A View Disputed By Foley—

Malloy Declared ‘Unofficial’ Winner By Bysiewicz

By Keith M. Phaneuf

and Arielle Levin Becker

©The Connecticut Mirror

Former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy declared early Wednesday he had become the first Democrat to win a Connecticut gubernatorial contest in 24 years, though he also conceded the matter might well be settled in court.

Meanwhile, Malloy’s Republican opponent, Greenwich businessman Tom Foley, continued to assert he would win the battle, which has been marked over the past month by several heated debates and a flurry of televised attack ads launched by both candidates.

But by midday Wednesday, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz declared that Mr Malloy was the unofficial winner of the state’s hard-fought gubernatorial race with a 3,103-vote victory that does not rely on controversial late voting in Bridgeport or fall within the 2,000-margin for an automatic recount.

Republican Tom Foley immediately disputed Bysiewicz’s statement, saying his campaign’s figures show him leading Malloy, although he acknowledged that the margin by his count was less than 2,000. He said his staff would contact the secretary of the state’s office Wednesday afternoon to try to resolve the discrepancy.

Bysiewicz could not say whether disputed ballots cast in Bridgeport and Hartford on photocopies of the official ballot could skew the final numbers. GOP State Chairman Christopher Healy predicted the election remained ripe for a legal challenge.

“We believe that Mr Malloy has won,” Bysiewicz said. “It appears that way from the unofficial results.”

The secretary, a Middletown Democrat, said she remained confident making that announcement even though more than 1,500 absentee ballots from New Haven and Bridgeport still had not been counted and reported to her office yet. That iss because Malloy won the machine vote tally by more than 17,600 in New Haven and by more than 12,600 in Bridgeport; absentee results tend to follow similar trends. That would mean Malloy’s 3,103-vote margin is likely to grow.

Foley said he nonetheless believes he won the election by a small margin and that his campaign would try to reconcile the competing figures with the secretary of the state’s office.

“We show ourselves as slightly up,” Foley told reporters at his Stamford campaign office. “We have to reconcile what the correct number is.”

Foley said his campaign’s figures showed him ahead by less than 2,000 votes, a small enough margin to require a recount. He said his campaign has gotten the vote counts directly from cities and towns, and that his figures aligned with those reported by the Associated Press.

“The future of Connecticut is at stake,” he said, adding that the election outcome is too important to not make sure the numbers reported match the ballots cast.

Foley declined to discuss possible legal challenges or whether Bridgeport’s extended voting affected the outcome, saying it would be premature before the vote totals were reconciled.

Foley added he has not spoken with Malloy since the polls closed.

State law requires a recount whenever in statewide races whenever the margin is less than 2,000 votes, but Bysiewicz predicted the official tally, which likely would not be available until Thursday or Friday, would exceed that figure.

She noted that although Foley and the Republican Party have disputed a Superior Court judge’s decision to keep 12 polling places in Bridgeport open for two extra hours Tuesday night because they temporarily ran out of ballots during the afternoon, that entire exercise only produced about 500 votes.

But Republicans also have objected to municipal officials’ decisions in Bridgeport and Hartford to photocopy official ballots to deal with temporary shortfalls, and Bysiewicz could not say Wednesday morning how many ballots that entailed. “It could be hundreds or it could be thousands,” she said.

Given that, and other uncertainties, Healy charged after the news conference that Bysiewicz’s statements were both partisan and inappropriate.

“I don’t believe we yet have a full and accurate account,” he said. “This just shows how she has tried to game this election from the get-go.”

But Bysiewicz said that while extending the hours for the Bridgeport precincts was unusual — though still appropriate — there is nothing out of the ordinary regarding local election officials photocopying official ballot forms in anticipation of a small shortage.

“I would be shocked if a judge were to rule Xeroxed ballots couldn’t be counted,” she said, adding that is the standard procedure her office advises communities to follow when ballots run short.

Both Malloy and Foley predicted victory shortly after midnight on Wednesday as votes still were being counted in New Haven and Bridgeport and it became clear Connecticut was headed for its closest gubernatorial election since 1954 when Democrat Abraham Ribicoff defeated Republican John Davis Lodge by just over 3,000 votes.

But Malloy also conceded early Wednesday that the matter might not be resolved for some time.

“I fully acknowledge and respect the rights of other individuals to contest the numbers and play it out,” he said. “This will work itself out. But I’m pretty certain we’re going to be OK.”

Mixed Results For Democrats

If Malloy’s declared victory ultimately is confirmed, the election would mark a Democratic sweep for the state’s constitutional offices, even as majority Democrats lost 14 seats in the House and one in the Senate, pending recounts.

