Boughton is delegates’ choice for governor

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, center, reacts after surpassing 50% of the delegate votes, enough needed to win the unofficial nomination as the Republican candidate for Governor during the Republican State Convention at Foxwoods Casino, Mashantucket, Conn., Saturday, May 12, 2018. less Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, center, reacts after surpassing 50% of the delegate votes, enough needed to win the unofficial nomination as the Republican candidate for Governor during the Republican State ... more Photo: Bob Luckey Jr. / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Bob Luckey Jr. / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 48 Caption Close Boughton is delegates’ choice for governor 1 / 48 Back to Gallery

MASHANTUCKET — Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton pulled out a third-round victory on Saturday, giving him the Republican Convention’s endorsement for governor in a state party that is clearly split between conservatives and moderates.

Boughton brought the crowd, cheering, to its feet, then said he loved everyone and realized that the summer-long primary campaign — leading to what might be a five-way contest for a spot on the November ballot — has only begun.

When the 50-year-old veteran of two previous failed efforts for governor gained one vote over 50 percent, at about 6:20 p.m., supporters moved to end the period of third-round vote switching, setting off a raucous parliamentary crisis at the first GOP convention since 1962 to have multiple rounds of balloting.

Convention Chairman Themis Klarides, of Derby, the minority leader in the state House of Representatives, ordered that the convention hall at Foxwoods Resort & Casino be cleared of all but the 1,125 delegates.

She told delegates to sit down, then after a tense standoff with supporters of Tim Herbst, the former Trumbull first selectman, asked those in favor of closing the vote to stand.

“I’m so grateful to be standing here,” Boughton said when the voting ended, after which the convention shifted to candidates for lieutenant governor. “I’m so grateful to be alive.”

Readying for next round

Last year, Boughton had brain surgery, then earlier this year he had a seizure related to dehydration that has made water bottles his constant companion. Boughton tried to bring together the divided convention, acknowledging that Herbst got 40 percent of the voting.

“Whether you voted for me or not, I’m going to earn your vote, come August,” Boughton said.

Herbst said he would have picked up as many as 40 more votes if the balloting had continued.

“I decided it wasn’t worth it,” he said. “We’re going to live to fight another day, and that’s what the primary is for. I’m proud of what we did. This election is not going to be decided by Hartford insiders or political insiders. It’s going to be decided by the people of Connecticut.”

During a long afternoon of roll-call votes, town-by-town, congressional district-by-congressional district, the convention dropped five of its eight gubernatorial hopefuls, setting up the possibility of a showdown with the two favorites after a wild-card challenger, Steve Obsitnik, a Westport tech entrepreneur, became the wild-card qualifier for the August primary.

Obsitnik said he would take a couple days off, then check to see when he is eligible for his anticipated $1.25 million grant from the state’s public-financing program. For months he has traveled around the state in an autograph-laden mobile home.

“We’ll just get back on the road in a few days,” he said.

Contrasting candidates

But looking ahead to the primary, the fruits of the first state GOP convention will yield two moderates — Boughton and Obsitnik — with the more conservative Herbst.

The diluted vote of moderates could benefit Herbst in the primary, depending on the success of two other candidates petitioning to reach the ballot.

Mike Handler of New Canaan and state Rep Prasad Srinivasan of Glastonbury were eliminated in the first ballot, then Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, David Walker of Bridgeport, and Peter Lumaj of Fairfield fell by the wayside as support that got them into the second round shifted, mostly to Boughton and Herbst.

Obsitnik, a Stamford native who attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served on submarines before joining the high-tech industry on the West Coast, qualified for the August party primary with 17.6 of the vote.

Srinivasan, a physician, was a single vote short of the 8 percent threshold in the first round.

David Stemerman of Greenwich, who closed his multi-billion-dollar hedge fund to seek the nomination, did not put his name under consideration for the 1,125 delegates present in Foxwoods Resort & Casino.

Stemerman and Madison millionaire Bob Stefanowski have decided to petition their way onto the August primary ballot.

“We’re executing the strategy we’ve been building for months,” Stemerman said after the first round of voting.

He acknowledged that he was late getting into the race, in March, saying, “There’s no clear front-runner. It would be very presumptuous for me to think I can compete here.”

Shortly after 3 p.m., the remaining candidates began maneuvering for second-round votes from those who had committed their first-ballot votes for Handler, the CFO of Stamford, and Srinivasan, an allergist who is a member of the state House of Representatives.

Walker, the former comptroller general of the U.S., scored 9 percent to make the second round, and said he was confident of gaining the 15 percent support needed to get into the party’s August primary, but fell short of that mark.

Greenwich contractor Peter Thalheim, under-financed and barely noticed on the campaign trail, did not get nominated. The protracted gubernatorial nominating pushed voting for lieutenant governor candidates into the evening.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT