The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stewart shifts to Lt. Gov. race
MASHANTUCKET — With head-spinning speed, Erin Stewart, the millennial New Britain mayor, dropped one running mate and cozied up to another.
Stewart declared Friday she was ending her run for governor and switching to the lieutenant governor’s race.
The move leaves Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei out of the running and creates an opening for Stewart to possibly join forces to become Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s lieutenant governor candidate. Stewart told reporters she will vote for Boughton’s nomination on Saturday, but Boughton would not confirm they have teamed up.
“I’m excited for Erin,” he said in a phone interview at the convention. “We do have a process here.”
In January, Stewart told Hearst Connecticut Media that Boughton had asked her to team up.
“He asked me about a year ago,” she said in January. “We had the conversation. At the time, I politely declined. But I have not heard anything since.”
Tesei, who began his bid for lieutenant governor on a team with Stewart just three weeks ago, said Stewart called him Thursday night to tell him of her intentions, and he said he understood.
“I’m not disappointed for myself but I’m disappointed for not having the opportunity to have us as a team in what would have been a very diverse field,” Tesei said Friday in a phone call from the Foxwoods Resort and Casino, where he is a delegate at the Republican State Convention. “She did not want to lose the opportunity to be a part of the race and put forth her credentials as a millennial professional and chief elected official of a city.”
As he had before joining the ticket with Stewart, Tesei said he would once again support businessman Steve Obsitnik for governor.
In a news conference outside Foxwoods, as hundreds of Republicans lined up for the two-day nominating convention, Stewart said her appearance on a fall ticket will energize younger voters. She conceded getting into the race in February, with already a dozen hopefuls lining up for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, wasn’t the best strategy.
”When the numbers don’t work in your favor, they don’t work,” she said.