By Scott Benjamin
ORANGE – Can a Yankees fan who is a Republican from Greenwich and was in college when the Bronx Bombers captured their only world championship under Joe Girardi take the governorship away from a Yankees fan who is a Democrat from Greenwich and was in graduate school when the team won its only world championship under Bob Lemon?
Even Yankee General Manger Brian Cashman, who lives in Darien, can’t provide the answer.
That is because the nominations might not be determined until August 11, after the trade deadline.
State Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36) of Greenwich is meeting and greeting local Republicans in his quest to secure the GOP gubernatorial nomination over former New York state Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey of Greenwich and former New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart.
The GOP state convention will be held at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville on May 15-16. The winner gets the top line on the ballot. Losing candidates need at least 15 percent of the delegates to avoid having to collect petition signatures to qualify for the primary.
The eventual winner will likely face Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, who years ago decorated his Greenwich cable television service company with Yankee memorabilia. However, Lamont faces a challenge for the nomination from state Rep. Josh Elliott (D-88) of Hamden.
On a large-screen television near a pool table and dart boards at the Orange Ale House, YES Network Yankees clubhouse reporter Meredith Marakovits is delivering a pre-game report.
After eight months of canvassing from the New York Comedy Club in Stamford to the Grade Arts Center in New London, Fazio’s “guesstimate” is that 50 percent of the voters are Yankee fans, 35 percent Red Sox and 15 percent Mets.
Who has been a better Yankee manager – Joe Girardi or current skipper Aaron Boone?
“Joe Girardi has a world championship,” noted Fazio. “He’s also a Northwestern graduate.”
That is where Fazio earned a bachelor’s degree in the school’s heralded Economics Department.
He had two classes with Joel Mokyr, who was awarded a Nobel Prize last fall for his work in identifying “the prerequisites for sustaining growth through technological progress.”
“A great teacher in addition to being a great researcher,” Fazio explained. “His students hoped that he would someday win a Nobel Prize.”
Iin Connecticut primaries are as about as welcome a torrential downpour that postpones your neighborhood WIFFLE BALL tournament.
Former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury has said, “The day after winning a primary it seems like you don’t have enough money and enough friends” to win the general election.
Fazio takes a different stance.
“I think, generally speaking, competition makes parties stronger,” he commented.
“If anointing candidates worked better than competitive primaries, we probably would have President Kamala Harris right now,” Fazio remarked. “We certainly never wouldhave had President Barack Obama or President Donald Trump, who had some of the most competitive and come-from behind primaries in history.”
This will be the fifth consecutive gubernatorial cycle in which the Connecticut Republican nomination is decided in a primary.
So far Fazio’s campaign has exceeded expectations.
Stewart, who was elected mayor of the Hardware City at age 26, had made a previous bid for governor and eventually lieutenant governor in 2018. She placed second in the primary.
Early last year she started holding house parties to raise money for a Citizens Election Program (CEP) grant. She opted not to run for a seventh term as mayor so she could be a full-time candidate. Some pundits were confident that it was now her turn.
Fazio didn’t formally enter the fray until last August, but with the speed of Alfonso Soriano he promptly qualified for a CEP grant.
Southern Connecticut State University Political Science and Urban Affairs Professor Jonathan Wharton said, “I am impressed that he was able to get the ground game going”
Matt Corey, who is seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, says Fazio has maintained a busy schedule of shaking hands and autographing campaign fliers.
Sacred Heart University Government Professor and Scholar-In-Residence Gary Rose said entering the week of April 12, “I considered it a dead heat” between Stewart and Fazio for the Republican primary . He described McCaughey is “an outsider” who is not as well known in Connecticut.
However, Rose said recent developments may have put Fazio into the lead for the convention and primary nominations.
CT Mirror Capitol Bureau Chief Mark Pazniokas wrote that a report commissioned by Stewart’s successor as mayor “concluded that the [New Britain] tax collector, Cheryl Blogoslawski, had regularly backdated tax payments to spare herself and others from interest penalties. It stated Blogoslawski claimed she acted with the knowledge of Stewart’s office and in one case at its direction.”
Pazniokas reported that in a prepared statement, Stewart wrote, “I did so in consultation with the Finance Department and the Corporation Counsel’s Office, who would have been the lead on those negotiations,” she said. “This happens frequently in a city where the goal is to get people current on their taxes. However, without further specifics on exactly who this memo if referencing I can’t give analysis on everything in there.”
