Stefanowski releases tax returns
In a cozy market in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski stood on a small stage before a crowd of “B” pintouting supporters and boldly predicted his Election Day victory.
“There is absolutely no way we are losing the election to Ned Lamont,” declared Stefanowski, who polls show is in a statistical tie with the Democrat.
Saturday marked a turning point in Stefanowski’s campaign, which has distinguished itself by eschewing traditional retail politics and media engagement.
On Saturday morning, Stefanowski and his wife, Amy, released their joint tax returns for 2016 and 2017, which showed that they earned $ 6.86 million in 2016 and $ 9.73 million in 2017 — and paid millions of dollars in taxes both years.
“We had told people for a while we were going to do it,”
said Stefanowski, referring to releasing his returns. “We wanted to fulfill our promise.”
Saturday also was the first day of Stefanowski’s nine- day, 54- stop — they keep adding more, his campaign said — tour of Connecticut. He campaigned in Stratford, Wilton and Bridgeport.
Stefanowski’s campaign released the complete tour schedule to the media, providing reporters the most information they have ever had about his whereabouts and campaign activities in the entire year in which he has been campaigning.
After refusing to meet an editorial board and canceling a 48- minute live radio interview this week, Stefanowski took time for press questions Saturday.
“The last two weeks I want to make sure we are out there every day,” said Stefanowski. “The more I can get the message out that we’re for change and Ned Lamont’s not, the better.”
In Bridgeport, Stefanowski, 56, circulated the packed Harborview Market, shaking hands and chatting about his campaign stops.
Cathy Walsh, a Westport Planning and Zoning Commission member, waited, eager to meet Stefanowski a second time.
“I saw his resume and I said ‘ that’s it,’ ” she said. “He’s a real guy.”
Stefanowski, who lives in Madison, was most recently employed as CEO of a global payday lending company, DFC Global Corp., based in Pennsylvania. When Stefanowski went to work for the company in November 2014, he left his position as chief financial officer of UBS Investment Bank in Lon- don.
Between 2008 and 2011, Stefanowski was the London- based chairman and managing partner at the 3i Private Equity Group. He also previously worked for General Electric.
He and his wife paid an effective federal tax rate of 38 percent in 2017 and 37 percent in 2016. They paid the state’s top tax rate of 6.99 percent for their state income taxes both years, the returns show.
Copies of the Stefanowskis’ returns show that in 2016 the couple earned a total of $ 6.86 million and paid $ 2.05 million in federal taxes and $ 358,221 in state taxes, paid both in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. In 2017, they earned $ 9.73 million and paid $ 3.43 million in federal taxes and $ 668,141 in state taxes.
Stefanowski was the last candidate to release his tax returns. On Oct. 19, Lamont released his returns from the last five years — showing he earned nearly $ 18 million from 2013 to 2017, including $ 1.5 million in 2016 and more than $ 5.3 million in 2017, mostly from capital gains and dividends.
“We thought two years was good,” Stefanowski said of the returns he released. “It shows we pay a very full, effective rate, higher than Ned’s. I’ve had a job for the past couple years. Ned’s living off investment income.”
Oz Griebel, an unaffiliated candidate trailing in the polls, released the top sheets of his income- tax forms in September. He paid the Internal Revenue Service more than $ 93,000 a year in taxes over the last three years on income of about $ 400,000.
Releasing the tax returns less than two weeks before the election was likely a strategy to signal that Stefa- nowski is “open and honest” at a time when the most voters are paying attention to the midterms, said Gayle Alberda, a political science professor at Fairfield University.
Since former President Richard Nixon first released his tax returns while running for vice president in 1952, “it has been this notion that if you don’t share you finances with the public, you are hiding something,” Alberda said.
“By releasing them now, it’s going to hit the most people,” she added. “The people that are paying attention now are your undecideds. They are the people who are going to sway the election.”
Before the election, Stefanowski said, he would also target voters with a new television commercial — the hallmark of Stefanowski’s campaign and a key to his success in the primary.
“You know why I know that we are winning? Because these attack ads from Ned Lamont get uglier by the day,” Stefanowski told supporters in Bridgeport. “This guy must be desper- ate. He’s watching the polls.”
Stefanowski has issued attack ads of his own, targeting Lamont. The Lamont campaign declined to comment.
At the coffee shop, Stefanowski, who is seeking public office for the first time, appeared a seasoned politician, comfortably joking with the many other Republican candidates, including U. S. Senate candidate Matthew Corey and U. S. House of Representatives hopeful Harry Arora.
The Harborview Market is owned by Republican Enrique “Rick” Torres, who lost his most recent bid for Bridgeport mayor — and his City Council seat — in 2015.
In the rain on the Wilton Green, Stefanowski handed candy out to children at the Republican Town Committee booth at the annual Halloween trick- or- treat event.
Stefanowski was joined at both events by Jim Grasso, the son of Ella T. Grasso, the state’s former Democratic governor. Jim Grasso has filmed a commercial supporting Stefanowski.