“I want to be very clear,” Malloy told hundreds of screaming supporters who packed the Society Room in Hartford Tuesday night, drawing on a phrase he often used during the debates to provide his position on a sticky issue. “It appears we may enjoy victory tonight.”

But Malloy was quick to add that “we will probably have a little ways to go” before the victory is official.

When Malloy declared his victory, the Associated Press still had listed Foley ahead 51 percent to 48 percent with roughly 78 percent of Connecticut’s precincts having reported.

But significant portions of the state’s largest cities, including Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford,  still had no’t submitted final numbers, and Bridgeport’s totals remained under a cloud of uncertainty.

Fox News first called Malloy the winner shortly before midnight, but the Foley camp, which led by five to six percentage points through most of the early returns from rural and suburban communities, disputed that report.

Foley took the stage at his election night headquarters in Greenwich after 1 am to tell supporters that the results of the election would not be known for at least several hours.

“It’s quite close and we are quite confident that we will win,” he said to cheers from the crowd, a smaller group than had packed the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich hours earlier. “But until we know for sure, we don’t want to declare ourselves the winner. So we’re not gonna have an answer until then.”

Foley Predicts Victory

Foley thanked staff, volunteers, early supporters, his campaign manager Justin Clark, running mate Mark Boughton, and his wife, Leslie.

Of Boughton, he said, “Assuming we’re victorious, I will really look forward to serving with Mark.” And he said Leslie made him a better candidate, and “if these final tallies work out the way we think they will, she’s gonna make me an even better governor.”

“I’m sorry we don’t have a definitive response for you, but we’re feeling good here,” he said.

A mention of voting problems in Bridgeport elicited “boos” from the crowd.

After his speech, Foley told reporters that he did not think the ballots cast in Bridgeport after 8 pm would make a significant difference. He said he would not challenge the judge’s decision to keep polls open two hours in some precincts — but he conditioned that statement on his campaign finishing in the lead.

“We’re optimistic that we will win,” Foley said, adding he believes the final margin of victory will be within one percent.

Despite the uncertainty over governor and lieutenant governor, Democrats scored undisputed victories against their GOP opponents in the races for the state’s four other constitutional offices: Former state party chairman George C. Jepsen defeated Avon lawyer Martha Dean in the race for attorney general; state House Majority Leader Denise W. Merrill of Mansfield, elected secretary of the state over Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell, Jr; Treasurer Denise L. Nappier of Hartford defeated Newington Mayor Jeff Wright; and state health care advocate Kevin Lembo won the battle for state comptroller over Jack Orchulli.

Republicans did make some gains in the General Assembly, although they remain a distinct minority in both chambers. The GOP picked up 14 seats in the state House of Representatives, pending recounts, and one in the Senate. If the results hold, Democrats will have advantages of 100-51 in the House and 23-13 in the Senate next January.

The pickup of 14 seats is a record since the state eliminated the party lever in 1986. Until Tuesday night, the biggest swing in the House since 1986 was eight seats.

One of the Democrats to lose his seat was Representative Steve Fontana of North Haven, a contender to be the next House majority leader. Another was Representative Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire, whose opposition to the death penalty was an issue in a district still raw from a home invasion of and triple homicide.

In the Senate, the only Democratic incumbent to lose his seat was Tom Colapietro of Bristol.

One of the Republicans to win an open Senate seat was Joe Markley of Southington, a Tea Party activist. He will succeed Sam Caligiuri, a Republican who ran for Congress in the Fifth District.

This year’s gubernatorial contest was dominated by the $3.3 billion deficit projected for state government starting July 1, a shortfall equal to one-sixth of current spending and roughly half of all funds the state income tax will raise this year.

While nearly all of the attention Tuesday centered on Foley and Malloy, Chester First Selectman Tom Marsh took pride in a third-party campaign that captured about two percent of the vote — but drew attention to holes in the other candidates’ statements.

“I’ll look anybody in the eye who saw me speak anywhere during the campaign and stand by what I said,” said Marsh, who on built his platform the harsh realities associated with the budget deficit projected for next year. “There was a lot of appreciation that I was laying the cards on the table. I think I made a lot of people think.”

Marsh, who ran under the Independent Party of Connecticut banner, said both Malloy — who said he “hoped” tax hikes would not be necessary — and Foley — who insisted he could close the largest deficit in state history without raising taxes — knew better.

“As someone who was actually standing next to these guys at debates, I was blown away,” said Marsh, who raised only $10,000, purchased neither mailed nor broadcast advertisements, but was invited to six gubernatorial forums. “When you have side conversations with these guys, it’s clear they know what the situation is.”

(This material originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics, and public policy in the state.)