Who’s Running, How & Why, On Tuesday

Registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in their parties’ primaries from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Confused about where to vote? Call 203 – 946-8035 during business hours.) Tuesday’s winners will face voters again in the Nov. 6 general election.

More candidates than usual are running, because more incumbents are stepping down from top spots than usual. So a lot is at stake for a state where companies and humans are leaving, the government bank account keeps bleeding red, and thousands of families struggle to claim a spot in the nation’s economic recovery.

Both parties have competitive primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and treasurer; the Republicans also have a competitive primary for the comptroller nomination.

In New Haven, where ​“Democrat” is practically the official state religion, 37,482 registered Democrats are eligible to vote Tuesday; 2,340 registered Republicans are eligible to vote in their party’s primary. By Monday morning, about half of the 956 Democrats who took out absentee ballots had returned them to the City Clerk’s Office, along with more than half of the 58 Republicans who requested them. (Connecticut has 857,056 registered unaffiliated voters, 769,414 Democrats, and 451,869 Republicans, according to the most current figures from the Secretary of the State’s office.)

The names you might hear the most in campaigns this year aren’t on the ballot: Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who’s retiring in January. Republicans are banking on voter anger at the precariousness of state finances under Malloy’s watch to propel them into office. Democrats are banking at their base’s anger at the president’s policies and behavior to counteract Republicans’ momentum in state races.

We’re not going to suggest for whom you should vote. But we’ve been spending a lot of time watching and interviewing the candidates. So to help you prepare, here’s a rundown on who’s running and where the races stand. Included are links to stories and sites to give you more detail; and videos of in-depth WNHH FM interviews with the candidates as well as of candidate debates, in most cases at the bottom of this story.

Governor

The Democratic field of candidates looking to succeed Gov. Malloy, once at a half dozen, has winnowed to two. From the start, the strongest potential candidates, such as Nancy Wyman and Kevin Lembo, decided not to run as early polls showed the electorate leaning toward choosing a Republican this time around. Left standing are Ned Lamont, a Greenwich businessman who lost two previous runs for statewide office; and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who was sitting in a federal prison the last two times Lamont ran for office after he was caught taking a half-million dollars in kickbacks.

Ganim has sought to turn his time in the pokey to his advantage with a cities-focused appeal for personal and urban ​“second-chance” salvation. He has also produced the most compelling ads, and convinced up to 30,000 voters to sign petitions to put his name on the ballot; he hasn’t shown evidence of a statewide pulling operation. His fortunes Tuesday will test how important endorsements and vote-pulling apparatuses are compared to effective TV advertising.

Lamont has convinced all leading elected officials in the state as well as unions to back him as the most ​“electable” because he’s willing to spend millions of his own dollars to compete. Last time he ran and lost a primary, he spent $10 million. Lamont has wasted the most money on lame ads, where he fails to look at the camera, says little, and dials the energy to near zero, while his one-on-one retail campaigning style has resembled Hillary Clinton’s, minus the resume and government experience and knowledge. Lamont also angered urban politicians by working to ensure that no candidate of color serves as his running mate, including a first-ever Latina.

The Republicans might not be as susceptible to the idea of supporting a rich candidate because he’s rich: They, too, backed self-financing millionaires with no real government experience who wasted up to $50 million a pop losing the last two gubernatorial and senatorial elections. But who knows? Five Republicans are on the gubernatorial ballot Tuesday. Two are wealthy businessmen who, like erstwhile self-financing Senate and gubernatorial candidates Linda McMahon and Tom Foley, brag about their lack of government experience, saying that makes them more qualified to manage the state’s $20 billion annual budget.

One of the self-financers, Fairfield County hedge funder David Stemerman, has impressed people (including the Hartford Courant’s editorial board) with his detailed plans. Another, Bob Stefanowski is a disciple of Reagan-era supply-side economist Art Laffer and has paid for entertaining ads dubbing himself ​“Bob the Builder.” A third businessman with no government experience, Steve Obsitnik, a Navy and Silicon Valley veteran who helped bring Siri to market, sought public financing for his campaign.

