Jack Orchulli has received the Republican State Converntion’s endorsement to become the Connecticut’s next chief fiscal guardian.
Going into Saturday’s convention, Orchulli was expected to face Bolton Republican Stephanie Labanowski for the party’s endorsement, but she dropped out of the race for comptroller and Orchuli was nominated by acclamation.
Labanowski said she was dropping out “in the interests of party unity,” Vernon party chairman Harold Cummings, who was supposed to give a nominating speech for her, said today. “She decided she didn’t have the finances and resources to run a meaningful campaign.”
Orchulli, 63, has never held public office but he has run for office before. In 2004 he captured 33 percent of the vote in a race against U.S. Senator Chris Dodd.
“No, I am not an accountant, I am a businessperson,” he told the convention in his acceptance speech. If elected, he promised to bring skepticism to government spending and to help “straighten out our financial mess.”