Two weeks after winning a straw poll at an Connecticut AFL-CIO political convention, state Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden, ended his exploratory campaign for attorney general Friday. He instead will seek a fourth-term in the House of Representatives.
2018 campaign
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A quiet finale for the GOP gubernatorial road show
NEW CANAAN — The fifth and final episode of a road show produced by Connecticut Republicans and starring an evolving cast of gubernatorial contenders came to an end Wednesday night without resolving a key plot point: Is the GOP any closer to settling on a front runner?
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Toni Boucher ends exploratory, seeks re-election to Senate
Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, ended her exploratory campaign for governor Wednesday and declared her candidacy for re-election to the state Senate seat she won in 2008. She made a similar exploration in 2014, then ran for re-election.
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Hartford’s Bronin quits Democratic race for governor
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin ended his exploratory campaign for governor Monday, a concession to the inherent conflicts facing a Democrat advocating at the State Capitol for a city in desperate need of state assistance while also pursuing a personal agenda of political advancement.
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RGA plans to play in Connecticut — if GOP nominee is ‘electable’
The Republican Governors Association is reserving $1.7 million in television time in the last six weeks of the Connecticut race for governor, but whether it ultimately spends the money will depend on how the RGA views the “electability” of the winner of the GOP primary in August.
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Tong ends exploration, opens campaign for AG
State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, closed his exploratory committee Monday and formally joined the race for the Democratic nomination for attorney general, promising to be an aggressive counter-weight to the Trump administration.
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Ned Lamont wins CT AFL-CIO straw poll
Ned Lamont, the wealthy Greenwich businessman who electrified progressives with an antiwar challenge to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman a dozen years ago, easily won a straw vote for governor Friday at the Connecticut AFL-CIO’s political convention, an unusually early effort by labor to shape the crowded race for the Democratic nomination in a pivotal election year.
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GOP candidates promise a shift in reappointing judges
The failed confirmation of Justice Andrew J. McDonald as chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court became a focal point for Republican candidates battling for governor Wednesday, as they answered whether they would uphold the longstanding custom of reappointing judges to new terms regardless of their judicial philosophy or political affiliation.
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Blumenthal’s son running for Tong’s House seat
Matthew S. Blumenthal, the oldest son of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has opened a candidate committee to run for the state House of Representatives from the 147th District of Stamford and Darien.
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Bysiewicz ends exploration, commits to race for governor
Former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz opened a gubernatorial campaign committee Tuesday, ending an exploratory campaign that began as a precursor to a run for state Senate and quickly grew more ambitious.
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Attacking state pensions, Stemerman tries to break from GOP pack
Former hedge fund manager David Stemerman is trying to distinguish himself in the crowded field of Republican candidates for governor with a radical political and legal strategy for attacking Connecticut’s massive unfunded pension liability.
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Mary Glassman jumps into suddenly open 5th District race
Mary Glassman, the former first selectman of Simsbury and two-time Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, was the first Monday to declare her candidacy for Congress in the wake of the decision by U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th District, not to seek re-election. Glassman is unlikely to be the last to enter the race for a suddenly open seat.
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AG George Jepsen endorses Ned Lamont for governor
Attorney General George Jepsen, who backed Ned Lamont’s challenge of U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in 2006, is endorsing his candidacy for governor, the Lamont campaign said Monday.
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Trump administration: No comment on Lumaj as ambassador
The Trump administration declined Wednesday to confirm or deny Republican gubernatorial candidate Peter Lumaj’s account that he rejected an offer after the 2016 election to return to his native Albania as the ambassador from the United States. Lumaj only entertained questions about the offer if they were submitted in writing.
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Back after seizure, Boughton tells GOP, ‘It’s all good now’
WEST HARTFORD — With touches of humor and humility, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton resumed campaigning for governor Monday night, telling Republicans he was ready for the rigors of a statewide campaign after suffering a seizure Thursday night. His audience included four GOP rivals, one of them a physician who tended to him after his collapse, Prasad Srinivasan.