Pre-Convention Maneuvers

Five days to go, and everyone is fighting for position. Here's what we can expect out of statewide candidates this week.

The Running Mate Shuffle

Gov. Rell is expected to name her running mate late this week - probably Thursday. DeStefano and Malloy are expected to do so earlier. The list of possible running mates for each of the three candidates is pretty extensive, but here are some of the most mentioned possibilities:

For Rell: Mayor Tim Stewart of New Britain, Sen. John McKinney (R-Fairfield), Sen. Tony Guglielmo (R-Stafford Springs), Rep. Ray Kalinowski (R-Durham) and, a long shot, Sen. John Kissel (R-Enfield). Stewart would be an excellent choice, as someone who has had success in a heavily Democratic city.

For DeStefano: Lt. Gov. Kevin Sullivan, Audrey Blondin. Blondin would be the better choice.

For Malloy: Rep. Evelyn Mantilla (D-Hartford), Mayor Patrick Tallarita (D-Enfield), SOTS Susan Bysiewicz. Mantilla would be an intruguing choice, but Bysiewicz, if she's interested, would make for a very strong ticket.

The Expectations Game

The Lieberman campaign is now predicting that Lamont could get as much as "30 percent to 35 percent" of the votes at the convention.

"That's crazy," Lamont's campaign manager, Tom Swan said, saying Lieberman's people were inflating the numbers to raise expectations. "If they raise expectations, when we do it, they can say it's not a big deal." (Nguyen)

In reality, it'll probably be over 15%, but less than 25%. Anything over 20% will be a pretty big victory for Lamont. The Lieberman campaign is trying to raise that bar (and has been for months), but the truth is that any sort of success for Lamont at the convention will be big news.

Who Are You, Again?

For the underticket candidates, it's a matter of getting noticed. Expect the Republican underticket to crawl out from the shadows over the next couple of days. There is still no word on who will be running against Attorney General-For-Life Richard Blumenthal.

There may also be a slight reshuffle if Bysiewicz ends up on one of the gubernatorial tickets.

Should be an interesting week.

Source

Nguyen, Hoa. "Lieberman Calls Primary Likely." Hartford Courant 14 May, 2006.