The Party has endorsed Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who has projected the moderate image in the race. Some of his policies have been less moderate: He, like Stefanowksi, calls for eliminating the income tax, which provided $10 billion of revenue, or about half, of this year’s state budget. He also has a history of cooperating with federal immigrant agents to drive undocumented people out of his city. (All five Republicans oppose ​“sanctuary cities” policies.) Tim Herbst, former Trumbull first selectman, has established himself as the Trump candidate with hard-edged policies and rhetoric, threatening to withhold state dollars from sanctuary cities like New Haven and inventing stories on the stump about ​“illegals” committing horrific crimes in New Haven.

In terms of horse-race politics, this is the day’s most interesting race: Insiders believe any of the five candidates could potentially win, with four of them essentially tied. And only 100,000 voters or fewer expected at the polls, a candidate could win with potentially under 30,000 voters.

Depending on who wins, the fall election might also see an interesting twist on that national phenomenon of Democrats running against Republcians on income inequality. If the self-funders win both primaries, that issue is effectively off the table. If Boughton or Herbst wins the primary, along with Lamont, look for the Republican to be campaigning against the Democrat as the plutocrat with no government experience or connection to the working and middle classes.

Lieutenant Governor

In both case, this race has become a contest over the future of the parties.

The Republicans endorsed Joseph Markley, a thoughtful state senator who represents the right flank of the party on issues ranging from abortion to taxes. Challenger Erin Stewart, originally seen as the most promising potential gubernatorial candidate, offers a pitch for party change and centrism: She’s only 31, and as mayor of New Britain she gets urban votes, including Latino votes, Republicans often have trouble attracting. She is also pro-choice, moderate in general on social issues like legalizing recreational use of marijuana; has raised taxes when she found that necessary; and has had a working relationship with labor. Markley argues that the party should stick to clear conservative values. A third candidate, Jayme Stevenson, is challenging Markley’s claim to the conservative mantle.

The Democrats endorsed Susan Bysiewicz, who spent decades as a state legislator and then secretary of the state, as their candidate for the job. Challenger Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, the challenger, has spent her life so far engaged in organizing and activism outside elected office: in Brazil’s favelas, on education reform, boosting enrollment in Obamacare, and labor organizing among child-care workers. Bysiewicz is running on experience in government; she has lined up daunting support among suburban pols and promised a tax cut to businesses while strenuously avoiding campaigning in cities like New Haven. Bermudez Zimmerman has concentrated on cities and casting her campaign as representing needed change: She’s 31, compared to Baby Boomers dominating most slots; she’d be the first person of color to serve as lieutenant governor and the first Latina (or Latino) on a statewide ticket. New Haven’s activists and elected officials have united behind her campaign.

Attorney General

For Democrats, this has become the proxy primary for Trump ​“resistance.” In addition to offering legal advice to state government, the attorney general and his or her 200 staff attorneys file civil suits on issues most affected by Trump’s policies, against polluters, financial predators, immigration orders, gunmakers and gun laws, and racial or gender discrimination. So the vote could come down to who’s the most ​“progressive.”

Party-endorsed State Rep. William Tong has picked up the endorsements of many of his fellow legislators, including most from New Haven, who respect his integrity and hard work; he has also claimed some progressive bonafides by winning the endorsements of the Working Families Party and some major unions. Challenger Chris Mattei has attacked some non-progressive Tong votes (like on medical marijuana); as a non-legislator, Mattei doesn’t have a voting record to put his past positions to the same scrutiny. Mattei — who successfully pressed corruption cases against Republican and Democratic politicians alike — has attracted other labor and progressive support with energetic campaigning and sharp attacks, claiming that it takes a prosecutor, not a legislator, to strike back against Trump policies. A third candidate, Wethersfield State Sen. Paul Doyle, has sided with Republicans in the legislature on key votes; he argues he helped make it possible not to lose the party centrist support in the process.

