Martha Dean
They can’t clone Rick Perry.
But disillusioned gun owners in Connecticut could gravitate toward a potential dark horse GOP candidate for governor next year.
Martha Dean, who twice ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general, is quietly trying to build up a coalition of Second Amendment supporters for a potential bid for the state’s highest office in 2014, multiple people familiar with her plans told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers Tuesday.
The 54-year-old lawyer from Avon is currently quarterbacking the legal challenge of Connecticut’s crackdown on assault weapons and high capacity gun magazines, which an overwhelming majority of state legislators on both sides of the aisle supported in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Dean declined to comment about the speculation that she will enter the race, which is drawing interest from a host of Republicans, including Tom Foley, the GOP nominee for governor in 2010.
Regarded as one of the most conservative figures in the state party, Dean spoke during an April 20 rally held by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League outside the Capitol in Hartford.
“All those who voted for this law will be punished as traitors at the ballot box,” Dean said at the time.
Lenny Benedetto, who is vice president of the 9,000-member CCDL, said Dean attended the group’s most recent meeting but that nothing was percolating as far as he knew.
“She didn’t say a word about it,” said Benedetto, who has acknowledged that he once worked for Dean.
State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney (R-Fairfield), who declared his candidacy for governor in July, helped negotiate the Connecticut’s tough new restrictions on firearms and the sale of ammunition, drawing the ire of gun owners. State Sen. Toni Boucher (R-Wilton), who is also exploring a run for governor, supported the package. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who is similarly mulling the race over, has said that the families of Newtown deserved a legislative response to the tragedy, but that he isn’t sure that the law passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor in April would prevent another school shooting from happening.
So that leaves Foley, who a person familiar with the dynamics of the pro-gun vote, said could stand to lose the most from a Dean candidacy in the GOP nominating contest. Foley filed exploratory paperwork for statewide office in September.