Rose noted that Fazio “jumped on it. I think it has some potential for him. However, maybe it is still a close race. But some delegates are going to think, ‘Do you really want this issue hanging over your party’s candidate?’ ”
Republican State Central Committee member John Morris of Litchfield said he expects the convention vote to be “competitive” and depending on McCaughey’s delegate count, the nomination may not be secured until the second ballot.
Rose said Fazio has aired “some pretty effective television ads. He’s appealing to the conservative base of the party, the MAGA base, in a more effective way than Erin. He talking about $1,500 in tax rebates for families. Deportation issues.That’s what resonates with conservative Republicans.”
Fazio appears to appeal to voters’ hearts and heads.
He can quote Milton Friedman and also hold an audience like Michael Kay.
Said Michael Ranilla, a member of the Milford Republican Town Committee, “He knows the insider stuff but he tells you in a plain -spoken way.”
Wharton commented, “People appreciate him as a colleague. You hear that often.”
Rose said after Fazio appeared on a 2023 panel to discuss the future of the Connecticut GOP, several Sacred Heart students told him, “ ‘That guy was impressive.“
Reporters find him accessible and willing to answer challenging questions.
State Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield said, “Ryan is the smartest legislator I have met.”
Harding added, “His intelligence allows him to pick up issues in a very granular way. He picks up things that other individuals have a hard time spotting. I think for that reason he is an excellent debater.”
In a 2021 interview with Patch.com, Fazio said that he benefitted from participating in “debate societies” at Northwestern.
When there was a group of candidates seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination eight years ago, there had been five candidates debates by spring and they started before the calendar had flipped into the gubernatorial election year.
Fazio has called for five debates, one in each congressional district. He said that McCaughey has accepted the invitation, Stewart has not.
Morris, who has not made an endorsement, cautioned that Stewart can “lose the game” if she plays “prevent defense.”
Said Rose, “He’s good for getting the nomination. But as far as the general election, there lies the problem.”
Rose said that Republican former President Richard Nixon said the best formula is, “You run to the right in a primary and then do a mad dash back to the middle. I don’t know if Ryan can do that. I don’t know if he is skilled enough to do something like that.”
Lamont has been praised for apparently poring over study guides from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on how to enter the radical center.
Remarked Rose, “Lamont has done a skillful job of straddling the political spectrum in a way I don’t think anybody expected” after he had been the “darling of the left” in the 2006 Democratic U.S. Senate primary against incumbent Joe Lieberman.
Rose added, “Lamont is taking issues from both parties and welding them together. He has taken away some issues from the Republicans.”
He has supported a higher minimum wage, paid family and medical leave and more aid for municipalities, all of which are priorities for the progressive Democrats .But also has reduced income tax rates for the middle- and lower-income and repelled calls for raising taxes on the state’s wealthy, positions that the Republicans have held since at least the time that Mariano Rivera became the Yankees closer.
Fazio said that during Lamont’s seven years in office, Connecticut has trailed most states in creating new jobs.
He proposed a different formula: “We should allow 100 percent bonus depreciation, Mirror the changes in the federal tax code that allow corporations to fully deduct plant, property and equipment investment from their taxes because plant, property and equipment is also how workers get paid and how productivity and wages are raised in the long run.”
Fazio explained that when you have fixed assets in a certain place it is “much more difficult to leave and much more likely that you have more people” employed.
Rob Blanchard, a senior adviser in Lamont’s re-election campaign stated via e-mail: "Allowing 100% bonus depreciation may sound pro-growth, but it risks blowing a hole in Connecticut’s budget with no guarantee the benefits stay here. It would mainly reward large corporations, cut state revenue, and force tough choices on education, healthcare, and property tax relief--all without clear evidence of higher wages or local jobs. Under Governor Lamont, we’ve taken a more balanced approach by growing jobs through fiscal stability and targeted investments without risky, costly tax gimmicks."
CT Hearst columnist Dan Haar has reported that Democratic former Gov. Dannel Malloy, Lamont’s immediate predecessor, trimmed the state’s executive branch full-time workforce by 13.1 percent over eight years.
Fazio said he believes that further reductions could be made, such in areas that “aren’t delivering policy in the public interest. The Office of Health Strategy is probably not needed at all.”
State Deputy House Speaker Pro Tempore Bob Godfrey (D-110th) of Danbury has said Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill has left a gap in food assistance, Medicaid and other programs that the state coffers can’t fill.
