The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Mayor banks on local support in governor race
SHELTON — As Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mark Lauretti marched the streets of Shelton, where he has been mayor for 27 years, local support for his candidacy was evident.
“Governor Lauretti! The next governor!” flag-spangled Shelton and Derby residents called out to the mayor as he walked in the towns’ Memorial Day parade on Monday.
But Lauretti admitted that the race for governor hasn’t been going his way recently.
After winning only 11 percent of delegates’ support at the GOP state convention earlier this month, Lauretti must collect signatures from about 9,100 registered Republicans before June 12 to earn a spot on the August primary ballot.
“We’re probably about 60, 65 percent of the way there,” Lauretti said, declining to give an exact number.
Lauretti did not start circulating his petitions until after the convention May 11-12, although petitions were available from the Secretary of the State’s office before that date.
“I lost two weeks because I really thought I was going to get the 15 percent (of delegates’ support at the convention),” he said, referring to the minimum percentage of votes needed to automatically get on the primary ballot.
This is a familiar result for Lauretti, who also ran for governor in 2014. He failed to qualify for the primary at the convention that year, and soon after ended his petition bid. How is 2018 different? Lauretti laughed nervously.
“At this time, it’s not,” he said. “But I have qualified (for public financing) and others have not. It was easier for me to get 3,000 people at 100 bucks a head than it was to get 170 people to vote for me (at the convention).”
The 13-term mayor now has a team of 40 to 50 paid canvassers collecting signatures for him at $2 a signature, along with a similar number of volunteers, said his campaign spokesman, Bill Evans. Lauretti carried a few petitions himself as he circulated with veterans and other locals before the parade Monday morning.
“We’re hoping to put up good numbers this weekend,” he said.
Lauretti is one of six Republicans seeking the governor’s office in 2018. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton is the convention-endorsed nominee for the job, but former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst and Westport businessman Steve Obsitnik qualified for the primary at the convention.
“They don’t have a base,” said Lauretti. “I’m the only one who has a base. I told Tim Herbst, I’m going to win in Trumbull. He will lose and lose badly in Trumbull to me.”
But some Shelton-area Republicans viewed Lauretti’s prospects more skeptically, particularly statewide.
State Rep. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, at first voted for Lauretti during the convention, but switched to Obsitnik with his second ballot.
Lauretti’s message “resonates very much locally,” Perillo said, but statewide he’s in a “tough situation.”
“Getting the signatures is a significant challenge,” Perillo said.
Lauretti countered that every candidate struggles with statewide recognition, but said he would succeed because he is from a “Republican-rich area.”
“Get me on the ballot and I am going to do well,” he said.
Republican petitioning candidates David Stemerman of Greenwich and Bob Stefanowski of Madison also participated in Memorial Day festivities to gladhand voters and collect signatures. Stefanowski marched with the Republican Town Committee in a West Haven parade Monday morning. Stemerman headed to Norwich to meet with voters.
Boughton participated in a Danbury parade Monday morning, while Tim Herbst left his neighborhood for parades in East Haven and Hamden. Obstinik went to Westport for a parade Monday.
Democratic endorsed candidate Ned Lamont met voters at a Middletown parade Monday morning before heading south to Stamford, where he hosted a barbecue at Jackie Robinson Park.
Democrat Joe Ganim, who is petitioning onto the August primary ballot, attended a flag-raising and a World War II memorial service in Bridgeport, where he is mayor. Another petitioning Democrat Guy Smith greeted Danbury's 411th Battalion and attended a Greenwich American Legion ceremony before going to other towns to collect signatures.