What's up? What's new?

With fewer than 40 days left until the 2018 statewide elections, it sounds like CT voters are still unclear about who they think can lead the state forward for the next four years.

Despite several debates, we've yet to see a significant differentiation between Republican nominee Bob Stefanowski and Democratic nominee Ned Lamont. In fact, the media seems to think that while Stefanowski packs a stronger punch, Lamont has a slightly better chance to capture the voters' support. As far as the Lt. Governor nominees and helping Gov. candidates win, it's been quiet out on the campaign trail. Not a lot of joint events or "get out the vote" days.

Democratic nominee for Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz is making the rounds; visiting local and community events, hosting her own media event to discuss her opponent's conservative social issues, and tackling the critical issue of CT workforce development. Republican nominee Joe Markley has been sticking to the tried and true "get out the vote" events at town committees and with friendly interest groups.

The underticket has been somewhat unseen - candidates for Secretary of the State, Comptroller and Treasurer haven't hit the radar screen. However, Democratic candidate for Attorney General William Tong definitely has had a fair amount of media coverage for his events, speeches and media releases. He's had help from some well-recognized officials - US Senators Chris Murphy and Dick Blumenthal and current AG George Jepsen.

Campaign ads have started to pick up, but mostly for the top of the ticket. Here and there, you're starting to see candidate's signs popping up at intersections and open spaces. Many are expecting that the price tag for the 2018 election cycle public financing program will hit close to $40 million.

It's interesting that the Democratic State Central Coordinated Campaign (Fight Back CT) is investing in a Data & Analytics Director position. They looked for an experienced and passionate data & analytics expert to join their statewide campaign, to be responsible for managing access to the statewide voter file, monitoring its use and supporting senior campaign leadership with strategic voter-contact analysis.

Interesting, since the trends in data analytics all seem to favor the insertion of retail and marketing information, in order to best guess the most likely voters who will support the preferred party. This kind of sounds like it's the same old positon, a person who just mines the registered voters to capture those mostly like to vote based on historical data. (Can you tell that the two classes I took - one last fall and the other this past summer - have given me a little bit of dangerous knowledge?) Predicting who your voters are, getting them registered and motivating them to vote appears to be the best way to win on November 6th.

We also have noted that Senator Chris Murphy, who faces an easy stroll to re-election, has offered to invest a lot of his campaign resources into winning at the top of the ticket as well as in the 5th Congressional District seat. That should help boost the Democratic nominees. We haven't seen much about the statewide Republican plans, but as with the primary, we all have learned that Stefanowski likes to play his cards close to his vest.

We'll keep our eyes and ears open next week to see if we can report further action on the election strategies.