State senator creates committee, eyeing secretary of the state
State Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat who has been in the General Assembly for 13 years, has filed an exploratory committee with election regulators in an apparent first step toward running for secretary of the state.
The post will be left vacant next year by the announced retirement of Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.
Lesser, the co-chairman of the legislative Insurance & Real Estate Committee, filed a similar exploratory committee in 2018, but backed off from directly challenging Merrill, a former House majority leader who won the 2010 election to be the state’s top election official over Republican Jerry Farrell Jr. and has been reelected twice.
“I think there’s no more important issue than protesting voting rights,” Lesser said in a Thursday afternoon interview. “Connecticut has to do a better job. Modernizing our system is something that I’ve been working for since I joined the legislature.”
Republican Dominic Rapini of Branford, who lost the 2018 GOP primary for U.S. senator, has filed a committee in preparation to run for Merrill’s post. The last Republican to serve as secretary of the state was Pauline Kezer of Plainville, who held the job for one four-year term, leaving in January, 1995.
Rapini lost the 2018 GOP primary for U.S. senate to Matt Corey, who won with about 76.5 percent to Rapini’s 23.5 percent. Corey in turn lost to U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, 59 percent to 39 percent.
Another Democrat whose name emerges among insiders as a potential candidate for secretary of the state, Sen. Mae Flexer of Killingly, declined comment this week on possible future political aspirations. She is co-chairwoman of the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee.
Also someone who has been seeking support for the nomination is state Rep. Hilda Santiago, D-Meriden, who was first elected in 2012 and is a member of several legislative committees including the tax-writing Finance Committee, the Human Services Committee and the Government Administration & Elections Committee, from which electionrelated bill originate.
Yet another whose name comes up in discussions about the seat, Democrat Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2018, stopped just short of backing Lesser when asked about a possible run on a recent segment of WTNHTV’s Capitol Report with Tom Dudchik. Bermudez Zimmerman said she could support Lesser’s candidacy if it moved forward.
Others who have filed exploratory committees include Darryl Brackeen Jr. of New Haven, a member of the Board of Alders who is open to jobs except state treasurer, according to his SEEC filing. State Rep. Josh Elliott of Hamden has also filed a generic exploratory committee that includes possibly seeking a third term in the state House of Representatives.