Christin Stuart/Melissa Bailey File Photos
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, left. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley, right.
In a surprise on-air encounter, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley confronted Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewiciz Wednesday for declaring a winner without having official numbers.
Both Bysiewicz and Foley were calling in to WNPR’s “Colin McEnroe Show” at the time, around 1:30 p.m. (Click here to hear the show.)
Byiewicz had in the previous hour declared Democrat Dan Malloy the “unofficial” winner of Tuesday’s gubernatorial election by a mere 3,000 votes, out of more than a million. She acknowledged she was basing her declaration in some cases on unofficial numbers from local registrars of voters. In New Haven, for instance, officials hadn’t even finished counting ballots; a 3 p.m. result was promised.
Foley came on McEnroe’s show to say that his campaign has a different tabulation of Tuesday’s vote. He said he won — but by less than “the margin of automatic recount,” which is 2,000 votes.
“If our number is correct, there will be an automatic recount,” Foley said.
He expressed frustration at trying to communicate with Bysiewicz’s office. “We are asking them to release their town-by-town numbers publicly. The secretary of the state released a number. But she doesn’t have all the results in,” Foley said.
Then another voice on the air piped in, to his surprise: Bysiewicz’s voice.
“We’re happy to share them,” Bysiewicz said.
She called out a greeting, “Hey Tom …”
It turned out Bysiewicz was in the studio with McEnroe.
Foley criticized Bysiewicz for her declaration on behalf of Malloy.
“You announced a winner with an unofficial result,” he complained.
“We said they were unofficial,” Bysiewicz responded.
“You’re the secretary of the state,” Foley pressed. “You’re announcing a result when you have only unofficial returns? .… You don’t have a result. I don’t know why you’d be saying what the result of the election is.”
“It was unofficial,” Bysiewicz repeated.
“It’s not even unofficial!” Foley retorted.
Then he asked about those unofficial town-by-town numbers he’s been trying to obtain from her office. “How soon can we have these?” he asked.
“Right away,” Bysiewicz responded.
“Please send them over. We’ll reconcile our result with yours. We have a very different result. For you to be calling an unofficial election is improper….”
Stay tuned — to Colin McEnroe.