By JON LENDER
Hartford Courant
State Republicans today endorsed former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Thomas Foley as their candidate for governor on the first ballot, after a series of switches at the end of the GOP convention's initial balloting - but now the nomination hinges on a three-way GOP primary on Aug. 10.
Foley, a millionaire businessman from Greenwich, received 710 votes to narrowly exceed 50 percent of the 1,401 delegates' votes cast. But two other contenders vowed to wage a primary against him after each received more than the required 15 percent in delegate support: Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford, with 427 delegates for 30 percent; and longtime business executive Oz Griebel of Simsbury, with 243 delegates for 17 percent.
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Not qualifying for a primary were former U.S. Rep. Lawrence P. DeNardis of Hamden, who ended up with 16 delegates, and Christopher Duffy Acevedo of Branford, who had 5.
Foley was about 100 votes short of victory at the end of the first run through the delegations - and before the vote switches that ultimately threw the decision his way. Before the switches, the rough count among the top four was: Foley, 615; Fedele 411; Griebel, 206; and DeNardis, 104. When the switching phase began, the net effect of the changes back-and-forth was a gain of about 100 for Foley.
It was apparent that DeNardis released his delegates to vote for someone else, but it was unclear whether his freeing them of their commitment to him came as part of a deal; he wouldn't comment. Some of the switchers went to Fedele, but many more to Foley - making DeNardis look like a kingmaker, and leading to speculation on the convention floor that he had cut a deal of some kind with the Foley forces.
DeNardis was asked about that afterwards, as he sat with the Hamden delegation during balloting for the GOP's comptroller nomination. He said he needed to pay attention to his duties as a delegate and declined to answer. "Not now," he said.
PHOTO: Republican candidate for Governor Tom Foley and wife Leslie Fahrenkopf which his candidate biography video the Connecticut Republican Convention. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)