Drew’s campaign suffering

Democrat’s once buzzworthy run for the governor’s office feels multiple blows

No Democrat has been out there in the governor’s race as long as Dan Drew, but the Middletown mayor’s once buzzworthy campaign is showing signs that it is unraveling.

This has been a particularly rough week for the progressive hopeful, whose campaign reported a negative balance when factoring in unpaid expenses on its most recent election filing late Wednesday night.

The night before, the threeterm mayor lost his seat on the Democratic Town Committee as part of a larger coup attempt by a rival party faction. A number of that group’s members have allegiances to former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who has raised $146,000 for a potential run for governor that is seeming more likely by the day.

Middletown’s 27 votes for the Democratic nominee for governor, which will be cast at the state party convention in May, are suddenly up for grabs.

“Following Tuesday night’s results, it would be challenging for him to get the full 27 delegates that he would need to remain a contender for governor,” said Rob Blanchard, a Common Council

member who was one of the leaders of the rival faction.

Drew acknowledged Thursday that some doubts about his viability have started to creep in, but said he is still evaluating his candidacy.

“I think you would be crazy running for this office if it hadn’t crossed your mind,” Drew said. “I’ve persevered through difficult times before. It’s not always a pleasant process.”

Less than two hours before a midnight deadline Wednesday, Drew’s campaign filed its financial report for the final three months of 2017 with the state Elections Enforcement Commission. It wasn’t pretty.

The campaign had $7,877 in the bank to start 2018, which wasn’t enough to cover a reported $16,079 in unpaid expenses. That puts it in the red by $8,202.

Drew’s running mate, freshman state Rep. Liz Linehan, of Cheshire, had $3,237 in the bank Jan. 1, but owed $6,300 in expenses.

“Yeah, there’s a little bit of debt,” Drew said. “It matters, but it’s not an insurmountable thing.” Starting over

It’s been a year since Drew set up an exploratory committee to advance his gubernatorial ambitions, doing so even before incumbent Democrat Dannel P. Malloy revealed that he would not seek a third term. In July, Drew shifted gears to a full-fledged campaign for governor. Overall, he said he has collected more than 4,000 contributions totaling $267,000.

On the surface, it appears that Drew would be well on his way toward qualifying for public campaign financing, which requires candidates to raise $250,000 in $100 increments. But Drew made the curious decision not to carry over any money from his exploratory committee to his campaign, meaning he had to start raising $250,000 from scratch. Drew declined to get into why.

The biggest expenditure for Drew has been on campaign consultants, with $88,266 paid to the leading Democratic firm in the state, the Vinci Group, where Drew’s ousted mayoral chief of staff Geoff Luxenberg had once been a partner.

“A lot of that is overhead costs,” Drew said, noting that ad buys, printing and website costs are included in the total.

Drew said he expects Bysiewicz, who served three terms as the state’s top election official, to jump into the race. Asked whether he sees his fellow Middletown Democrat as a threat to his candidacy, Drew said he doesn’t make decisions predicated on any other candidate.

Bysiewicz took the high road Thursday when asked about Drew, calling him a friend for whom she has great respect.

“We have so many candidates now, I expect we’ll have fewer in May,” she said. “We’ll see how all of that plays out. I think it’s always good to have a lot of candidates to have a lively discussion of the issues.”

Bysiewicz said she plans to make a decision soon about whether she will run for governor or the state Senate, as she originally set out to test the waters.

Just like he hasn’t backed Drew, Blanchard said he does not expect to personally endorse Bysiewicz. He helped lead a slate of Democrats to victory for 70 town committee seats over the Drew-aligned slate.

“Some truly got tired of the old guard, the old way of doing things,” Blanchard said.