Fazio differs, saying ,“Overall, federal funding for social programs is much higher today than it was five or 10 years ago even after adjusting for inflation.”
Ernestine Siu reported last October at CNBC that , “Silicon Valley’s defense tech startups are attracting billions in funding as they challenge the dominance of legacy contractors” – such as Connecticut’s Electric Boat in Groton, Francis Pratt & Amos Whitney in East Hartford and Igor Sikorsky in Stratford.
She wrote that “startups - including Anduril Industries and Palantir Technologies - are viewed as faster, leaner, and software-first.”
Rose said that at least for now Connecticut’s defense industry is “doing pretty well,” as Electric Boat advertised in April for 8,000 new hires and the Trump Administration has provided contracts for Sikorsky.
Rose has said the future of Connecticut’s economy is partly dependent on its defense contractors.
Fazio commented, “I think competition will matter in the aerospace and defense industry. But I think they’ll [the Connecticut contractors] likely be able to continue to succeed.”
In the 1990s and early 2000s one of the areas of significant job growth in Connecticut was casino gambling through the two Native American casinos – Foxwoods in Ledyard and Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, which had both gone into operation.
Mohegan Sun is currently running an ad a CT News Junkie stating that since 1994 it has shared $4.5 billion in revenue with the state.
Fazio said they will continue to thrive even with the competition from casinos in neighboring states and the advent of online and sports betting, which both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun offer.
“Some of online gambling is popular,” Fazio commented. “We have to be careful that it is abusive of people who have a problem.”
He said that he and his fiancé went to Mohegan Sun for his birthday and he’s gone there with friends for Connecticut Sun basketball games.
“It is an attraction in Eastern Connecticut,” Fazio commented. “I think it is
generally positive for Connecticut.”
Erik Smith, a member of the Milford Republican Town Committee, said Connecticut’s economy suffers from a housing shortage. He said that is partly due to a mortgage lock.
Smith, a former candidate for the state House, explained, “The people from Generation X are still in their starter homes and may never leave because the interest rates were so low. They all refinanced,”
Fazio voted against the housing reform package that Lamont signed last November. He has said that it will destroy local zoning controls.
He said he has proposed eliminating some unfunded mandates to lower property taxes.
Ranilla said, “We’re building apartments and not homes.”
The Democrats in the General Assembly have proposed a limited cap on rent increases.
Jane Park wrote at CT Mirror that, “A limited rent cap is a policy that prohibits landlords from increasing rent on residential properties under certain circumstances. States like California, Oregon, New York and New Jersey already enforce statewide rent control laws that cap rent increases at 5%.”
Fazio declared, “In the long run, rent caps will reduce the supply of housing. It will contribute to an increase in the cost of housing and a deliration in the quality of housing.”
Andrew Fowler - a communications specialist with the Yankee Institute, based in Hartford – wrote in The Wall Street Journal that a bipartisan coalition of New England governors recently issued ajoint statement that they need to adopt a “diverse energy strategy” that will include expanded nuclear power.
Wrote Fowler, “Renewable energy alone can’t deliver the affordable, reliable power the region needs.”
Fazio agrees, saying he authored a bill that provides a better regulator climate for the nuclear plants.
He said that new technologies will allow for nuclear expansion “in about 10 years.”
In the education department, Fazio said he supports providing more public funding for charter schools.
“I think school choice is important to providing opportunities to families,” he exclaimed. There are students “stuck in underperforming schools” that utilize “social promotion” and have “low standards.”
“Connecticut has been one of the most hostile states to charter schools,” remarked Fazio.
“Several of the charter schools are among the best schools in the state,” he exclaimed.
Fazio said the Stamford Charter School for Excellence has some of the highest scores in the state for elementary and middle schools, and 75 percent of the students coming from low-income families.
It is ranked 12th among elementary schools and 23rd among middle schools.
In contrast, Fazio said there are public schools with a “30 to 35 percent proficiency rate in math” and at least “85 percent” of the students graduate.
Fazio said he has long been a proponent of banning smartphones in public schools. Legislation to accomplish that was approved recently in the state House
“I was the first to propose it in Connecticut that I know of—before the governor—in bills the last few years,” he said.
Fazio remarked, “Smartphones and social media, especially in schools, are bad for mental health, behavior, and academic achievement. In the schools and areas that have taken smartphones out of the classroom, academic achievement as well as behavior markers for students have improved substantially. This is something we will look back at in 10 years and be surprised we didn’t do it sooner”
In 2024, Fazio overcame a strong challenge from Democrat Nick Simmons, a former deputy chief of state to Lamont and the brother of Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons.
