David Stemerman

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David Stemerman

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 14, 2018

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

David Stemerman (Republican Party) ran for election for Governor of Connecticut. He lost in the Republican primary on August 14, 2018.

Click here for more information on the August 14 Republican primary election. Click here for more information on the November 6 general election.

Biography

After working for a time with Lone Pine Capital, Stemerman founded Conatus Capital Management in 2007. The hedge fund was named the biggest startup of 2008, raising $2.3 billion in that year. Stemerman closed the fund in September 2017 ahead of his run for governor.

Elections

2018

See also: Connecticut gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018

General election

General election for Governor of Connecticut

Ned Lamont defeated Bob Stefanowski, Oz Griebel, Rod Hanscomb, and Mark Stewart Greenstein in the general election for Governor of Connecticut on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ned Lamont (D)	49.4	694,510
		Bob Stefanowski (R)	46.2	650,138
		Oz Griebel (Griebel Frank for CT Party)	3.9	54,741
	Submit photo	Rod Hanscomb (L)	0.4	6,086
		Mark Stewart Greenstein (Amigo Constitution Party)	0.1	1,254
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	74

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,406,803
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Kameron Scott (Independent)
• Micah Welintukonis (Independent)
• Thomas Ford (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Connecticut

Ned Lamont defeated Joe Ganim in the Democratic primary for Governor of Connecticut on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ned Lamont	81.2	172,567
	Submit photo	Joe Ganim	18.8	39,976

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 212,543
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Jonathan Harris (D)
• Lee Whitnum (D)
• Betheona Guiles-Smith (D)
• Guy Smith (D)
• Jacey Wyatt (D)
• Luke Bronin (D)
• Sean Connolly (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Connecticut

Bob Stefanowski defeated Mark Boughton, David Stemerman, Tim Herbst, and Steve Obsitnik in the Republican primary for Governor of Connecticut on August 14, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bob Stefanowski	29.4	42,041
		Mark Boughton	21.3	30,475
		David Stemerman	18.3	26,177
		Tim Herbst	17.5	25,063
		Steve Obsitnik	13.4	19,102

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 142,858
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Eric Mastroianni (R)
• David Walker (R)
• Antonietta Boucher (R)
• Dave Walker (R)
• Peter Thalheim (R)
• Joseph Visconti (R)
• Mark Lauretti (R)
• Peter Lumaj (R)
• Prasad Srinivasan (R)
• Scott Merrell (R)
• Michael Handler (R)

Campaign themes

2018

Campaign website

The following themes were found on Stemerman's official campaign website:

