Seesaw Battle For Governor
Cities Slow To Report Results
Republican Bob Stefanowski and Democrat Ned Lamont were locked in a seesaw race for governor early Wednesday, with three quarters of precincts reporting statewide, but many votes left to be counted in the state’s largest cities.
Fewer than half of the precincts in New Haven and Bridgeport had reported their vote totals as of midnight. In Hartford, 42 percent of the vote count was still outstanding as of midnight. Middletown, the hometown of Lamont’s running mate Susan Bysiewicz, still had not reported any totals.
Both gubernatorial contenders were bracing for a protracted struggle in the race as election officials completed the arduous t ask of counting votes on a day marked by heavy turnout, despite soaking rains across the state, and the specter of court wrangling.
The drama unfolding in the governor’s race came on a big night for Democrats, who swept away a number of entrenched GOP legislative incumbents. Casualties included Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton; Sen. Len Suzio, RMeriden; and Rep. Mike Bocchino, the first Greenwich Republican to lose a House race since 1912.
Voter turnout this election was
the strongest in recent memory, said Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, who predicted it would favor Democrats, including Lamont.
“I think it’s coming our way,” said Merrill, a Democrat who was leading in her own race against Republican Susan Chapman.
Thousands of damp ballots may have to be counted by hand, according to Merrill.
“We’re telling them, ‘Get out your hair dryer,’” Merrill said.
Still, she reassured Democrats gathered at Dunkin Donuts Park in Hartford that election results would turn out “great” for Lamont and the rest of the ticket.
Republicans sought a court injunction to disqualify the votes of same-day registration applicants in New Haven and Mansfield, who were in line when the polls closed at 8 p.m. but were still waiting for their applications to be processed. UConn is part of the Storrs section of Mansfield.
Framed as a referendum on President Donald Trump vs. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the contest was among the most competitive in the nation, with the candidates and outside groups swamping television airwaves and mailboxes with millions of dollars of attacks ads.
Lamont, a Greenwich telecommunications magnate, sought to avenge his two previous losses in statewide elections — he ran for U.S. Senate in 2006 and governor in 2010.
Stefanowski, a political outsider and former UBS executive, tried to break through the blue wave of Trump opposition to become the first Republican elected to statewide office in 12 years.
Clouding the final outcome was the petition candidacy of former MetroHartford Alliance CEO Oz Griebel, who faced mounting pressure from Democrats during the final week of the campaign to drop out of the race and back Lamont. Mustering 4 percent of the vote, Griebel conceded at 9:45 p.m.
“Thank you to all of you, thanks is such a small word, but to all of you who started back in December … it was a tremendous effort by many of you in this room,” Griebel told supporters at a gathering in Hartford. “Obviously the results are far from where I anticipated them to be when I launched this and, in that sense, you have a real sense of genuine disappointment in not leading a ticket to victory today, given all that you’ve put into this.”
Lamont predicted earlier Tuesday that there would be a blue wave in Connecticut, where Trump’s approval rating is 34 percent.
“On the subject of divisive leadership and separating people, I think it probably matters a lot,” Lamont said after voting at Greenwich High School. “I don’t like his tone where he divides people against each other. I’m working to bring people together here in the state of Connecticut.”
Stefanowski projected confidence as he greeted voters in a light mist at two polling locations in Greenwich, a Republican bastion that’s been trending purple.
“I think we’ve got momentum,” Stefanowski told The Courant. “I think what’s going to get us over the hump today is change, political outsider, lower taxes, less regulation. People are frustrated.”
Griebel, a former Republican who ran for governor in 2010, dismissed the narrative that he could play the role of spoiler.
Turnout in many of the state’s 169 municipalities was on pace to surpass vote totals from the last governor’s race in 2014.
In Hartford and New Haven, election officials were preparing to handcount an unspecified number of ballots that got wet while rain-soaked voters waited to feed them through scanning machines. In some cases, backup machines were being brought in to replace those damaged by wet ballots. At least one polling location in the capital city ran out of ballots.
Unaffiliated voters were expected to play a pivotal role in the outcome of the race. There are 877,392 of them in the state, which is more than Democrats (792,558) and Republicans (463,167).
Stefanowski campaigned on phasing out the state income tax over eight years, a controversial proposal that Democrats and even some of his Republican primary opponents warned would rip a $10 million hole in the state budget and eviscerate municipal aid, education funding and the state’s social safety net.
The first petition candidate in Connecticut history to win a major party nomination, Stefanowski downplayed the scenario of a wipeout by Democrats.
“I see a lot of Republicans,” Stefanowski said of turnout.
Kate Ferguson, 23, a Republican who just moved back to Connecticut from Texas, offered words of encouragement to Stefanowski.
“I voted for you,” Ferguson said. “I hope you win today.”
Another woman politely walked by Stefanowski when local Republicans asked her if she wanted to meet him.
“I’m a Democrat die-hard,” she said. “Nothing personal.”
Bonnie Citron asked Stefanowski his position on gun control and school safety as she stopped with her family to meet the candidate.
“We’ve got to keep our kids safe,” Stefanowski said.
Stefanowski has characterized Connecticut’s 2013 gun control law — enacted by the state after the Sandy Hook massacre — as imperfect. He has declined to say which elements of the law he would change and which he would keep if elected.
Lamont, accompanied by his wife, Annie Lamont, and the couple’s three children, cast his ballot shortly after 10 a.m. at Greenwich High School.
Fellow Democrats who have known Lamont since he was a selectman in the late 1980s wished him well in his third statewide election.
“I’m shocked that he isn’t a shooin,” said Richard Bergstresser, a former first selectman. “But I think that’s the result of some negative campaigning by his opponent.”
Bergstresser scoffed at Republicans’ attempt to tie Lamont to Malloy, whose job approval rating is among the worst in the nation. The incumbent is not seeking a third term.
“It’s the typical Republican fantasizing,” he said. “They’re both very different. They’ve made Malloy the bogeyman.”
Matthew Ormseth and Kathleen Megan contributed to this report.