By Mark Pazniokas

New Canaan — The fifth and final episode of a road show produced by Connecticut Republicans and starring an evolving cast of gubernatorial contenders came to an end tonight without resolving a key plot point: Is the GOP any closer to settling on a front runner?

Six of the nine candidates waiting in the wings: Mike Handler, Mark Lauretti, Mark Boughton, Steve Obsitnik, David Stemerman, and Peter Lumaj. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Mark Pazniokas for CTMirror.org

With nine candidates on stage and a cumulative limit of 12 minutes allotted to each to answer questions, Republicans in the audience could only get a sampling of the personalities and policies of the politicians whose next task is to compete for the support of the 1,100 delegates to the GOP nominating convention.

“Someone on the stage is going to be our nominee,” Republican State Chairman J.R. Romano said after the nine delivered closing messages to a crowd at Saxe Middle School that was dotted with delegates to the two-day convention that opens May 11 at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, a late entrant into the race, might disagree. Falling short of the $175,000 mark in campaign contributions required for an invitation, Stewart was absent. Bob Stefanowski, a former business executive who intends to bypass the convention and petition for a spot on the primary ballot in August, has skipped all five forums.

State Sen. Toni Boucher announced today she will seek reelection in the 26th District, which includes Westport, and end her exploratory bid for the Republican nomination for governor.

Sen. Toni Boucher announces the end of her exploratory campaign for governor outside the Capitol. Clarice Silber for CTMirror.org

Boucher had gotten little traction in her exploratory bid but did announce she had almost $98,000 on hand as of April 1. She made a similar exploration in 2014, then ran for re-election.

She said she would be able to transfer a portion to her reelection campaign and qualify for state funding.

Boucher’s decision was not unexpected. Her fundraising had lagged, falling short of $15,000 in the most recent quarter. Her total fundraising of $97,465 fell far short of the minimum to participate in all but the first two of the five GOP gubernatorial forums.

By Marlese Lessing

Bearing banners, placards and American flags, hundreds of gun-ownership and Second Amendment supporters today gathered in front of the State Capitol in Hartford, protesting gun-control and anti-gun legislation here and elsewhere nationwide.

A young boy carries a flag at today’s Hartford rally.. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Marlese Lessing for CTMirror.org

The rally, organized by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a gun advocacy group, was in response to the backlash against pro-gun groups and gun-control sentiment in the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting in February, CCDL event coordinator Holly Sullivan said.

“Right now there’s a particular anti-gun sentiment, so it was the right time,” Sullivan said. “Our membership was calling for it. People were asking for it, and at the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for.”

In what Sullivan described as a “healthy turnout,” a crowd estimated at nearly 2,000 people gathered on the capitol lawn, many of them bearing American flags, colonial flags, and Gadsden “Don’t tread on me” banners.

By Mark Pazniokas

Ned Lamont, the wealthy Greenwich businessman who electrified progressives with an antiwar challenge to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman a dozen years ago, today easily won a straw vote for governor at the Connecticut AFL-CIO’s political convention, an unusually early effort by labor to shape the crowded race for the Democratic nomination in a pivotal election year.

The 48-percent vote was a boost for Lamont, who also won the loudest applause of the five Democratic gubernatorial candidates, but it was not nearly strong enough to convince delegates to attempt to make a formal endorsement. A two-thirds vote is necessary to make an endorsement, something that might be difficult before the primaries in August.

But labor is intent on trying. Its leadership pointed to a Republican gubernatorial field that snubbed labor’s invitation to address 216 delegates from 67 union locals in Hartford. The leaders see that as a reflection of a GOP intent on weakening collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers, especially as they apply to pension and health-care benefits.

“Everything is at stake for us,” said Lori Pelletier, the AFL-CIO president. “The basics of collective bargaining, the basics of earning a wage that can support a family, the basics of retirement security are all at stake for us.”