Independent Party wants to fight Arora lawsuit
The lawsuit that Republican candidate for state treasurer Harry Arora filed last week against the secretary of the state in attempt to remove the Independent Party of Connecticut’s treasurer candidate from the November ballot, has prompted the minor party to request intervenor status and oppose the case in Superior Court.
But Arora’s lawyer has asked a judge to reject the proposal in the latest attempt by a Republican to delete Election Day competition, charging that Jennifer Baldwin of Guilford could not have won the Independent Party nomination because the party violated state registration rules and should not be allowed to join the litigation.
“The Independent Party is neither an elector nor a candidate,” wrote Proloy K. Das, an attorney with the Hartford firm of Murtha Cullina LLP, representing Arora, a first term state representative from Greenwich. “Therefore, the Independent Party lacks standing to maintain an action,” Das wrote, citing a 2019 state Supreme
Court case. “Because the Independent Party lacks standing to maintain its own action under the statute, it cannot be permitted to intervene as a thirdparty in this action.”
The issue goes back to the night of August 23, when both Arora and Bob Stefanowski, the GOP candidate for governor, failed to win the Independent Party’s cross endorsements during a controversial caucus in Guilford. Stefanowski, a Madison business consultant and former corporate executive, lost the nomination after Independent Party State Chairman Michael Telesca broke a 79-79 tie in favor of Rob Hotaling of Cheshire, a banker. Baldwin, a member of the Guilford school board, outpolled Arora by a wider margin.
Superior Court Judge John Burns Farley scheduled a Monday afternoon status conference on the case, in which Arora’s legal team claims that because the Independent Party did not file party rules this year with Secretary of the State Mark Kohler at least 60 days before the party caucus, Baldwin should not occupy a ballot spot.