Joe Visconti, the West Hartford contractor who is running an upset bid for governor, says that while he remains friends with Connecticut’s Tea Party Patriots, he will ignore their request to drop out of the race.
“I love them all,” Visconti just said in a phone interview. “I can understand their fears but they’re not the people I remember. Their voices are irrelevant to the campaign. I have a larger campaign of volunteers than the existing Tea Party. We don’t need them and their votes. They are irrelevant in the equation. Every day we’re gathering more people out of the 2 million voters who like what I stand for.” The Tea Party people the other day, voicing fears that Visconti might take away support from Republican Tom Foley’s second attempt at defeating Dannel P. Malloy, asked for Visconti to withdraw. Visconti believes that he will draw votes away from both Foley and Malloy.