In a September campaign profile by Pazniokas of CT Mirror, the headline was: “Ask Greenwich Sen. Ryan Fazio about anything. Except Trump.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Trump has “reoriented the party toward an unapologetic defense of American labor, American manufacturing and the American Dream. In doing so, he saved the Republican Party from irrelevance and gave it a new, populist soul.”
Fazio responded that, “In the long run, the changes of making the Republican Party a more working-class party, and more of a multi-racial coalition is probably to the benefit of our party nationally. In Connecticut, it might be a slight disadvantage because it is whiter and a higher income state.”
He commented that the Connecticut Republicans can “adapt” similarly “if we focus” on a “working-class agenda.”
Morris commented, “The Trump voters don’t usually vote in the off-year elections. We need them to come out and vote. The Democratic base seems to be motivated because of anger toward President Trump and we have to work overtime to get our vote out.”
If elected, Fazio would become, at age 36, Connecticut’s youngest governor ever.
A generation ago there was a rising star in the Indiana GOP who was elected to the U.S. House at age 29, the U.S. Senate at 33 and then became vice president when he was 41 years old.
In his last year as vice president Dan Quayle delivered his Murphy Brown speech, which made reference to the CBS situation comedy where the lead character was bearing a child outside of wedlock.
Said Quayle “Bearing babies irresponsibly is simply wrong. Failing to support children one has fathered is wrong.”
In 2012, on the 20th anniversary of Quayle’s speech, Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institute stated in the Washington Post that the former vice president’s comments, which had been considered controversial at the time, had become prophetic.
In 1992, 30 percent of the children were being born outside of marriage and the figure had grown to 41 percent 20 years later. She stated it appeared to be an irreversible trend and called on elected officials, the clergy and the media to speak out about the issue.
CT Hearst columnist Chris Powell wrote last year that 40 percent of the newborns in Connecticut were delivered by mothers on Medicaid assistance.
Fazio commented, “All parents love their kids irrespective of marriage, but having children as a married couple is better.”
“I have said it publicly before,” he added. “We need a pro-family culture and set of policies that don’t discourage or penalize marriage.”
If Boone had a .586 winning percentage through April and Girardi was just at .562 over 10 seasons, then is the world championship the primary reason that he was a better Yankees manager.
“Primarily, it is,” replied Fazio.
However, Boone has at least managed a team in the World Series.
Fazio commented, “I hope he wins a world championship. Aaron Boone is a good man.”
With the Yankees in first place, Fazio apparently is keeping his options open. Since Boone lives in Greenwich, maybe his endorsement could help put Fazio in the coveted office on the second floor of the State Capitol.
Resources:
Interview with Ryan Fazio, Patch.com, on Friday, April 17, 2026.
E-mail interview with Ryan Fazio, Patch.com, on Thursday, April 23, 2026.
Phone interview with Jonathan Wharton, Patch.com, on Monday, April 20, 2026.
Phone interview with Gary Rose, Patch.com, on Thursday, April 23, 2026.
Phone interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, on Thursday, April 23, 2026.
Phone interview with John Morris, Patch.com, on Sunday, April 19, 2026.
Interview with Michael Ranilla, Patch.com, on Friday, April 17, 2026.
Interview with Erik Smith, Patch.com, on Friday, April 17, 2026.
E-mail interview with Rob Blanchard, Patch.com, on Friday, April 24, 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Mokyr
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/twenty-years-later-it-turns-out-dan-quayle-was-right-about-murphy-brown-and-unmarried-moms/
https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/state-leaders-warily-eye-online-gambling-2435121.php
https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/connecticut/stamford-charter-school-for-excellence-227887
https://ctmirror.org/2026/04/15/investigative-report-overshadows-unveiling-of-stewart-ackert-ticket/
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/theres-more-to-politics-than-policy-1160762279
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/new-england-considers-the-nuclear-option-e046d33c
https://ctmirror.org/2026/04/06/rent-cap-ct-ned-lamont/
https://www.ctpost.com/business/danhaar/article/Dan-Haar-13340637.php
https://ctmirror.org/2024/09/22/ct-ryan-fazio-greenwich-2024-election/
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/lower-middle-class-struggle-following-federal-spending-reductions
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