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The fight for the Connecticut governorship between Republican Tom Foley and incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy has generated significant national attention and, behind the curtain, attracted seasoned political operatives to both campaigns.

With early rounds of negative advertising already on the airwaves, these staffers are busy behind the scenes, shaping their candidate's message, gearing up for debates and looking ahead to November turnout strategy.

Malloy's staff has been ramping up for months in anticipation of a rematch with Foley, whom he barely beat four years ago. The slightly smaller Foley team is heavy with Connecticut political veterans and former staffers of one or both of Linda McMahon's U.S. Senate runs.

Malloy's Team

Malloy has assembled a staff of operatives with extensive and diverse resumes. As of the campaign's July 10 filing with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, eight of the 24 staffers listed had out-of-state addresses.

Mark Bergman, a top-level Malloy adviser, is not new to the state. He has experience over the past 10 years in Connecticut and across the country, working in both winning and losing races. He worked on the winning campaigns of Democrat Maggie Hassan for governor of New Hampshire in 2012, Democrat Brad Schneider for Congress in Illinois and U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney for re-election in Massachusetts. Bergman also was the press spokesman in losing Democratic races for governor in Pennsylvania and U.S. Senate in New Hampshire.

Bergman is an alumnus and former senior strategist for Mission Control, the progressive direct mail firm based in Mansfield that in the last decade has racked up a record of helping Democrats win elections. He also served as the campaign manager for Democrat Susan Bysiewicz, who lost in the August 2012 U.S. Senate primary to Christopher Murphy.

Another important voice in the Malloy campaign is Roy Occhiogrosso, a Malloy confidante who played a major role in the 2010 run and then spent two years as a top gubernatorial aide and Malloy's chief political strategist. This time around, the campaign is retaining Occhiogrosso and the New York-based consulting firm Global Strategy Group, where he is a managing director.

Before winning with Malloy in both the primary and the general election in 2010, Occhiogrosso was involved in numerous losing campaigns over a 15-year period. Those included unsuccessful races by Democrat Bill Curry for governor in 1994 and 2002, Westport First Selectman Diane Farrell for Congress against incumbent Republican Chris Shays, and U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in his loss to Greenwich upstart Ned Lamont in the August 2006 Senate primary.

Jonathan Blair, Malloy's campaign manager, has less in-state experience than his colleagues. But Blair is riding a winning streak after guiding the successful campaigns of U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly in Illinois last year and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich in 2012. In Illinois, Blair worked with Mission Control Bergman's former employer and now a vendor for the Malloy campaign and gained respect for his analytics-driven approach, which resulted in Kelly prevailing over a deep field to win the seat vacated by Jesse Jackson Jr.

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Political Operatives: Campaigns Tap Veteran Staffers For Governor's Race Rematch