Measuring candidates by the square foot

It wouldn’t be a Connecticut election cycle without someone complaining about a wealthy “out-of-touch” millionaire seeking public office.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is the latest to bring up the wealth of his competitor, Ned Lamont, with a quip about the apparent bathroom surplus in Lamont’s Greenwich manse. — 7 full and 2 half bathrooms in the 8,300-squarefoot home, public records show.

“Eight bathrooms? How out of touch is Ned Lamont?? Good grief...,” tweeted Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who rents an apartment in a luxury building in downtown Danbury. Of course luxury in Greenwich and Danbury are measured on different scales, but Boughton’s complex includes amenities like an outdoor pool and a fully-equipped gym and yoga studio, which could come in handy since Boughton received doctor’s orders to get more exercise.

It’s not the first time a candidate’s wealth has made headlines — former Republican candidates like Linda McMahon and Tom Foley often were the subjects of criticisms about their deep pockets. So in the interest of fairness and curiosity, where do the other candidates live?

As it turns out, Lamont’s longtime Greenwich address isn’t even the swankiest on the list of governor candidates’ residences.

That title goes to Republican David Stemerman, whose 15,000-square-foot Greenwich mansion is worth an estimated $18.5 million and sits square in the middle of a neighborhood — the Golden Triangle — that has consistently been named in the top 10 wealthiest in the nation. For the record, Stemerman’s humble abode has 10 full and 2 half bathrooms. That’s not including whatever accommodations are in the 500-square-foot guest cottage.

The average home size in America last year was 2,600 square feet, but Connecticut is known for having slightly smaller, older homes, though the disparity between the state’s famed Gold Coast mansions and so-called country homes is vast.

Guy Smith — you know, the other Greenwich businessman running for office as a Democrat — lives in a modest-by-comparison, 3,800-square-foot minimansion. If he ever feels claustrophobic, he has a 2,600-square-foot guest house to escape to.

Joe Ganim’s address has changed several times over the past two years, but most recently he has claimed a small, two-family Bridgeport house he purchased for $275,000 last November.

Westport businessman Steve Obsitnik lists a 3,500square-foot contemporary near the Saugatuck River as his permanent address, and former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst bought a 1,400-square-foot home on a full acre in his hometown for $210,000 in 2010. Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti has lived in his 3,800-square-foot colonial since 1999.

That leaves self-funding businessman Bob Stefanowski, who paid almost $3 million for his 5,100square-foot home on the Post Road in Madison in 2014.