Republican Marsh Explores Run for Governor

First Selectman Thomas Marsh, a Republican, announced last week that he intended to make a formal run for governor. He filed all the necessary paperwork Jan. 13 with the State Elections Enforcement Commission to establish an exploratory committee. He joins a very crowded field of both Republican and Democratic candidates.

(For Marsh’s formal announcement, see the "related files" tab at the upper right of this page click on the file.)

"I realize this is a huge task. I'm a guy starting with no recognition and no money, but I have a message and I believe that message can resonate with Connecticut's 110 small towns," he said.

Marsh, to date the first Republican municipal leader to seek the governor's office, plans to bring a message of small-town responsibility and accountability to voters. Small towns do their jobs well, he said, and state government needs to recognize that.

"Connecticut state government is broken," he said in the news release announcing his candidacy, "because of shortsighted solutions and an unwillingness to make tough decisions…We are standing today with a heavy tax burden, our state credit card maxed out, and still our leaders cannot decide what's strategically important in state government and how to balance revenues and expenses."

Marsh believes he knows how to balance budgets—he points to a Chester budget that today is less than the budget he inherited in 2005—and, just as important, he believes that chief executives and finance boards in other small towns across the state know how to balance their budgets, too.

State and local government should be a partnership, he says, but they are not.

The state "needs to share more revenue with municipal governments to take advantage of their prudent budgeting practices and help relieve the dependence on the property tax," Marsh said. "State government needs to improve the services only it can provide while listening to local leaders and allowing them to do more locally or through voluntary regional efforts."

Why run for governor—a race he acknowledges will be all uphill?

"I think it started with a certain level of frustration with government at the state level, then [Governor M. Jodi] Rell announced she would not run again. I looked at the other candidates, I saw an opportunity," Marsh said. "The state's in a mess. Who's going to pick up those pieces—the budget crisis, more mandates, discussions on regionalization that are detrimental to towns like
Chester?

"I looked at us. We do it well here. We deliver local services, we are accountable, we have a surplus. Other small towns do the same," he continued. "I thought I had a message and I thought I should run."

He began talking with some people locally, then widened his conversations. At some point, he was directed to a handful of Republicans with statewide experience in campaigns such as Lowell Weicker's gubernatorial run—campaigns initiated outside the established political party structure. He is not an insider within his own party's state-level structure.

Marsh admits to a "level of frustration" with both political parties and is hoping that the hard work of carrying his message to Republican town committees "every night and every weekend" can earn him the statewide exposure he needs.

"If there is no support out there, then I'll know it by May" when the parties hold their nominating conventions, he said.

On the topic of campaign financing, Marsh is emphatic. He will not participate in the public financing campaign program.

"The program has an estimated cost of $60 million and Connecticut is broke…I don't think if you asked most residents how the state should spend its last $60 million the answer would be to spend it on political
campaigns," he said.

Other gubernatorial candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, have written or are prepared to write million-dollar checks to finance their own campaigns, at least in these initial stages.

"I entered this race understanding that my resources will be limited. I don't have the money for the statewide television ads or mailings…I'm hoping to collect small donations and support, enough to keep the lights on and pay a campaign manager," Marsh said.

"Between now and May, I hope I have talked with as many town committees as possible and persuaded as many convention delegates as possible…Then we'll get to the convention and see what happens," he added.

His family—wife Kathy and three children—is very supportive, Marsh said. He also knows he will continue to be accountable to the voters of Chester, who returned him to office in November.

"I am confident I can be an effective first selectman while also running for governor," he said.