A political scientist says the race for Connecticut governor is still wide open despite the first polls that show the Democratic Party nominee with an advantage over his Republican rival.
One of the polls, the Quinnipiac University poll, has Democratic nominee Ned Lamont with a 13-point advantage over his Republican rival, Bob Stefanowski. UConn political scientist Ron Schurin says this early poll might not reflect what will happen in November. He says Stefanowski has hit some bumps on the road in the first couple of weeks since the party primaries, including attending a party that a white nationalist also attended.
“The party that he went to that had the white supremacist there, nobody can blame him for not knowing the full guest list, but still, that’s the kind of thing that doesn’t look good in the paper and he’s still introducing himself to voters and see him through until November.”
Schurin says there’s time for Stefanowski to correct that.
“Now’s the time that’s he got to get ready and make a big push to introduce himself to the voters in September in a way that would create an impression that would be positive.”
And as for Lamont?
“Lamont has to remind voters that he is not a clone of Dan Malloy and that he supports what Connecticut voters are likely to support. And make the case for the Connecticut economy that Democrats have – from a Republican point-of-view – not done successfully.”
Schurin expects the candidates will flesh out their positions in debates before the November election. The candidates have yet to agree on how many debates they’ll actually have.
