Primaries start to take shape

Ganim makes Dem slate; GOP field looks to be 5 strong

It took a full month after the statewide political conventions, but the fields for the Republican and Democratic primaries are finally emerging.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who said he would rather be campaigning “than probably doing anything else,” finally has enough valid petition signatures to challenge Ned Lamont, of Greenwich, who won the Democratic endorsement.

While Greenwich businessman Guy Smith awaits the final tally of his own bid for the Democratic primary, the Republican field is shaping up for a five-way race.

On Wednesday, the State Elections Enforcement Commission approved $1.3 million grants for both Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and Tim Herbst, the former Trumbull first selectman, under the state’s voluntary public financing program.

That money will allow Boughton, the party-endorsed candidate, and Herbst to counter some of the weeks-long advertising campaign of millionaires David Stemerman of Greenwich and Bob Stefanowski of Madison, who have successfully petitioned on to the August 14 primary ballot and are funding their own campaigns.

Steve Obsitnik, a Westport tech executive, like Herbst, gathered enough support during the May GOP convention. But Obsitnik’s campaign has yet to win approval from the SEEC for public financing.

A five-way Republican primary would give party voters a wide variety, from the moderates — the veteran Boughton and Obsitnik, whose political experience is a lopsided loss to U.S. Rep Jim Himes’s — to the more-conservative Herbst, who ran a strong statewide challenge to State Treasurer Denise Nappier in 2014.

Stemerman and Stefanowski spent most of the year marketing themselves outside the party process in their first attempts at public office. Stefanowski, a corporate executive with a record of not voting on Election Day and supporting

Democrats, is trying to frame himself as a conservative, while Stemerman, who closed his hedge fund to seek office, has offered a variety of solutions to the state’s fiscal woes and transportation needs.

Ganim has defied his party’s efforts to unify behind Lamont.

“He has money but clearly has shown a lack of understanding of the challenges that face Connecticut,” Ganim said in an interview Wednesday, continuing his line of attack on Lamont as being out-of-touch with urban needs.

“Ned and Joe are very different,” Marc Bradley, Lamont’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “We look forward to debating those differences in the coming weeks. We’re confident voters will choose Ned’s vision for Connecticut over Joe Ganim’s record.”

What remains to be seen is how hard Lamont will go

after Ganim’s criminal record.

After serving as mayor from 1991 until 2003, Ganim was convicted of running a pay-to-play operation out of City Hall and spent seven years in prison. He waged a successful comeback in 2015, weathering attacks on his character and credibility to oust then-Mayor Bill Finch in a summer primary.

Democrats this summer will be subjected to a Joe Ganim Rorshach test. Will they see Ganim as critics do: An opportunist who only apologized for his misdeeds when he wanted his job as mayor back, hiked taxes upon his return, flat-funded education, and who, a quarter into his current four-year term, revived his old dream of becoming governor?

Or will primary voters instead see what Ganim and his supporters see: A resilient, tested candidate and proven leader who

served his time for mistakes in judgment, picked up where he left off improving Bridgeport’s quality-oflife and economy, and whose second chance story will motivate inner-city voters at the polls.

What seems clear is Lamont, who has lost a U.S. Senate race and a prior gubernatorial primary, is in for a fight. In recent weeks several veterans of Bridgeport’s 2015 mayoral contest have privately warned that Lamont cannot take Ganim for granted.

State Rep. Chris Rosario, D-Bridgeport, a Finch ally who has yet to endorse a gubernatorial candidate, said

“I would advise him (Lamont) to really roll up his sleeves, get down into the trenches, ”Rosario said. ”Joe’s is an amazing comeback story, but there are still a lot of people not buying what he’s selling.”

Particularly suburban residents, Rosario added.