CT 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.
The roll call began with the Third Congressional District towns shortly before 7 p.m., putting Stefanowski on track to easily win the endorsement after a nominal opposition from 78-year-old Susan D. Patricelli Regan, of Granby, who has less than $2,400 in her latest campaign finance filing .
Unlike 2018, when the state GOP had a five-way primary for governor, the party will emerge united at the top of the ticket with state Rep. Laura Devlin, of Fairfield, Stefanowski's hand-picked candidate for lieutenant governor. But what happens Saturday, in four-way jockeying for the U.S. Senate endorsement, could affect the party, which is dwarfed by the combined statewide registration of Democratic and unaffiliated voters.
Stefanowski, two weeks shy of his 60th birthday, was the highlight of the evening, which began with the uncontested race for the attorney general won by Jessica Kordas, of Norwalk.
Twenty minutes later, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford, charging the Democrats' “anti-business, jobkilling agenda,” nominated state Rep. Harry Arora of Greenwich for the attorney general nomination to challenge Attorney General William Tong of Stamford. 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.
Klarides, who pivoted from a campaign for governor earlier this year, is the apparent front runner, with Levy, Lumaj and Hyde scrambling to gain 15-percent of the delegate support to qualify for an August primary without gathering petition signatures.
Earlier, as lights dimmed in the Premier Ballroom, Republican State Chairman Ben Proto stood at the podium and kicked off the quadrennial two-day statewide reunion. “Welcome to Republicans,” Proto shouted to the mostly white and unmasked crowd filtering into the ballroom, sitting near signs of their towns, arranged by congressional district.
“I want to thank you all for helping us with this process,” Proto said. “Democrat rule has destroyed our great state.” He told 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 is important for 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 politicalcorrectness. “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.”
While Proto was expecting as many as 1,300 delegates, the initial count was 915 for the evening, which held less drama than Saturday's expected showdown among the Senate candidates, but the Foxwoods hotel reservation system crashed, slowing down the check-in process and a 45-minute recess was taken shortly after 5. When the business started shortly after 6 p.m., there were 1,139 delegates and prior to Stefanoski's nomination there were 1,159.
Sitting on the front of the stage in the ballroom during the 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 Leyard 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 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.
On Saturday, delegates will vote for 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 sixth-term 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.