Democrat Dannel Malloy and Republican Tom Foley were savoring victory Tuesday night with their primary victories in the governor's race.
Some details from the night from Hartford Courant reporters:
Conceding the election at his headquarters at a Bridgeport restaurant, Ned Lamont said Malloy "won a hard, disciplined campaign." Lamont added that he would "do everything we can to unite behind this Democratic campaign and win in November."
Lamont noted that his daughter received a robo-call from the Lamont campaign on her way to the restaurant.
"You have to keep a sense of humor through this," he said.
Lamont thanked his supporters by saying, "You all took a bit of a risk climbing on this campaign train."
Even months ago, Malloy always expressed confidence that he was not far behind.
When Malloy trailed by 17 points in the first Quinnipiac poll after winning the state party convention in May, both he and his strategist, Roy Occhiogrosso, said they initially believed they would be even further behind. Lamont had already launched his advertising campaign in April -- before the convention -- and Malloy had not yet received any public financing at that point. As such, he had no commercials on the air and fell behind in the polls.
Still, Malloy remained confident.
As the weeks went on, Malloy continued traveling around the state in a tireless campaign -- visiting union workers and talking at multiple forums in front of business and labor groups. He noted -- to anyone who would listen -- that he was closer in the polls to Lamont than he had been to DeStefano in 2006. That year, he lost by fewer than 4,300 votes out of more than 266,000 cast.
Citing his first race when he defeated an incumbent Republican for mayor in 1995, Malloy said he had developed a pattern of trailing early and then speeding up at the end.
"We come from behind,'' he said in an interview.
A key group of supporters for Malloy on Tuesday were the state employee unions, who rallied to his side. Learning a lesson from his 2006 race, Malloy spoke frequently this year with the union leaders and their members. DeStefano had captured the support of the state AFL-CIO and 45 local unions in 2006, but he defeated Malloy by only 1.5 percentage points.
Besides support from the unions, Malloy benefited by his running mate choice of Wyman, whose lead over Glassman was larger than Malloy's lead over Lamont.