Danbury Mayor Becomes Contender for Connecticut Governor

This article was written by Mark Langlois.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton laid the groundwork Wednesday for a run as Connecticut's next governor.
Boughton, a Republican who is seeking his seventh straight term as Mayor of Danbury, announced the formation of an exploratory committee to run for Connecticut governor in 2014. 

"I'm only a candidate now for one office, that's for the office of mayor," Boughton told a gathering of media at Danbury High School Wednesday. "Right now we have to do our homework."

That homework is finding out if he can raise enough money to run for governor and whether he will get the backing of the Republican party. 

Boughton said he will decide to run or not by Jan. 1. In the meantime, he is running for mayor for the seventh time in November. If elected, he would hold the record as the city's longest serving mayor.

With the creation of the exploratory committee, Boughton joins the company of fellow Republican John McKinney, a Republican state Senator from Fairfield County, who announced in July his intentions for state government's top job.

While he has not yet publicly announced a run, it's widely believed that the main contender on the Republican side is Tom Foley, a multi-millionaire who ran and lost in 2010 against Democrat Dannel P. Malloy.

Foley won the Republican party's bid in 2010 after beating out Boughton. Boughton then ran as Foley's lieutenant governor. Boughton said Wednesday he won't do that again.

The Plan of Attack

Boughton, whose Twitter presence earned him international acclaim this year, said he expects to use social media to both communicate with people and help raise campaign funds. 

Already, he's created a Facebook page, "Mark Boughton For Connecticut," and he'll be plugging away on his existing Twitter account, "MayorMark," which he pointed out Wednesday has nearly 12,000 followers. Boughton has also set up a website to take in donations. 

Back in Danbury

Boughton is running in Danbury for mayor against former City Council Member Paul McAllister, who is running on the Democratic Party ticket as a petitioning candidate. 

Democratic Party Chairman Joe DaSilva said Boughton has clearly signaled what job he wants, the job of governor.

"The voters have a choice of who they want for mayor and the mayor has made his choice about which job he wants. For the second time in four years, he's said he clearly wants another job," DaSilva said.