mayors and first selectmen, addressing several by name — and reminding them of their role in shaping a revised housing bill at his invitation after vetoing an initial effort.

The 72-year-old governor displayed a crispness and a willingness to volley with Fazio largely missing last week, challenging Fazio and other Republicans as failing to oppose President Donald Trump on tariffs, a war in Iran driving up gas prices, and a crackdown on immigration that Lamont called cruel and overreaching.

“I don’t know what happened to the Republicans in the state,” said Lamont, whose home is Greenwich, where local officials plan to erect a statue in the wealthy enclave in tribute to its native son, President George Herbert Walker Bush. “The old Republicans, the Bush Republicans, would stand up. They’d be outraged.”

Fazio distanced himself from Trump without offering comment on a Bush family that has produced two presidents and a U.S. senator but whose brand of politics has lost standing in a GOP dominated by a president who equates the party’s interests with his own, even if he becomes a lame duck next week.

“I’ve criticized Trump administration policies and Democratic administration policies since before I was even in office, and that’s why Gov. Lamont called me bipartisan and objected to others calling me extreme before this general election campaign started,” Fazio said. “I’m an independently minded leader.”

WTNH Channel 8 televised the debate live with two anchors, Dennis House and Kathryn Hauser, posing most of the questions with one wrinkle: Joseph DeLong, the chief executive of CCM, and two members of its “citizens’ assembly” had turns posing difficult questions that neither candidate answered directly.

DeLong challenged Fazio to explain how he could deliver on his promise to cut state taxes and cap municipal property tax increases at a 2% cap or the rate of inflation, whichever is greater. 

“If a city or town school and special education costs rise faster, who covers the difference?” DeLong asked. “Is it the state, local taxpayers, or is the school district going to be required to do drastic cuts?”

Fazio did not reply to those choices but insisted his overall plan would lower costs for municipalities by eliminating unfunded state mandates — and gigged the governor as unreliable on special education reform.

“The problem is he’s had eight years to accomplish it and hasn’t,” Fazio said.

Lamont did not engage on a separate question about mandates, framed around a requirement that municipalities and not the state must advertise public meetings. Instead, he pivoted to dollars his administration has provided, including funding for free school meals.

“I think the answer from Gov. Lamont that those costs are just not that big a deal is not an acceptable answer,” Fazio said. “It’s not just one of these costs that the state is imposing. It’s over 1,000 of them, and the governor increased the number of those costs by over 100 more in just the last five years.”

Hauser pressed Fazio on his opposition to the Lamont administration using surplus state funds to replace expiring federal credits before their expiration caused dramatic increases in premiums.

“Does that remain your position, even for a family that cannot afford coverage, while your proposed cost-cutting reforms take effect?” Hauser asked.

Fazio said his opposition was about process, not policy.

“The problem with the proposal is that it went outside of the spending caps and would have caused tax increases,” Fazio said. “We can provide this funding through the normal budget process in a state with a $30 billion budget, and I would favor that.”

Fazio pivoted to blame the Lamont administration for approving premium increases.

“Gov. Lamont’s own insurance commission has approved increases in health insurance premiums of 11% and 16%. That’s on his watch. That is the record, and that is not sustainable,” Fazio said.

But he acknowledged to reporters after the debate he was not suggesting they should have been rejected — something that could lead to plans being withdrawn from the Connecticut market.

Lamont offered the state premium subsidy as one of several examples of Connecticut acting to offset actions or inactions by Trump.

“The Trump administration jacks the price of health insurance on the exchange by $800 a month, pushing people off of health insurance, but not in Connecticut,” Lamont said. “We stepped up, and we are providing support for that. Ryan Fazio did not support that. Those people would be uninsured today.”

Neither candidate warmed to a proposal by CCM’s Citizens’ Assembly to impose tolls and use the money to eliminate the property tax on motor vehicles. A tolls proposal by Lamont in 2019, his first year in  office, fell flat and drove his job approval rating to the bottom of all U.S. governors.

“Joe, you may have heard I actually tried something like that a while back. Nobody wanted to do that. We’re not going to do that,” Lamont said. “But it gets to a bigger story. When I came into office, we had a special transportation fund that had nothing in it, zero. It was on fumes.”

Lamont turned the question on Fazio, who has proposed a gas tax holiday.

“That’s just the type of mentality that got this state in a pickle eight years ago, and I’m not going to let it happen again. I’m happy to work with the assembly on other ways. We think we can mitigate taxes there. I’m not sure that’s what I’d go for,” Lamont said.

It was an example of the governor and his challenger falling back on messages little changed since the start of the election season.

“After eight years, Gov. Lamont’s had his chance,” Fazio said. “He promised to hold the line on taxes, but he increased your taxes. He promised to cut your property taxes, but property taxes have risen 30 percent on his watch. Now, it’s time for a change.”

Lamont also asked voters to take a closer look.

“Look back, eight years ago, we were lurching from deficit to deficit,” Lamont said. “We had three tax increases in a row. Your mayors and first selectmen, remember, they couldn’t even get a budget done in 2017 until three or four months late. So I do disagree that we’re not in a better place today than we were before.”

Applause was discouraged during the debate, but the governor got a laugh when he recycled an oft-used line that his opponent in the Democratic primary attacked him for refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy and Fazio cast him as a spendthrift.

“Maybe these two guys should have a debate and then come in and tell me what they’ve decided,” Lamont said, as the municipal officials tittered, then laughed. He landed a punch line, saying loudly, “I do what I think is right every day.”

That got applause.

Did either man hear anything new?

“From him, I really didn’t,” Lamont said. “I just heard him say over and over again, ‘Eight years. What have you done?’ And I said, ‘Eight years, this is what we’ve done to improve our school systems, improve our budget, improve our roads and bridges.’”

Asked the same question, Fazio just smiled and replied, “No.”

CT Mirror reporter Keith M. Phaneuf contributed to this report.