Connecticut Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski announced Tuesday at Fairfield Town Hall that he has picked Deputy House Minority Leader Laura Devlin (R-Fairfield) as his running mate.
Stefanowski is challenging Governor Ned Lamont’s (D) bid for re-election. A former chief executive officer of the Dollar Financial Group who previously worked for General Electric, the Republican candidate touted Devlin’s background as an entrepreneur before she became a legislator in 2015.
“Like me, Laura’s an outsider,” he said. “She found her way to politics wanting to put her professional skills to work to make a difference where she and her family lived.”
Before her first election to the General Assembly, Devlin served on Fairfield’s Board of Assessment Appeals and on its Representative Town Meeting, representing District 3. At Tuesday’s press conference, she underscored Nutmeggers’ struggles with inflation, business owners’ difficulty finding employees, and residents’ shouldering of burdensome state and local taxes as problems she and her running mate want to address. (State and local taxes together claim almost 13 percent of residents’ earnings, making Connecticut’s combined tax take the second-highest in the U.S. behind New York.)
The House minority leader has most notably clashed with Lamont when the governor proposed imposing highway tolls for trucks, an idea that died in early 2020.
“The people of our state deserve better than what they’re getting,” she said. “We need a strong voice to stand up for the people of Connecticut and restore trust and transparency. And that’s why I’m proud to be running with Bob; we both know how important that is.”
Stefanowski said his lieutenant governor pick is the kind of politician that can help to reverse the cynicism many Constitution State residents have developed regarding their public officials.
“Sadly, there’re a lot of people across Connecticut who have lost faith in government…,” Stefanowski said. “It’s possible to change that.”
He cited several scandals including the determination via audit that the city of West Haven misspent nearly $900,000 in federal COVID-19 relief money; a federal probe into alleged fraud in the granting of school construction contracts in Enfield; and Attorney General William Tong’s refusal to investigate racial and sex discrimination allegations. Stefanowski also underscored the state has awarded a $26 million no-bid contract to the healthcare technology startup Sema4, a company owned by Lamont’s wife Annie, during the coronavirus pandemic.
Supporters of Stefanowski expect he will win his party’s nomination by acclamation on May 6. If the party’s committee does not settle the issue, he will face CT Valley Views host Susan Patricelli Regan in Connecticut’s gubernatorial primary to be held on August 9.
Also in early May, Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz expect to get their party’s nod for another four-year term.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Connecticut Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bob Stefanowski” by Bob Stefanowski and “Laura Devlin” by Laura Devlin.
