Republican Chair Hopefuls Mum on Support.

The long contest to lead Connecticut’s rickety Republican organization has featured bursts of fevered rumors, game plans for the future, the odd recrimination, the airing of grievances. These are all staple of intraparty fights, especially in a party that holds no major offices in the state.

Declarations of support for each of the hopefuls–Joe Markley, John Pavia and J.R. Romano–have been thin on the ground. The candidates have not produced a stream of endorsements from state party committee members, who will vote on a new leader later this month. Committee members are notoriously cagey and unreliable in appearing to support a candidate while convincing themselves they have offered only polite encouragement.

Candidates need to push if they want commitments. Apply the veteran voter counter’s rule of three: make your marks say three times you’ve secured their support. Short of that, heaping helpings of delusion can be the central offering on the campaign menu. No one wants to push because disappointments will far outnumber firm, public commitments. A candidate who starts releasing public statements of support from the small universe of voters may create some momentum where there has been none while forcing rivals to start showing what they’ve got.