Good morning and welcome back to the Tip Sheet, a weekly newsletter from Tom Dudchik’s Capitol Report written by Mike Cerulli.

This week, we’re breaking down the latest additions to the GOP gubernatorial field. Plus, Gov. Ned Lamont attended a rather interesting political event last week – one with a lot of candidates seeking to topple Democratic incumbents.

Let’s dive in…

The GOP field grows, and Stewart attacks

In the last week, the field of candidates seriously eyeing the Republican gubernatorial nomination doubled from two to four.

Last week began with the announcement that Harry Arora, the former state representative and GOP nominee for treasurer in 2022, had launched an exploratory committee. Arora was clear in his announcement that he is focused on the race for governor and, in an interview with News 8, said he’s self-imposed a roughly eight week timeframe to gauge support and make a final decision.

Arora’s move was quickly followed by Betsy McCaughey, a Newsmax host and former lieutenant governor of New York, telling a meeting of the Stamford Republican Town Committee that she was launching a campaign as well. McCaughey skipped the exploratory phase and formally declared herself a candidate the day after her fiery speech in Stamford.

The degree to which McCaughey and Arora will meaningfully alter the dynamics of the GOP nominating contest will likely depend largely on how fast they can each raise the funds necessary to run a viable campaign. Both said they will opt in to the state’s public campaign financing system.

Ryan Fazio and Erin Stewart, the two candidates who, up until last week, were considered the only ones with a legitimate shot at the nomination, have already surpassed the threshold to receive public financing. Stewart has received the greenlight from state elections regulators for her initial grant and approval of Fazio’s grant money is expected to be considered soon.

Of course, fundraising is not the only way a candidate can shape the tenor of a race. Even if Arora and McCaughey struggle to play catch up in their quest to qualify for campaign grants, their presence in the race has already opened up new lines of attacks – in public and in private.

Shortly after news broke that Arora had formed his exploratory committee, Stewart took to social media to throw a characteristically humorous jab at her growing field of opponents.

“I’m excited to watch the Greenwich primary before the CT GOP convention in May,” Stewart wrote.

On Sunday, she doubled down on that line of attack.

“It’s a 4 on 1 showdown,” Stewart posted.

A graphic with pictures of McCaughey, Lamont, Fazio, and Arora accompanied her post.

“It’s crystal clear: The Greenwich uniparty vs. all of us,” the graphic read.

Privately, some Republican insiders were quick to note that Stewart herself once picked a Greenwichite, Peter Tesei, as her running mate during her unsuccessful run for governor in 2018.

“Stewart, 30, grinned when asked if Tesei’s ability to mine campaign cash and delegates from Fairfield County’s Gold Coast factored in his selection,” read a 2018 Hartford Courant story.

The charges of hypocrisy against Stewart were just the latest salvo in the mostly behind-the-scenes conflicts between supporters of hers and Fazio’s. The Stewart camp paints Fazio – and now McCaughey and Arora – as a continuation of the lineage of wealthy, coastal candidates that have led the GOP to four successive losses in gubernatorial elections. Fazio backers typically counter that Stewart, with her political parentage and long-established ambition for statewide office, is the one who represents more of the same. 

Fazio himself has mostly declined to publicly criticize Stewart.

"People judge, I think, candidates as individuals not what they look like or where they're from,” Fazio said in an interview shortly after McCaughey made her announcement.

Arora, a self-made immigrant, similarly declined to directly counterattack against charges that he represents an entrenched elite.

“I respect Erin and I respect all the other candidates,” he said. “They bring their own point of view.”

Lamont, the fourth target of Stewart’s jab, has weathered criticism based on his wealth for as long as he has been in the public eye. The Lamont campaign’s efforts to blunt the force of those attacks this year was evident in responses to questions about his decision to again self fund his campaign.

The governor’s first campaign finance disclosure this year revealed that he’d collected more than $85,000 in donations from individuals in addition to the $105,000 he donated to his own re-election effort.

“He wants to show his support runs broad, not just at the ballot box but also in the pocketbooks of his base,” Dan Haar wrote in a recent column.

A Lamont campaign statement provided to Haar quoted Mayor Adam Sendroff of Hamden. As Haar astutely observed, that choice of surrogate was no mistake. Sendroff leads the hometown of State Rep. Josh Elliott, Lamont’s sole challenger for the Democratic nomination who has made the governor’s personal wealth an issue in his campaign.

