Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton exorcised some of his previous statewide demons by securing the nomination of his party for governor.
Boughton will enter the August primary as the endorsed nominee of his party, providing him a key talking point and symbolic boost as he looks to woo registered Republican voters.
“The moment is now, the time is now for Republican leadership and Republican values to make this state the place we all remember it to be,” Boughton said during his acceptance speech before more than 1,000 state Republican delegates.
Boughton has been Mayor of Danbury since 2001. He twice previously sought statewide office, unsuccessful each time. He entered the nominating convention as a favorite among longtime Republicans.
The final tally of 557 delegates for Boughton was exactly the amount he needed to outpace the field of eight contenders at the start of voting Saturday.
After the first ballot, the City of Stamford’s Chief Financial Officer, Mike Handler, and Glastonbury State Representative Prasad Srinivasan were each dropped because they did not meet the eight-percent threshold for support.
For Srinivasan, the result was devastating. He missed out on the second ballot by one vote, ending 18 months of campaign events, fundraisers, and debates.
Local
“I thought I had it. I was sure about that,” Srinivasan said. “But I wanted to give this the opportunity to see if I can serve the state.”
After the second ballot, conservative Peter Lumaj, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, and former Comptroller General of the U.S., Dave Walker, all were eliminated from contention.
The biggest winner from that ballot was Steve Obsitnik, the Westport businessman and Navy veteran.
Obsitnik squeaked past the eight-percent threshold during the first ballot, and successfully garnered more than 17-percent of the vote, securing a spot on the ballot for the primary in August.
Obsitnik, who previously lost a bid for Congress to Jim Himes, said he’s a “pragmatic” Republican who can appeal to independents in the progressive Northeast.
“You know what? Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, he’s a business outsider. He’s doing pretty well. I think we can take a page out of his book here in Connecticut,” Obsitnik said.
Tim Herbst ran just behind Boughton, and was a clear convention favorite among many convention delegates. He was the only other candidate to lock in a position on the primary ballot on the first tally.
Herbst, the former First Selectman of Trumbull who ran unsuccessfully for Treasurer in 2014, said he will look to separate himself as a straight-talking younger candidate in a crowded field.
“The way I am going to distinguish myself is I am not going to tell people what they want to hear in the name of winning an election. I am going tell people what they need to hear to save the state of Connecticut,” Herbst said. He secured more than 45 percent of convention delegates.
The August primary could get more crowded. Two candidates from the convention, Mike Handler and Mark Lauretti, vowed to collect signatures of registered Republicans. Two others, former UBS executive Bob Stefanowski, and former hedge fund manager David Stemerman also said they would look to collect signatures to achieve ballot access.
It’s possible that registered Republicans could be deciding amongst seven people when they vote in the primary in August.
