Madison Republican Candidate for Governor Has Raised $500,000

MADISON, CT - Robert Stefanowski, of Madison, has raised close to $500,000 in his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor, according to the latest filings with the State Elections Commission.

Stefanowski has $307,836 cash on hand; has spent $190,184 and has $37,815 in expenses that have yet to be paid.

Stefanowski recently came under criticism by others in the race for not having voted in his hometown of Madison for 16 years, according to records from the Registrar of Voters office in Madison.

That means he didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election. He did vote in the Nov. 7, 2017 municipal election, but before that he hadn’t voted in his hometown since Nov. 5, 2001.

Stefanowski’s explanation?

“I worked in London for eight years and two years in Philadelphia,” he said. “I should have mailed in an absentee ballot.”

Stefanowski, who hasn’t participated in the first two debates sponsored by the Republican Party, is casting himself as “a political outsider” and as someone who is better suited at dealing with the state’s fiscal woes.

“Like a lot of other people who have been on the outside, we’ve seen what a mess the career politicians have made of Connecticut and we’re getting involved now,” Stefanowski said. “We’ve got to turn this around before it is too late, and I am the only gubernatorial candidate with a detailed economic plan to do it.”

Stefanowski, 55, is the former president and CEO of General Electric Corporate Financial Services in Europe, CFO at UBS from 2013 to 2015 and also worked at the financial services firm DFC Global.

In addition to not voting, Stefanowski was also registered as a Democrat in his hometown until July 27, 2017 when he changed his registration and announced his candidacy for governor.

“I’ve been a Republican all my life except for a few months,” Stefanowski said in a statement. “A lot of Republicans like Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump and our own Larry Kudlow were Democrats. I’m a Republican, but I’m a political outsider, and like a lot of people I’m really upset at what the career politicians have done to Connecticut.”