The GOP’s endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor is further distancing herself from racism claims made against a rival opponent that were attributed to her by multiple media outlets.
State Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, appearing Monday on the Lee Elci Show on 94.9 FM in the New London area, denied accusing GOP primary foe Dave Walker of bigotry in the lead-up to the state Republican Convention.
Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Penny Bacchiochi speaks during a visit to the the AFL-CIO political convention at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Conn., Monday, June 16, 2014. (AP Photo/The New Haven Register, Peter Caolino )
In May, the Stafford Springs lawmaker went public with claims that one of her opponents was trying to make her interracial marriage a deal-breaker for Republicans.
Bacchiochi elaborated that was referring to Walker, the former U.S. comptroller general from Bridgeport, at the time during an interview with WFSB’s Susan Raff.
“The unfortunate part of that was one of my opponents was falsely accused, not by me, but basically as it came out in the media to be part of that,” Bacchiochi told Elci Monday. “When I found out that he was falsely accused, I apologized. No one forced me to, but I am a person of high integrity. I never would have accused somebody if I didn’t have facts. I never did accuse specifically this opponent, so I apologized. Unfortunately, when things get into the media, in spite of my best efforts to correct the record, it’s sometimes very hard to do that.”
With the controversy threatening to overshadow the party’s nominating convention, state GOP boss Jerry Labriola Jr. brokered a truce between Bacchiochi and Walker, who had demanded an apology from his rival.
Bacchiochi went on to earn the GOP’s endorsement at the convention with 51 percent of the vote, but left the door open to primary challenges from former Groton Mayor Heath Bond Somers (32 percent) and Walker (17 percent). The threshold for automatic placement on the primary ballot is 15 percent.
Bacchiochi told Elci that her emotions got the best of her leading up to the convention.
“I became too thin-skinned and I made comments about the rumors that I was hearing when, honestly, I should have just ignored them,” Bacchiochi said. “I let something get to me.”