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 2 ½-hour initial balloting. He received 710 votes to exceed 50 percent of more than the 1,400 delegates who voted. The unofficial tally among the contenders was Foley, 710; Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, 427; longtime business executive Oz Griebel, 243; Lawrence P. DeNardis, 16; and Christopher Duffy Acevedo, 5.
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When the switching phase began, most of the switches went from DeNardis to Foley,
making DeNardis, in effect, a king-maker by his agreement to release his delegates to Foley.
Fedele, with 427 votes, easily qualified for an Aug. 10 primary. Griebel, with 17 percent of the vote, said he will definitely seek a primary. Fedele has not said yet what his plans are.