Boughton at peace being on the sidelines of gubernatorial primary

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton talks about the future after dropping out of the governor's race earlier this week. He is photographed at Danbury City Hall Friday, June 20, 2014.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton talks about the future after dropping out of the governor’s race earlier this week.
He is photographed at Danbury City Hall Friday, June 20, 2014.

Oh, what might have been for Mark Boughton.

Despite a respectable second-place finish at the state GOP convention in May, Danbury’s longest serving mayor finds himself as the odd-man out of Republican primary voting for governor.

Boughton, who dropped out of the race in June because he couldn’t raise the money to qualify for public campaign financing, shrugged off not being on the ballot with Tom Foley and John McKinney.

“You’ve got to let that go,” Boughton told Hearst Connecticut Media Tuesday.

Turnout in the Hat City is down about 30 percent compared to 2010, according to Boughton, who won the lieutenant governor’s primary that year and ran unsuccessfully with Foley.

Boughton said Foley, who he has endorsed over McKinney, reached out over the weekend to ask for his help getting out the vote.

“If I can help the endorsed candidates, I’ll do that,” Boughton said.

Boughton is embracing the role of talking head for primary night and will appear on a special edition of “Capitol Report” airing from 10 to 10:30 p.m. on FOX CT.

Neil Vigdor