Aside from renewed discourse about the wealth and zip codes of the gubernatorial field, McCaughey and Arora’s announcements also brought with it the amplification of another dynamic within the Republican field: the race to capture the support of the party’s most ardent base voters.

For anyone watching the GOP race, it’s clear that both Fazio and Stewart have been maneuvering to take up the mantle as the race’s true conservative candidate – Stewart with her populist-tinged attacks on the Gold Coast set and Fazio with his relentless hammering of the issues that have defined his tenure in the legislature.

The entrance of two new competitors will likely heat up the fight for the base while complicating any efforts by the candidates to strike a balance between appealing to Trump-loving primary voters and winning over general election swing voters.

The presence of McCaughey in particular could challenge the other candidates to match her brash, unapologetic style with fire of their own.

The Democratic Governors Association issued a blistering statement pointing out the rightward drift that McCaughey and Arora’s presence in the race might trigger, predicting a “messy MAGA melee.”

Lamont rallies a crowd of Young Dems, many primary challengers among them

It was standing room only at Firehouse 12 last Thursday night. The venue’s bar sits below street level just a couple blocks from the New Haven Green. That night, it was packed full of members of the Young Democrats of Connecticut and all but one of the state’s constitutional officers.

Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Attorney General William Tong, Treasurer Erick Russell, and Comptroller Sean Scanlon all mingled with the Young Democrats crowd.

“You have one constitutional officer to every two young Dems,” Bysiewicz joked during her remarks.

In addition to the abundance of statewide elected officials, the crowd at Firehouse 12 was also full of young candidates mounting primary challenges in New Haven and beyond.

Eli Sabin, the former New Haven alderman who abruptly left his seat earlier this month, gladhanded around the room. He told the New Haven Independent that he’ll soon be declaring his candidacy for the House seat currently held by Pat Dillon – a prospect the Tip Sheet first reported on about last week.

Justin Farmer, another young progressive with his eye on Dillon’s seat, was also in attendance. So too was Kyle Gauck, the former Green Beret who is attempting a longshot challenge to Rep. Joe Courtney in the 2nd District. Andrew Rice, a challenger to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, circulated the room in earnest.

As he worked his way around the bar before delivering brief remarks, Lamont chatted with some of the primary challengers. He told Gauck about his own origin story as a primary candidate against Joe Lieberman, stressing that an insurgent campaign requires a strong thesis against the incumbent.

Lamont addressed the crowd from the cement stairway overlooking the bar area. He thanked his bodyman and Young Democrats president, Alan Cunningham.

“I’m the guy who’s always standing in the picture with Al Cunningham,” Lamont proclaimed.

He turned to Cunningham and Josh Goldstein, a Norwalk councilman who was one of the event’s co-hosts.

“You’re amazing, you’re amazing,” Lamont said, pointing at the two men behind him before pivoting to Caroline Tanbee Smith, the New Haven alder and another co-host of the evening.

“You’re happening!” Lamont told Tanbee Smith.

In his remarks, Lamont mainly stuck to his routine talking points for friendly crowds: fights against the Trump administration, progress on green energy projects, and an appeal to vote in November. When Tong spoke to the gathering and recalled his initial experiences in politics, the governor again invoked his run against Lieberman.

“I interned for a United States Senator who was attorney general, Joe Leiberman,” Tong said.

“Who?” Lamont interjected, with a wry smile on his face.

After Tong wrapped, it was Scanlon’s turn. He recalled his time leading the Young Democrats and talked about the importance of not waiting for one’s “turn” to run for office.

Scanlon then introduced Marty Looney, the venerable president of the State Senate, who launched into a nearly eight-minute speech that functioned simultaneously as a rallying call, a history lesson, and an in-depth analysis of recent election results.

Russell was the last of the constitutional officers to address the Young Democrats, a distinction awarded to him as a native New Havener.

“We need people stepping up,” Russell told the young crowd. “We need folks getting out of the way at times so that young people can run for office.”

The millennial treasurer added a caveat.

“I’m not the person that thinks just because somebody’s been there a long time, they need to go,” he said. “At the same time, we know we need to make space for people to step up.”

That’s all for this week. We’ll be back next week with another edition of the Tip Sheet!