Steve Obsitnik’s campaign for governor will go before the State Elections Enforcement Commission on Wednesday morning to make its fourth try since May 23 for approval of $1.35 million in public financing for his Republican primary in August. Two GOP competitors, Mark Boughton and Timothy Herbst, also are on the agenda again.
2018 campaign
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Bob Stefanowski qualifies for GOP primary
Republican voters will have at least four candidates for governor in the Aug. 14 primary as the secretary of the state’s office confirmed Monday that Bob Stefanowski had collected sufficient signatures for a place on the ballot.
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Political deja vu: Candidates pledge to market CT tourism
There were three Republicans, a Democrat and an independent. Most sounded strikingly like Dannel P. Malloy did as a candidate for governor in 2010: They were incredulous at how little the state spends on marketing to tourists, and they promised to boost spending that tourism advocates say yields quick returns. But the question Friday for the tourism industry is whether any will do better than Malloy in sustaining spending for marketing.
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SEEC to Boughton, Herbst & Obsitnik: Come back next week
The three gubernatorial candidates seeking public financing failed to win approval of their grants Wednesday by the State Elections Enforcement Commission, the result of deficiencies in their applications for $1.35 million each to wage a primary. All three are Republicans. They will have another chance next week.
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Early count has Ganim on path to qualify for primary
Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim seemed assured Tuesday night of qualifying for a Democratic primary for governor, setting the stage for a summer campaign by the ex-con mayor against the convention-endorsed favorite, Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. As of 4 p.m., Ganim had 7,612 signatures already authenticated and tabulated — nearly half of what he needs to force a primary. He says he collected and filed 32,000 to be safe.
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O’Neill says she’ll use ‘guts’ and life experience to win Esty’s seat
Ruby Corby O’Neill says she’s a unique candidate in Connecticut GOP politics. “Republicans traditionally have not been successful with Latinos and women, and I am both.” She says her “guts” and independence will help propel her to Congress.
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A cordial GOP debate, until Malloy is mentioned
NEW HAVEN — In the first debate since the Republican field of gubernatorial candidates shed a half-dozen candidates, a quartet of GOP contenders talked tough Monday night about immigrants, state spending, tolls, public-sector unions and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy — pretty much everything and everyone but each other.
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Lumaj gives Stefanowski a boost from the right
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski landed an endorsement Monday from Peter Lumaj, a former rival who had built his campaign around an identity as a deeply conservative supporter of Second Amendment rights and a candidate unapologetically loyal to President Trump.
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A heated review of a chaotic end to a congressional convention
The chaotic ending of a Democratic congressional nominating convention last month was intensely dissected Thursday night in a special hearing as delegates and advocates contested unsigned paperwork and other voting irregularities. The party was responding to complaints by Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary and Scott X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut NAACP.
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Gubernatorial candidates submit to 12-minute job interviews on CPTV
Mark Boughton watches NASCAR and does yoga, though not at once. In ninth grade, Ned Lamont played keyboard in a band called Flower Pot. Timothy Herbst played offensive line in high school for a legendary football coach. Steve Obsitnik’s kids didn’t want him to run for governor, but they got over it. Are you ready to hire one of them for governor?
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AG candidate Tong promises aggressiveness on civil rights
Rep. William Tong of Stamford, the Democratic convention-endorsed candidate for attorney general, said Thursday he would create a civil-rights division in the office if elected, promising to be an activist on issues ranging from housing segregation to gay rights.
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Ned Lamont goes to school, gets political lesson
On a day when Ned Lamont toured a public school preparing to talk about education funding, he got an awkward lesson about what how easily a candidate can be jostled off message — especially when faced by an unconventional and aggressive rival, Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim.
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Glassman running on experience for Esty’s seat
Mary Glassman, a Democrat running for Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s seat in the 5th Congressional District, hopes to fend off primary challenger and political neophyte Jahana Hayes with stories of her political experience, her own hardscrabble upbringing and an intense focus on local issues.
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Stefanowski gets closer on less-traveled path to GOP primary
Bob Stefanowski has campaigned for governor of Connecticut in something of an alternate universe, a place where there was no Republican state convention, no delegates deciding who gets access to the primary ballot. Instead, Stefanowski’s path to the primary brought him, his volunteers and paid staff to the homes of more than 12,000 Republican voters.
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With no one on his right, Herbst takes aim at Boughton
Timothy Herbst is in a good mood. At the Cromwell Diner, where he just chatted with the mayor and former police chief over a breakfast of coffee, eggs and politics, he says he can see a path through a crowded field to the Republican nomination for governor — even if it means stealing a page from the GOP’s bête noire, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