An energetic Republican primary campaigner, state prosecutor Susan Hatfield, is a proud protege of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and is tilling the Trump terrain; she supported the president’s family separation policy for detained immigrants, though she broke with the NRA (and lost its endorsement) by opposing ghost guns despite her otherwise rock-ribbed pro-“Second Amendment” stand. She is facing a challenge from former state Rep. John Shaban of Redding, who has taken a softer line on immigration in line with what was until recently a bipartisan consensus in Congress; and, while a ​“proud gun owner,” supported Connecticut’s bipartisan gun control and mental health law faced in the wake of the Newtown massacre.

State Treasurer

Incumbent Denise Nappier is stepping down after four terms. Democrats have unofficially reserved this slot to an African_American for decades. The party-endorsed candidate, former Hartford City Council President Shawn Wooden, is African-American. He heads the public pension division of the Day Pitney law firm, in which capacity he has worked with government pension plans in numerous states, including Connecticut. And as president of the Hartford City Council for four years, he said, he focused on shoring up that city’s government employees pension funds. Those funds are now 74 percent funded, he said, in line with the recommendations of actuaries and bond ratings agencies. He’s running on his experience as well as promises to steer pension fund investments away from gunmakers and polluters.

Challenger Dita Bhargava, a Farifield County private equity veteran, originally sought the governor’s job before switching to the treasurer’s race. Citing Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as her model, she promotes moving the party to a ​“pro-business progressive stance” that resists taxing the wealthy more and hardens its line in labor negotiations while fighting for paid family leave and single-payer health care. In the final days of the campaign Bhargava unleashed the harshest personal attacks of the Democratic primary campaigns, complete with unflattering washed-out photos of her opponent; she sought to tie Wooden to Hartford’s financial woes that led to a state bailout of the city (he says he helped shore up the pension fund there) as well as his record in private practice.

Art Linares is challenging endorsed candidate Thad Gray in the Republican primary. Click here and here to learn more about their campaigns.

Comptroller

Democrats have endorsed incumbent Kevin Lembo for another term as comptroller; there’s no primary. Two Republicans are competing for the chance to take on Lembo in November and try to tie him to the Malloy administration and sagging state finances.

Party-endorsed candidate Kurt Miller has earned kudos for fiscal management as first selectman of Seymour, and is running on that record.

Challenger Mark Greenberg, a Litchfield County real estate manager and developer, had a star turn as a witness in the second corruption trial of former Gov. John Rowland, whose entreaties for illicit help he eschewed during a Congressional run. Greenberg promises to issue annual reports to identify waste and inefficiencies in government, beginning with ideas for cutting 10 percent of the state budget in the first year; and to issue report cards on state agencies’ business-friendliness (or lack thereof). Greenberg proposes allowing cities like New Haven to tax the real estate of nonprofit universities and hospitals; Miller opposes that idea, suggesting instead that cities be allowed to tax restaurant meals and entertainment-venue tickets.

More videos and podcasts follow of interviews with the candidates:

Click on or download the above audio file to a an interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Boughton on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program; and click here to read a story about that interview.

Click on the Facebook Live video to hear a WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Obsitnik. Click here to read a story about that interview.

Click on the Facebook Live video below for the full interview with gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here to read a story about the interview.

Click on the Facebook Live video to listen to the full interview with Joe Ganim. Click here to read an article about the interview.

Click on the Facebook Live video for an interview with lieutenant governor candidate Erin Stewart on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. Click here to read a story about it.

Click on the Facebook Live video to hear a previous ​“Dateline New Haven” interview with Susan Bysiewicz on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here for a story about that interview.

Click on the Facebook Live video to hear an interview with Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Eva Bermudez Zimmerman. Click here to read a story about that interview.

Click on the Facebook Live video below for an interview with Dita Bhargava on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here to read a story about the interview.

Click on the above audio file of the Facebook Live video below to hear a previous interview with treasurer candidate Shawn Wooden on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. Click here to read a story about that interview.