One of the state’s largest labor coalitions, the Connecticut State Council of the Service Employees International Union, has endorsed Democratic gubernatorial contender Dan Malloy and his running mate, Nancy Wyman.

The council, whose delegates represent the SEIU’s six affiliated unions involving about 55,000 public- and private-sector workers in Connecticut, voted Friday to back Malloy and Wyman as they head into their own respective primaries on Aug. 10.

Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, is going up against Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Wyman, a Tolland Democrat who has been state comptroller since 1995, faces off against Simsbury First Selectwoman Mary Glassman in the party primary for lieutenant governor.

Malloy already had captured the backing of four of SEIU’s affiliates, including a major state employee bargaining unit, the Connecticut State Employees Association.  SEIU Connecticut State Council Director Paul Filson said rather than a “piecemeal approach,” the affiliated locals decided to “go all in” to support Malloy and Wyman in their bids to be the state’s next governor and lieutenant governor.

Coalition members recognized “Malloy’s record as an advocate for vital public services and a vocal supporter of the workforce that delivers them,” the council wrote in a statement today.

Keith has spent most of his 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. He has been the state finances reporter at CT Mirror since it launched in 2010. Prior to joining CT Mirror Keith was State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, a reporter for the Day of New London, and a former contributing writer to The New York Times. Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.

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