“	A Plan for Eastern Connecticut Eastern Connecticut is home to many of our most precious state assets — from our nation’s leading Submarine Base in New London, to world-class employers like Pfizer and Electric Boat, to New England’s premier gaming and entertainment destinations. This region is home to many attractions and resources that make Connecticut a great place to live. Eastern Connecticut has much to offer both to its residents and visitors alike and we have a responsibility to ensure the region thrives. Unfortunately, Hartford insiders continue to neglect the needs of Eastern Connecticut. Over the course of his campaign for governor, David has visited with leaders and activists all across Eastern Connecticut. In recent weeks and months, David has joined celebrations in Mystic and Madison, visited the construction site for the New England Motorcycle Museum in Vernon, toured manufacturing facilities in Pawcatuck, and seen the horror first-hand of crumbling foundations in Mansfield Center. David has been consistently engaged in Eastern Connecticut and will continue to be as governor. Taking Back Our Government The United States of America is the greatest country in human history because our founders built the foundation of our nation upon core principles of good government. Our founders recognized the risks of concentrating too much power in one branch of government, so they created in our Constitution a system of checks and balances. They understood the risk of the government’s potential to ruin its citizenry through excessive taxation, so the Constitution created a government with limited scope. And they announced to the world in The Declaration of Independence the universal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — the opportunity for each and every one of us to pursue our dreams. Connecticut thrived for decades employing these principles of good government. Today, we have a stark contrast. The state of our government would make our nation’s founders and our state’s former leaders spin in their graves: • Power has been concentrated in the hands of the few that have unfairly engineered our elections, legislative process and finances for their own entrenchment and enrichment. • Taxes and spending have become so excessive that people and employers have been driven out of their homes and places of doing business. • Government regulations have erected insurmountable barriers, while inadequate education and infrastructure hold back our potential. Unleashing Connecticut's Workforce A best in class workforce is critical for businesses to succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy. Top-notch skills are needed more than ever to meet the promise of the American Dream that with hard work each generation will do better than the past. Our K-12 schools are no longer head of the class and too many students are being left behind. The graduation rates for community colleges are appallingly low. The costs for our state institutions of higher education are out of control, making them unaffordable and out of reach for far too many. Too often, students leave with too much debt and too few skills that are relevant in the workplace. Meanwhile, employers are increasingly concerned about the lack of qualified candidates for employment. They are unable to get the workforce they need with skills ranging from precision welding for manufacturing to biochemistry for biomedical research. The resulting combination of unfilled jobs for Connecticut employers and high unemployment for Connecticut youth highlights the failure of Connecticut’s current workforce development system. David Stemerman, a businessman who has invested in all kinds of businesses all over the world, sees the failures of our workforce development as a major threat both to our people and our employers. David also sees tremendous potential to rebuild Connecticut’s former strength following the following principles: I. Clear pathways to employment II. Strong collaboration between business and educators III. Pay for performance Restoring Connecticut's Infrastructure and Transportation Connecticut’s location between New York City and Boston with miles of coastline and picturesque landscapes have attracted families and businesses for generations with strong job opportunities and a high quality of life. We are losing the luster of our location with the increased congestion and deterioration of our aging transportation system. Our families are losing quality time together. Our employers cannot access talented workers unwilling to suffer intolerably long commutes. Career politicians in Hartford are stuck in rhetoric of the past while citizens are stuck in traffic. Democrats propose more taxes — introducing tolls and raising the gasoline tax — and sending the funds to an appallingly inefficient Department of Transportation that most citizens question will actually solve the problems. Republican career politicians say no to tolls but fail to offer viable solutions to develop much needed transportation improvements. David Stemerman, a political outsider and businessman, has seen in his business better ways to move our roads, trains and planes into the 21st Century. His plan will attract billions of dollars in private investment to get our congested highways flowing again, cut train travel times to New York City down by as much as half and build our airports into major regional hubs for passengers and cargo. These transportation improvements will revitalize our cities and surrounding towns – with major initiatives in our four largest cites – Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Stamford. David’s plan will improve access for our coastal and rural communities throughout the state for work and play. It will also provide construction jobs and skills development in the building trades for projects that lay the foundation for our future prosperity. Growing Our Economy Connecticut has tremendous potential. For decades, families and businesses poured into our state and thrived. Our location, our highly skilled workforce, and our schools were primary attractions. Our lower taxes plus our lower cost of living and lower cost of doing business sealed the deal. This winning combination led jobs and wages to grow robustly. Connecticut had the highest income per person in the country. The second highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the country chose Connecticut to be their home — not bad for a state with only about 1% of our country’s population! Our former strengths have turned into weaknesses. Our roads and trains are too slow, and our workforce and schools are no longer outperforming the nation. Most importantly, our taxes are simply too high and no longer competitive with our neighbors. A thicket of regulations has driven the cost of living and cost of doing business to intolerable levels. As a result, we are losing families and jobs. Lifelong Connecticut residents are leaving and fewer young families are choosing Connecticut as a place to raise their family. Every day we get a new headline of yet another business leaving our state. State Employee Benefits The most important responsibility for our next Governor is to Save Connecticut from a financial crisis – a crisis that threatens our families, our jobs, and our state employees’ retirement security. At the core of Connecticut’s fiscal challenges are our state employee labor agreements and unfunded retirement plans. Our unsustainable pension system has caused our budget to be in chronic deficit and our debt and retirement obligations to balloon to levels that we will not be able to pay. No career politician or labor leader has been willing to talk honestly about these problems with taxpayers, state workers, or retirees. We are in this situation because our leadership has failed us. They have avoided hard truths and action for fear of losing the next election and they lack ideas of what to do. As a political outsider focused solely on the interest of the people of Connecticut, I will shine a bright light on our challenges. As a businessman with an entrepreneurial mind-set, I will propose and accomplish bold solutions that are outside-the-box. Solutions that will be fair to us all – to government employees, to taxpayers and to our children. Solutions that will provide security to our state government employees and retirees and set us on a path to recovery and prosperity.	”
—Stemerman for Connecticut

See also

• Governor of Connecticut
• Connecticut gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2018

External links

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