The CT Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/author/mpazniokas/page/3/)
Bob Stefanowski won the five-way Republican primary for governor Tuesday night after ignoring Connecticut’s GOP establishment, opting out of the state’s public-financing program and repeating one outlandish campaign promise like a daily affirmation: He will “rip costs” from state government and make its income tax disappear over eight years. Continue Reading →
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy voted Tuesday in the first Democratic gubernatorial primary since 2002 in which he is not on the ballot, but offered no endorsement of either would-be Democratic successor — an acknowledgement that his unpopularity makes his kind words a liability. But he showed no reticence in condemning every Republican contender for assuring the GOP base of their fealty to President Trump: “They have become Trump-like, perhaps mini-me Trumps. And that’s a disturbing reality.” Continue Reading →
Connecticut Democrats and Republicans go to the polls Tuesday to bring clarity to the unruliest of political seasons, making choices that not only will determine the major-party nominations for governor, but could forever change how candidates seek access to the primary ballots and encourage them to make sure a friendly super PACs is ready to supplement their campaigns. Continue Reading →
With carefully calibrated appeals to gun owners and social conservatives, Timothy Herbst is looking for the sweet spot in Connecticut politics on Tuesday: How far to the right can a gubernatorial candidate go to distinguish himself in a crowded Republican primary, yet remain viable in November? Continue Reading →
The biggest contributions to CT Rising, an independent-expenditure group promoting the gubernatorial campaign of Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, came from the New York offices of a trash hauler with an affiliate in Danbury, according to a campaign finance report filed Saturday. Continue Reading →
If a candidate holds a press conference and leaves without taking questions, is it a press conference? Don’t ask Bob Stefanowski. Continue Reading →
The five Republican candidates for governor navigated their final pre-primary debate Wednesday by staying in well-established lanes, broadly sketching approaches to stabilizing Connecticut’s finances and growing its economy, while carefully dodging potential distractions like gun control and abortion. Continue Reading →
Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim was more aggressive Tuesday in questioning why Ned Lamont might be reluctant to support a convicted extortionist for governor than Lamont was in challenging Ganim’s fitness to lead Connecticut after seven years in prison for using his office to routinely shake down city contractors for bribes. Continue Reading →
If you want to see the five Republican gubernatorial candidates in more than the 30-second commercials now filling the airwaves, there are two more chances — a 90-minute debate tonight at 7 p.m. at Fairfield University and one Wednesday afternoon on WFSB, Channel 3. Continue Reading →
With the gun lobby, it seems to be all or nothing. Susan Hatfield, the endorsed Republican candidate for attorney general, said Friday that her opposition to untraceable 3D-printed firearms — a position the President Trump has hinted he might adopt — has cost her the support of the state’s largest gun owners’ group, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League. Continue Reading →
WEST HARTFORD — At a debate of the Republican candidates for lieutenant governor Monday night, Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson argued that the GOP needs a Number Two who would be most electable in a November election, not most popular in an August primary. Stevenson says Joe Markley is too conservative and Erin Stewart too unaccomplished and friendly with labor. Continue Reading →
You probably never heard his name before today, but Cody Wilson emerged this week as an influence in the Connecticut primaries for governor and attorney general: He is a self-described “crypto-anarchist” from Texas who wants to sell America a downloadable blueprint for the 3D printing of untraceable plastic firearms. Continue Reading →
Mary Glassman unequivocally supported Israel, while Jahana Hayes called the question complicated. Hayes embraced federal legalization of marijuana, while Glassman called it a state issue. But mainly, the two Democratic candidates for Connecticut’s only open congressional seat disagreed Monday night on what message their victory would send. Continue Reading →
Britain’s Sky News emphasized the plummier aspects of Bob Stefanowski’s resume — trustee of London’s venerable Victoria and Albert Museum, visiting professor at Oxford, “top investment banker” — in reporting his arrival in late 2014 as the new boss of a decidedly down-market business: Making payday loans in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. Stefanowski, a GOP candidate for governor, is happy to talk about his time in the payday loan business. His briefer tenure as a Democrat? Not so much. Continue Reading →
FAIRFIELD — Try as he might, Joseph P. Ganim could not provoke Ned Lamont into an argument Thursday, failing to draw the Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner into any exchange capable of altering the dynamics of a race that never stray far from one question: Can Ganim, a convicted extortionist, be a credible statewide candidate? Continue Reading →