Connecticut Tea Party leader Tanya Bachand has written an open letter to unaffiliated candidate for governor Joe Visconti, a Republican, calling on him to vacate the race.
She sent a first draft of her letter to a few of her fellow Tea Party activists and she said the reaction was universal.
“Everybody was thinking the same thing and I put it down to paper,” Bachand said during an interview.
Bachand says the consensus among her fellow Tea Partiers is that Visconti's candidacy could spell doom for the Foley campaign by stealing right-leaning votes.
“This is not so much about being pro-Foley as it is making sure, two fold, one that Malloy does not get reelected and Foley’s our best shot at that and two that the Tea Party principles and ideals survive past this election,” Bachand said.
Visconti said when he received the letter that he refused to read it.
“I don’t read anything that starts with, ‘You can’t win,’” Visconti said.
Local
In response, Visconti released a web video that displayed photos of him with several of the Tea Party leaders who signed the letter, along with photos of him at political rallies.
The unaffiliated candidate actively participated in the Tea Party movement in Connecticut and said he feels that leaders across the state are turning their backs on their core beliefs.
“They basically surrendered their principles. This is what they’ve done,” Visconti said Tuesday. “Tom Foley is not a conservative. He will not repeal Common Core. He will not repeal SB1170. He won’t even seek to repeal these. That’s what the big argument is.”
Tea Party groups concede that Tom Foley is not the ideal candidate.
Bachand even said, “Foley isn’t a panacea,” and added that the effort to get Visconti off the ballot has more to do with maintain the momentum of the movement.
“This is not about surrendering our principles. This is about making sure that our principles survive to fight another day,” Bachand said.
