Candidates make last sprint around Connecticut before the polls open

Candidates in Connecticut’s open race for governor made closing arguments Sunday at rallies in a cathedral and a warehouse, in conversations at diners and a sports bar, and at one sparsely attended press conference set with Bushnell Park foliage and a sun-splashed State Capitol as a postcard picture backdrop.

More than 1 million voters are expected to go to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, an unpopular Democrat ubiquitous in Republican Bob Stefanowski’s commercials, just as a polarizing Republican president, Donald J. Trump, is central to the campaign of Democrat Ned Lamont.

Malloy’s name was repeatedly invoked Sunday at a GOP rally at United Concrete Products in Wallingford. At an African-American church in Bloomfield, Lamont and other Democrats publicized what Stefanowski seldom mentions: He is endorsed by Trump, and he supports the president’s dim view of the Affordable Care Act.

“Ten years ago today, Barack Obama was elected president, and two days from now we get the first chance to send a message that we reject the president who is trying to destroy everything that President Obama tried to do,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin told Democrats at the First Cathedral, a 3,000-seat megachurch.

The campaigns are closing much as they began.

Stefanowski’s tight focus is his promise to grow the economy with supply-side economics, slashing state spending and phasing out the state income tax over eight years. Since opening his campaign last year, Stefanowski has resisted talking about anything other than taxes — and Malloy.

“You know why I say the same thing?” Stefanowski told the crowd at a GOP rally in the United Concrete warehouse. “Because that’s what people care about.”