Tong, Hatfield Close For Attorney General

Other Democrats, Wooden, Lembo, Merrill, Hold Leads After Early Returns

Democratic state Sen. William Tong appeared headed for a narrow victory early Wednesday over Republican newcomer Sue Hatfield in what had become an unexpectedly tight race for state attorney general.

Hatfield led by a percentage point or two over a prolonged vote count that stretched well past midnight. But late vote counts from Democratic cities gave Tong a slight lead that observers said seemed certain to grow through the morning.

Tong was the early favorite and tried to turn the campaign into a referendum on President Donald Trump. He took the cities and picked off affluent towns in Fairfield and Litchfield counties and in the lower Connecticut River valley. Hatfield, a state prosecutor, proved to be an indefatigable campaigner and was grabbing everything else.

Republicans haven’t held the office of state attorney general since 1954. Tong would become the state’s first Asian

American attorney general.

Democrats led Republican challengers in races for the three other seats on the state underticket — for treasurer, comptroller and secretary of the state — by relatively narrow margins most of the night. But the margins grew to about four to seven percentage points after midnight.

Thad Gray, Republican candidate for treasurer conceded to Democrat Shawn Wooden shortly after midnight. Wooden was leading by about 52 percent to 46 percent of the vote, with about 70 percent reported.

“Obviously, evidenced by the legislative races, there was a very strong Democratic turnout,” Gray’s campaign chairman Catherine Marx said early Wednesday. “We feel very proud of the issues we brought forward in the race.”

Wooden said Gray congratulated him on the phone when he conceded defeat.

Over a vigorous campaign for attorney

general, Tong, son of Chinese immigrants, tried to take Hatfield out the race and portray himself as the face of state opposition to Trump administration policies.

“If you are like us,” Tong, 45, of Stamford, said when he announced his candidacy, “if you come from working people. Or if you are a person of color. A woman. Or if you just want decent health insurance. The president of the United States has declared war on you and your family. And, that’s why I am running for attorney general. The attorney general is the first and last line of defense against the powerful forces bearing down on us in Connecticut.’’

Hatfield, 46, of Pomfret, ran on her record as a criminal prosecutor for an office that does not have criminal jurisdiction. She promised to base decisions as attorney general on the state’s interests rather than reflexively support or oppose whatever comes out of the Trump administration.

Hatfield also criticized Tong’s record as a litigator, an issue that dogged him in the Democratic primary. Tong advertises himself as a commercial litigator, but Hatfield claimed that only she has tried a case to verdict.

Tong pushed a progressive, Democratic agenda as co-chair of the state legislature’s judiciary committee. He advocated for gun control, tried to protect homeowners from foreclosure and attacked what he called “mass incarceration” resulting from “an unjust bail system.”

Treasurer

In the race for state treasurer, Wooden, a former Hartford city council president, led Gray throughout the night.

Democrats were stunned by a poll last week that showed Gray with a 20-point, 51 percent to 31 percent lead. But Tuesday’s results suggest what most political observers suspected — the poll results were skewed.

Both candidates ran on their experience. Wooden,49, runs the pension practice for a Hartford law firm. He said that as Hartford council president, he helped close an inherited $50 million deficit by reducing wasteful spending.

Gray, 58, of Sharon was involved for years with public and private pension management as a partner with the private equity firm Abbott Capital Management. He said Wooden was responsible for Hartford’s near insolvency and said it was a $550 million state bailout of Hartford’s bonded debt that saved the city, not Wooden’s leadership.

Comptroller

Incumbent Comptroller Kevin Lembo, a Democrat, was beating back a challenge from Republican first selectman Kurt Miller of Seymour by about 52 percent to 45 percent at about 1 a.m. Wednesday. Miller called Lembo a rubber stamp for outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Democratic legislature.

The two, who argued over who would be the more independent guardian of the state’s fiscal health, were dividing the vote fairly evenly between cities and suburbs.

Lembo, a 55-year-old Guilford Democrat, ran on his record over two prior terms, and claimed to have been a watchdog on Malloy spending during both. This year, he said he saved the state more than $1 billion. He said he saved millions more in prior years in prescription benefit costs, while making budget, payroll and pension data public through the internet.

Miller, 48 and a four-term first selectman, said Lembo should have have advocated more forcefully against growing state debt.

Secretary of the State

Two-term Democratic Secretary of the State Denise Merrill was running away from challenger Susan Chapman, a former Republican first selectman in New Fairfield, by an early 53 percent to 44 percent margin.

Before being elected first selectman, Chapman, 51, was a member of the board and also served on the town planning commission.

Merrill, 70, has been a Democratic insider for years. Before her election as secretary of the state in 2010, Merrill was the state representative from Mansfield from 1995 to 2011, and served as House majority leader from 2009 to 2011.