Minor political parties could affect governor race
Two minor political parties are potential kingmakers in the 2022 race for governor.
That’s why Republican Bob Stefanowski invited a few dozen members of the Independent Party of Connecticut to a downtown Hartford restaurant for a meet-and-greet lunch last weekend. John Fahan, treasurer of the party, and Robert Hotaling, a candidate for the Independent nomination for governor, crashed the party for the same reason.
And the Griebel-Frank for CT Party, put together in 2018 for Oz Griebel’s unaffiliated run for governor, which collected 54,741 votes for the former banker and business leader — who died after being hit by a car while jogging in 2020 — will be interviewing hopefuls for either cross-endorsements or direct candidacy as spring turns into summer and the fall election gets closer.
Stefanowski, the former corporate executive from Madison seeking his first elective office, won the Independent cross-endorsement in the party caucus of 2018, with 43 of 64 votes cast. The extra ballot line was worth 25,388 votes to him on Election Day.
At the time, the party was torn between two factions, one based in Danbury and another in Waterbury whose chairman, Michael Telesca, remains in that position.
In early 2019, shortly after Gov. Ned Lamont took office following his 44,372-vote victory over Stefanowski — including 17,861 votes from the Working Families Party ballot line — the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Waterbury group. After hearing about the upcoming by-invitation lunch for about 30 Independent members, Fahan and Hotaling told Stefanowski their intentions to attend what turned out to be a cordial affair.
“I made it very clear to Bob Stefanowski and his campaign that I do not support him,” Fahan said in a phone interview. “I support Rob Hotaling. It’s a free country and anyone can go for the nomination. But I’m working to get Rob the nomination. This is about offering the public a choice, having three candidates, not just two.”
Hotaling said a miscue in scheduling a public notice of an Independent Party caucus on bylaws has pushed back the selection of a candidate for later in the summer, but Stefanowski had scheduled his event for around that time. Although he had’t been directly invited, Stefanowski agreed to include him and Fahan on the guest list of about 30 people.
“Either way he’ll be on stage in the fall,” Hotaling, a 44-year-old Cheshire banker, said in an interview. “We are the two leading candidates for the nomination. What is good for democracy is civil engagement, transparency and integrity. My understanding is the Independent nomination is very critical for him to compete with Ned in the fall. I get it, but one of the problems in Connecticut politics is the two-party system. There’s not really much choice for voters.”
Hotaling said that Stefanowski, who was gracious in greeting him and Fahan at the Peppercorn’s Grill event, seemed amenable to appearing together in future forumstyle gatherings to offer their visions to party members, who Fahan said number around 30,000 statewide.
“I represent a set of principles including transparency, good government and ranked voting,” Hotaling said. “Separately, the one item Bob and I agree on is the issue of affordability that, clearly, Ned Lamont is not addressing. I am all for clean energy balanced with nuclear, while Bob doesn’t. On abortion, I stand with women, and Bob has some problems there.”
Stefanowski, in an emailed statement from his campaign Monday night, acknowledged the importance of the possible crossendorsement.
“I was happy to have the Independent Party endorsement last election and I’m looking forward to participating in the same open process we had last time,” Stefanowski said. “I have really enjoyed talking with Independent party voters, and we had a great event over the weekend. It’s important to continue to provide a forum to talk with voters about what’s important to them and work across party lines to get things done.”
Over at the Griebel-Frank for CT Party, an effort this year to change the name of the organization to the Serve America Movement alliance was rejected by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, but leaders of the party including 2018 candidate for lieutenant governor, Monte Frank, said Monday that with the high-profile third line on the ballot, the party will also be interviewing candidates for possible cross endorsement, or outright candidacy.
In January, before the secretary of the state ruling, Frank and party members stressed they wanted to support candidates up and down the ballot in November.
Frank said that he and Griebel-Frank leaders are contemplating a potential lawsuit over the rejection of the proposed name change and affiliation with SAM, the 5-year-old bipartisan group of former Democrats and Republican tired of partisan gridlock. But such a challenge would take years to settle in court.
“Although such a merger is perfectly permissible, the political party resulting from the merger would not carry minor party status for any office in Connecticut and therefore would not be entitled to automatic ballot access for any office,” Merrill ruled.
“We still have the GriebelFrank for CT line and we intend to use it, and we’ll talk to the major-party candidates for governor as well as potential third-party candidates,” Frank said, stressing that Hotaling is one of the candidates being interviewed. Frank wants to use the endorsement as a jumping-off spot to push SAM’s agenda of problem solving, verifiable standards of transparency and accountability, as well as collaboration.
“At this point in the development of the third-party space in Connecticut and nationally, I can accomplish a lot more in building SAM in Connecticut,” Frank said. “Between the people who are out there in the thirdparty space who are interested in running and the two major candidates, shared values can improve our election.”