In October, President Obama created a buzz in visiting Stamford to tout the campaign of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd. This month, it was Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele”™s turn to create a little hum in his hometown.
The Stamford Chamber of Commerce became the first business organization in the state to schedule a keynote by Fedele after he gave notice he would run for governor to replace Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who announced in early November she would not seek another term.
Fedele said Rell promised him her support, according to the Hartford Courant, though she told the newspaper any number of Republicans would make viable candidates. State Sens. Lawrence Cafero of Norwalk and John McKinney of Fairfield have been floated as possible contenders for the Republican ticket, as well as former U.S. Attorney Kevin O”™Connor who now is a private attorney in Hartford.
With Rell out of the picture, the question becomes whether a Republican candidate from outside the circles of state government might seize the opportunity to run, galvanizing the party the way the youthful insider John Rowland did in 1994 when he became the youngest governor in state history at the age of 37 before crushing the party faithful in 2004 after resigning in connection with a corruption investigation.
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The Democrats already have one such maverick candidate ”“ Ned Lamont, a Greenwich businessman who in 2006 defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman on an anti-war plank, only to lose to the newly independent Lieberman in the general election thanks to support from Republican voters in the state. Lieberman remains a lightning rod for Democrat activists ”“ this month, hundreds showed up for a candlelight vigil at Lieberman”™s Stamford residence to protest his opposition to a publicly financed insurance plan as part of the federal health reform bill.
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And the race to unseat Dodd has two outsider candidates: the well-financed former World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. CEO Linda McMahon and Peter Schiff, a Weston resident and frequent commentator on financial markets.
McMahon has swiftly gained ground on former congressman Rob Simmons of New London, as she positions herself as a Beltway outsider.
It is the first gubernatorial campaign for Chris Healy since he became chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party in 2007, and for former Simmons staffer Heath Fahle since becoming executive director of the state GOP the same year. The party is fresh off a big win in Stamford, with developer Mike Pavia defeating David Martin, a Democrat who has been president of the city”™s board of representatives.
The gubernatorial race attracted significant attention at the Republican Governors Association annual meeting this week, given Rell”™s decision not to run that through the race wide open. Even as Fairfield County Republicans were energized locally by Pavia”™s win, however, so too was the national GOP by gubernatorial wins this month in New Jersey and Virginia.
As Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour noted, the party”™s 1993 wins in those states set the stage for the 1994 Republican “revolution” that gave the party control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
