Tom Foley Concedes CT Governor Race
Updated 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time
Republican Tom Foley has conceded the Connecticut governor's race to Democrat Dan Malloy.
Foley said at a press conference in Hartford today that "the election on Tuesday, although very close, was a conclusive victory for Dan Malloy and should not be questioned."
"I hope my supporters will accept my word on this," he added.
Foley's legal team spent the weekend examining the results of the election, which Malloy won by less than 10,000 votes. He said that while he could have challenged the use of some photocopied ballots, he believed they reflected the true intention of voters. He added that any irregularities would not have been enough to close the gap between the candidates.
"I am happy for Connecticut that, despite irregularities, there is no credible evidence of fraudulent voting," he said today, according to the Hartford Courant.
Both Foley and Malloy last week began the transition process to enter the governor's office. Foley's hope for victory rested in part on evidence of problems in the voting process, including a ballot shortage that prompted polls to be kept open for two extra hours in Bridgeport and the discovery of a bag of uncounted ballots two days after the election.
On Friday, Foley said that because of the voting process, "we are being laughed at around the world." Suggesting "there may be a rat" in the process, Foley rejected official vote totals showing him down and said, "The office of secretary of state hasn't been doing their job, so we're going to do it for them."
Foley, a wealthy businessman who spent more than $10 million of his own money on the race, added that Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz's "personal credibility is completely shot."
Having reviewed the results over the weekend, however, Foley appears to have concluded that he did in fact lose.
"Once all of this information was made available to me this morning, deciding what to do was easy," he said today.
Republicans in the state have called for investigations into handling of the votes in election in Bridgeport. Foley said today that voting in the city was "chaotic" but added that the situation was not as a result of "willful behavior."
