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As a youngster, David Stemerman has fond memories of Connecticut as a state perfectly situated between two major cities -- New York and Boston -- that people didn't just want to drive through, but loved to visit and make a home.
Massachusetts was nicknamed "Taxachusetts," and its tech companies were relocating until a series of Republican governors turned the Bay State's economy around, from Stemerman's perspective.
Today's Connecticut, the Republican candidate for governor says, is better-known for clogged highways, higher taxes, economic inequality, struggling schools, higher crime and businesses and air travelers fleeing to adjoining states. Stemerman believes state Democrats including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy misspent tax money that could have improved the state's major airports as well as its interstate highways.
Stemerman, a father of five, built his business in Fairfield County, His wife of more than 20 years, Joline, appears with him in a series of 10 digital ads designed to give voters some personal details about Stemerman. Their wedding announcement was published here in 1997:
The candidate attended public schools through high school and graduated from Yale College, summa cum laude. He went on to Harvard Business School, where he received his M.B.A. with distinction and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Stemerman started his own business, Conatus Capital, from a single desk. The Connecticut investment firm launched in 2008, in the midst of the national economic meltdown. Stemerman grew Conatus into a multi-billion-dollar global business.
The 49-year-old Greenwich resident told Daily Voice he plans to apply this same growth strategy and "outside-the-box thinking" to create new job and business opportunities.
Stemerman said he chose Connecticut as his home, and the location for his company, because it was the best place in the country to live, work and raise a family.
He said he "is deeply concerned that while some are continuing to do very well, too many are struggling with taxes and the cost of living."
Connecticut’s government has been so ineffective, wasteful and corrupt, that we run the risk that "our children will have less opportunity than we have had," he said. "What we need is fresh, outside leadership."
Using much of his own money from his hedge fund career to fund his campaign, Stemerman has been closing the gap on GOP frontrunner Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, according to recent polls.
The primary election is on Aug. 14. For more details on the other four Republican candidates, click here:
More details about Stemerman can be found on his campaign website by clicking here.
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