by John Dankosky – Frank Borges, former State Treasurer, tells WNPR that he has not decided to enter the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Joe Lieberman in 2012. Currently, Borges is managing partner at investment firm Landmark Partners.
He’s disputing a report by Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie on his Daily Ructions blog.
“I can tell you this: There’s no announcement coming from me soon. I haven’t made a decision to get into the race. As I said, it’s pretty early in the process,” Borges told me by cell phone, adding: ” I read the blogs and the other reports with amusement.”
Borges said entering a campaign for senate is ”not something that anyone should consider without an awful lot of thought,” and he told me he hasn’t thought about it…yet. ”But I’m sure I will over time,” he said.
Borges would be an intriguing candidate for Democrats. He’s seen as a moderate who was a former secretary of the NAACP, served as deputy mayor in Hartford, and has worked with GE Capital and Travelers. He’s also well-connected in the non-profit world, serving on the board of trustees at Connecticut Public Broadcasting, the parent of WNPR.
Most importantly, he’s well-connected to the top Democrat in the country, President Barack Obama. An early supporter of Obama, he helped the President fundraise during the 2008 campaign.
He said he’d recieved “a number of calls from political friends and others within the business community, inquiring whether I have some interest,” but he said none of these calls was from President Obama.
“No, no, I think the president has things much more important on his plate than to call me with regard to something like this,” he told me.
Borges said right now he is “clearly focused on running the business with my partners.”
Earlier today, Congressman Chris Murphy said he’s entering the race for senate. Susan Bysiewicz announced her intentions earlier this week.
Too bad.
Borges is a bright fellow who almost single-handedly saved Colt and a LOT of CT jobs.
Of the Democrats already in the race, Borges would be a welcome addition as he doesn’t make this Republican at any rate nervous.
I’ll probably wind up voting with my party regardless; but can’t imagine Frank Borges doing anything particularly stupid or damaging in the Senate.
I can’t imagine Suzy B. or Murphy not doing both every chance they got.
I’m with ACR–I saw a good deal of Frank Borges in the eighties and he is a very impressive and (in my experience) thoroughly decent man.