UPDATE: 5:49 P.M. HARTFORD—Both the Democrat and the Republican candidate in Connecticut’s hotly-contested gubernatorial race announced late this afternoon that they have begun forming transition teams.
Democrat Dan Malloy, who the Secretary of the State said leads unofficial tallies by 3,103 votes, announced in a press conference that his runningmate Nancy Wyman would co-chair his transition team alongside Tim Bannon LAW ’77, the current executive director of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. Bannon will also serve as chief of staff in Malloy’s administration, Malloy announced during the 4 p.m. press conference at the State Capitol in Hartford.
“Dan Malloy and Nancy Wyman have been elected governor and lieutenant gov of the state of Connecticut,” Malloy said. “We’re gonna conduct the business; we’re gonna get ready for this administration.”
Meanwhile, in a press statement issued shortly after 4 p.m., Republican Tom Foley announced that he, too, had started the transition to power. Gregory Butler, a lawyer and Vice President of Northeast Utilities, and Brian Flaherty, a former state legislator from Watertown who once served as Deputy Minority Leader in the state House of Representative, will lead Foley’s transition team.
“While we acknowledge that the outcome of this race remains uncertain, the next governor needs to be prepared to start work immediately upon swearing in. So I am not going to wait until the lead shown in our vote tabulations is confirmed before preparing to take office,” Foley said in the statement.
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz ’83 announced this morning that according to her tallies, Malloy won the race by 3,103 — a total that, if confirmed, would not require a recount. But on the air and in a press conference early this afternoon, Foley called Bysiewicz’ decision to release unofficial numbers “improper,” and added that he expects the margin of victory will be less than the one half of 1 percent that would require a statewide recount. By the Foley campaign’s calculations, spokeswoman Liz Osborn said, the Republican will come out ahead of Malloy by around 2,000 votes.
Then, around 1:30 p.m., Foley and Bysiewicz went head-to-head on WNPR’s Colin McEnroe show today. When Foley questioned the numbers Bysiewicz had announced, Bysiewicz, who unbeknownst to Foley was in the studio, chimed in and offered to share results so that Foley could find the discrepancies between his campaigns’ numbers and the unofficial tally. The show will re-air tonight at 7 p.m.
Malloy claimed a lead of 11,000 votes in a statement this morning, a margin of about one percent — beyond the threshold for a recount. And Malloy said he expects that lead to increase as results come in from New Haven and Bridgeport.
“Obviously, there’s something to be reconciled,” Osborn told the News.
Malloy is the former mayor of Stamford and Foley is a former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.