State Republicans double down on Bob Stefanowski for governor at convention
MASHANTUCKET — Hungry to regain the governor's office that they last held a dozen years ago, Republicans from throughout the state on Friday flocked to Foxwoods Resort Casino to double down on Bob Stefanowski of Madison, a former corporate executive who lost to Ned Lamont in 2018 by more than 44,000 votes.
By 7:45 p.m., Woodstock's votes for Stefanowski gave him 1,129 votes to 39 ballots for Susan D. Patricelli Regan of Granby, far short of the 174 votes needed to achieve the 15 percent threshold to force a primary. By 8 p.m., Stefanowski was declared the endorsed candidate.
During a 15-minute acceptance speech, which led into his nomination of state Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield to be his running mate, Stefanowski attacked “40 years” of Democraticled state government. Without naming Gov. Ned Lamont, Stefanowski said that Democrats have hindered the development of school kids in the pandemic and squandered taxpayer money.
“This is not the Connecticut I grew up in and it is not the Connecticut you grew up in,” Stefanowski said. “They beg the voters to just give them one more chance.” If he becomes governor, Stefanowski promised “personal freedom, individual liberty and smaller government,” with schools focused on “reading, writing and arithmetic.”
“State government has finally pushed us too far,” said Stefanowski. “They've used COVID and a variety of other excuses to invade every nook and cranny of our lives and it is time for them to get out. They've inserted government between a parent and their child.”
“Losing this race is not an option,” Devlin, 62, said to the convention.
Stefanowski, two weeks shy of his 60th birthday, was the highlight of the evening, which began with the uncontested race for attorney general won by Jessica Kordas of Norwalk.
Twenty minutes later, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford, decrying the Democrats' “anti-business, job-killing agenda,” nominated state Rep. Harry Arora of Greenwich for the open treasurer seat. Arora promised to return the treasurer's office to Republicans this fall for the first time in 25 years.
Friday is the warm-up for the Saturday showdown pitting Themis Klarides, former House minority leader; Leora Levy of Greenwich; Peter Lumaj of Fairfield; and Robert Hyde of Simsbury for the U.S. Senate endorsement to run against U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Rick Gorka, Levy's communications director, promised that if she doesn't get the 15 percent support, Levy will seek a petition campaign to gather about 8,500 signatures by June 7 to get on the August primary ballot.
Klarides, who pivoted from a campaign for governor earlier this year, is the apparent frontrunner, with Levy, Lumaj and Hyde scrambling to gain 15 percent of the delegate support to qualify for an August primary without gathering petition signatures.
“I want to thank you all for helping us with this process,” Republican State Chairman Ben Proto said, kicking off the convention at around 4:30 p.m. in the Premier Ballroom. “Democrat rule has destroyed our great state.” He told the mostly unmasked delegates not to believe what Democrats say about cutting taxes. While the budget approved in the legislature this week has $600 million in tax cuts, Republican lawmakers offered $1.2 billion in relief. “It's not about purity. It's about unity.”
In Hartford, during a pre-convention news conference at the Democratic State Convention, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said the $600 million in tax relief is important to working families.
“We've also had three balanced budgets and we've made an unprecedented $5.2 billion payment on our credit card,” Bysiewicz said. “So, we've gotten rid of debt, we've balanced our budget, we're giving tax cuts and we've done some great work for families in our state.”
In Foxwoods at about that time, conservative commentator and former Trump ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell blasted Democrats for their political correctness. “It's easy to say that when we say that this country is
systemically racist, what we mean is the system creates and promotes racist policy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Stop being afraid of being called a racist, sexist or homophobe,” Grenell said to applause. “Turn it around to them.”
Sitting on the front of the stage in the ballroom during a break, Proto told reporters that the national abortion discussion following the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision, is unlikely to resonate in the fall elections. “It's been codified for over 30 years,” Proto said. “It's not going anywhere. We just recently implemented
legislation to protect health care providers and patients, particularly patients who come here from other states, against criminal prosecution and civil proceedings. So I am not sure it has that much of a bearing in Connecticut.”
But Bysiewicz warned that protecting reproductive rights will be a “critical issue” in the campaign. “Democrats in this state are the people who enshrined Roe v. Wade into our state law, we just passed legislation that's going to protect medical providers and expand access for women to healthcare that's critical.
And Republicans voted against those things and Bob Stefanowski has yet to stand up and say he would veto any attempt to try to repeal our Roe v Wade law, that we have after the Supreme Court has said it's up to the states. There couldn't be a more pressing issue.”
On Thursday, congressional conventions in each district endorsed candidates including Dr. Larry Lazor, a Hartford physician to challenge veteran U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1; state Rep. Mike France of Ledyard to run against U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2; Leslie DiNardis of Hamden, a former Sacred Heart University professor, to contest U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3; Former Darien First Selectwoman Jayme Stevenson to challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4; and George Logan, a former state senator, who will run against U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5.
On Saturday, delegates will choose one of two candidates for comptroller. Mary Fay, a West Hartford financial executive, and Patrick Rowland, of East Haven, who filed his candidacy Wednesday with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
Possibly the most drama on Saturday will be the secretary of the state contest that includes sixthterm state Rep. Terrie Wood, of Darien; Brock Weber, of Wolcott, an aide to New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart; and Dominic Rapini, of Guilford, an unsuccessful 2018 hopeful for U.S. Senate.
There are 463,656 active Republican voters in the state, 825,286 Democrats and 930,963 unaffiliated voters.