{"id":575870,"date":"2010-05-22T14:51:30","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T18:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.78527"},"modified":"2010-05-22T16:50:16","modified_gmt":"2010-05-22T20:50:16","slug":"2nd-ballot-gives-merrill-democrats-endorsement-for-secretary-of-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/575870","title":{"rendered":"2nd Ballot Gives Merrill Democrats&#8217; Endorsement For Secretary Of The State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <span lang=\"EN\"><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"DISPLAY: inline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.courant.com\/capitol_watch\/denise_merill.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 20px; TEXT-ALIGN: center\" height=\"399\" alt=\"denise_merill.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.courant.com\/capitol_watch\/denise_merill-thumb-600x399.jpg\" width=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/span>By Rinker Buck<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">A last minute maneuver to throw votes to West Hartford State Senator Jonathan Harris failed to stall the bid of House Majority Leader Denise Merrill to win the Democratic endorsement for the Secretary of the State.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">On the second ballot yesterday at the State Democratic Convention in Hartford, Merrill won 964 votes to Harris&#8217;s 826, which exceeded the 50 percent required to secure the party&#8217;s endorsement.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">Merrill prevailed despite a move by New Haven Alderman Gerry Garcia to release his supporters to Harris. But the switching of votes from Garcia to Harris was not enough to stall Merrill&#8217;s momentum. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">But all three candidates&#8211;Merrill, Harris and Garcia&#8211;won 15 percent of the delegate vote on the first round of balloting, guaranteeing them a place on the primary ballot in August and boding for a crowded primary season this summer.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">On the first ballot, Merrill won with 44 percent of the delegate vote. Harris won 31 percent of the vote and Garcia won 24 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><font style=\"FONT-SIZE: 0.8em\">(<\/font><strong><font size=\"3\"><font style=\"FONT-SIZE: 0.8em\">In photo, Representative Denise Merrill, center, cheers with supporters, including State Representative Pat Widlitz, left, after winning the democratic endorsement for Secretary of State over State Senator Jonathan Harris at the Democratic Convention. Bettina Hansen\/Hartford Courant)<br \/><o:p><\/o:p><\/font><\/font><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 9pt\"><o:p><font face=\"Calibri\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By Rinker Buck A last minute maneuver to throw votes to West Hartford State Senator Jonathan Harris failed to stall the bid of House Majority Leader Denise Merrill to win the Democratic endorsement for the Secretary of the State. &nbsp; On the second ballot yesterday at the State Democratic Convention in Hartford, Merrill won [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}