Connecticut’s top Republican, Jerry Labriola Jr., is distancing himself from what his surrogates characterized as a rogue YouTube video urging GOP leaders to stay the course and re-elect him as party boss.
The 2-minute video titled “It’s Midnight in Connecticut” was produced by a most unlikely supporter, Joe Visconti, who Republicans, including Labriola, pressured to drop his petition candidacy for governor in 2014 and clear the decks for GOP nominee Tom Foley. The arm-twisting proved to be in vain, with Visconti suspending his long-shot bid for the state’s highest office after his name was already on the ballot. Foley lost to Democratic incumbent Dannel P. Malloy in a rematch of their 2010 tilt.
Now, Visconti is publicly campaigning for Labriola to remain as chairman. No hard feelings, says Visconti.
“Listen I said if they weren’t beating me up, they weren’t do their job,” Visconti said. “We’ve actually made gains. He’s actually got a pretty good relationship with the money people.”
Visconti’s homage to Labriola shows a video taken from a car dashboard as it cruises down a Connecticut highway at night and warns economic doom and gloom in a state dominated by Democrats. It goes on to say that Labriola is best positioned to lead the GOP, which hasn’t won a statewide or congressional race since 2006. It boasts that under Labriola’s leadership, Republicans are up to 64 seats in the state House of Representatives, the most the party has had in two decades.
“His reaction was, ‘ Thank you for doing that. I’m doing my thing inside,’ ” Visconti said. “A lot of these races are inside baseball.”
Those close to Labriola, who has been state GOP chairman since 2011, say that he did not authorize the video.
Labriola declined to comment on whether he will stand for re-election June 23.
“I think he’s in,” Visconti said.
Visconti said that there is no clear front-runner among the three Republicans competing to replace Labriola. They are state Sen. Joe Markley of Southington; Derby’s J.R. Romano, a former political director of the state party; and John Pavia, a corporate turnaround executive and former state party finance chairman.
“There’s no superstars here,” Visconti said. “Right now, it’s up for grabs.”