Republican Tom Foley conceded the gubernatorial election Monday to Democrat Dannel Malloy, saying that various problems with voting in Bridgeport were not enough to overturn the outcome of the race.
The official results show that Foley lost by more than 5,600 votes out of more than 1.1 million cast - a tiny percentage and the closest governor's race in Connecticut in more than 55 years. For nearly a week, Republicans focused on problems in Bridgeport, which ran out of ballots and switched to photocopied ballots in a mistake-ridden process.
"I am confident that a recount that included the photocopied ballots would not change the outcome of the governor's race,'' Foley told reporters in Hartford. "Once all of this information was available to me this morning, deciding what to do was easy. I have told my team that I am not going to pursue a legal challenge to exclude photocopied ballots.''
Foley, a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland who was making his first race for elective office, described the election last week as "a conclusive victory for Dan Malloy.''
"This result should not be questioned,'' Foley said. "I hope my supporters will accept my word on this.''
Foley's concession marked the end of a chaotic, Florida-style election that was supposed to end Tuesday night and continued without a conclusive result for nearly one more week. It also marked the end of a two-year odyssey that included more than a dozen candidates for governor after Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she would not seek re-election.
Malloy is the first Democrat to be elected as governor in Connecticut since Gov. William A. O'Neill won re-election in 1986. Since then, independent Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. and Republicans John G. Rowland and M. Jodi Rell have occupied the governor's office at the state Capitol.
"I want to offer my personal congratulations to Governor-elect Malloy,'' Rell said in a statement. "I also extend my appreciation to both candidates for the patience they have shown during the extraordinary and often trying days that have followed the election. My office stands ready to work hand-in-hand with the Governor-elect and his team in the coming weeks. Our common goal will always be the very best interests of the people of this great state."
Foley spent more than $10 million of his own money on the race in a bitter battle that included negative campaign commercials by both sides and repeated accusations about which candidate was telling the truth. Malloy also defeated another Greenwich multimillionaire, Ned Lamont, who spent about $10 million of his own money before losing in the August primary. Three Greenwich millionaires who largely self-financed their campaigns this year - Foley, Lamont, and Republican Linda McMahon in the U.S. Senate race - all lost.
Standing in the cavernous atrium of an office building Monday in downtown Hartford, Foley talked about the lawyers and accountants who studied the election results.
"I am both happy and disapointed with their report,'' Foley said. "They found no credible evidence of fraudulent voting. I am disappointed that the team reported a chaotic situation on election day and its aftermath in Bridgeport. ... They also believe the number of votes by which the Bridgeport results are likely to be wrong would not, on its own, change the outcome of the race.''
"For me, the issue has always been: who won the race?'' Foley said. "I frankly didn't know the answer until just this morning.''
Voters "should have no doubt that Dan Malloy won the governor's race,'' Foley said.
"I'll be congratulating him and wishing him the very best of luck running this state," Foley said. "I wish him really good luck and hope he's successful, because we really do have some serious problems. People all around this state are hurting and we owe them solutions."
Foley said that his team had been looking for "evidence of fraud,'' reporting errors and anomalies or anything that would affect the outcome of the race.
Foley thanked Lt. Gov. candidate Mark Boughton, his wife, Leslie, his campaign team, his supporters, and more than 500,000 who voted for him last week.
"Finally, I want to thank all of you in the press corps,'' Foley told reporters. "We have been fellow passengers on an interesting journey. I have enjoyed getting to know you and look forward to our continuing friendships. And without exception, I have found you serious, hard-working, and well-intended and only occasionally tempermental. You have treated me very fairly and covered this race well. I learned early on that it is a mistake not to take your questions after a press conference, so I am happy to answer any questions you may have now.''
Despite being questioned about the bankruptcy of The Bibb Company in Georgia, his two arrests that were later dismissed, and other issues, Foley never lost his cool in public during a long campaign. He was widely viewed to have handled his concession with class.
When asked if he would take a job in Malloy's administration, Foley said that he would wait for any offer to be made before making any statements.
Foley said he believes the voting mess in Bridgeport should be looked into, not to try to change the election's outcome, but to assure there's no recurrence of it anywhere in the state. He said he's satisfied that the problems in Bridgeport and elsewhere weren't enough to change the outcome.
"I think what we learned over the weekend was sufficient for my making the decision that I had to make," he said. "But I do think that it's probably a good idea to look into what happened in Bridgeport and make sure it doesn't happen again."
"We had an awful lot of people contact us saying that they had seen things that they thought were irregular and might have been voter fraud - but, in chasing them down, none of them was significant and they certainly wouldn't have affected enough votes to change the outcome of the governor's race."
Even while Foley was conceding the race, the state Republican Party has asked both federal and state officials to investigate the election results. Republicans have hired well-known attorney Ross Garber, who on Monday sent letters to the U.S. Attorney and the chief state's attorney.