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An epicenter of the national debate over the right to bear arms since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Connecticut is about to find out whether there’s room for candidate for governor who is pro-guns.
Republican Martha Dean, who twice ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general, announced her candidacy Tuesday for the state’s highest office on the website of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League.
A late entrant into what is already a crowded GOP field, Dean has scheduled a news conference for March 18 to discuss her candidacy, which was rumored last fall, but is somewhat unexpected at this juncture.
State GOP Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. said Dean left a phone message for him Tuesday morning to discuss the race.
“I hesitate to comment until I have discussed her plans with her,” Labriola said. “She will join an impressive field of quality candidates for governor.”
Writing on the website of the CCDL, which has 9,000 members and sued the state over its restrictions on guns, Dean said she expects to focus “on placing Connecticut on strong economic footing while ensuring that citizens’ are protected from government policies that infringe on their most fundamental rights.”
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.
Regarded as one of the most conservative figures in the state party, Dean spoke during an April 20, 2013, rally held by the CCDL 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.
State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, helped negotiate the Connecticut’s tough new restrictions on firearms and the sale of ammunition, drawing the ire of gun owners.