Connecticut Republicans, with little money and no prominent candidates, prepare to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal

With less than one year before the 2022 election, Connecticut Republicans are facing an uphill battle against two-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, lacking money and any well-known candidates.

No Republican has raised substantial money with the party convention less than six months away on May 7. Blumenthal, by contrast, has been fundraising on a steady basis and has a daunting $6.9 million in cash on hand, according to public records.

Besides a large campaign war chest, Blumenthal has several advantages, including high name recognition and approval ratings in a blue state where he has already won two races for U.S. Senate, five races for state attorney general and three for state legislature earlier in his career.

Longtime Republican campaigner Peter Lumaj, who has lost all of his previous major races, told The Courant that he will be entering the race and will make a formal announcement soon.

Lumaj is in his fourth race for statewide office and is the best-known Republican seeking to battle Blumenthal. He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2012, secretary of the state in 2014 and governor in 2018.

An immigration attorney and real estate investor, Lumaj said he’s concerned about issues like rising gasoline prices, the highest inflation in nearly 40 years, the national debt and too much federal spending, including the $1.25 trillion infrastructure bill that many Republicans opposed. He is strongly opposed to policies pushed both by Blumenthal and President Joe Biden.

“Personally, I couldn’t care less about Joe Biden or I couldn’t care less about Donald Trump as a persona, if you will,” Lumaj said. “What concerns me is the failed liberal policies. If we go after Biden, it’s the policies that we’re attacking.”

Another candidate is Robert Hyde, a Simsbury landscaper who came into the national spotlight at the time of President Trump’s impeachment. He has contributed $5,000 of his own money to his campaign and says he’s ready to run against Blumenthal. Hyde is best known for being involved in a national controversy over the possible surveillance of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, but he has denied involvement in any surveillance.

Hyde ran briefly two years ago for the U.S. House of Representatives before dropping out of the race against Democrat Jahana Hayes. In the current race, Hyde is pushing for tax cuts.

“Any family or individual making less than $180,000 won’t have to pay taxes,” Hyde said. “If the top doesn’t pay any, neither will the bottom. That includes no property taxes. If we can give China billions, trillions to build buses, trains and our bridges, we can give our property owners breaks, too.”

In text messages released by the U.S. House of Representatives, Hyde was linked to allegations of an apparent surveillance operation of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Hyde exploded onto the national stage after the text messages were released of his interactions with Lev Parnas, a close associate of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer. Parnas was convicted on federal campaign finance charges in October.

A third potential candidate is John Flynn, a former portfolio manager who holds an MBA in finance and lost two races for the state House of Representatives in 2018 and 2020. He was defeated by Democrat Travis Simms by at least 50 percentage points each time in a Norwalk district that has been held by Democrats for nearly 35 years. Flynn has not raised any money in the race against Blumenthal.

Blumenthal is a veteran campaigner who won races for the state legislature in the 1980s before becoming state attorney general for 20 years and then U.S. Senator for the past 11 years. As a senator, he has made national headlines calling for stricter regulation of Instagram, Facebook and other social media sites.

State Republican chairman Ben Proto said the Republicans can overcome Blumenthal’s advantage in fundraising, which pays for all-important television commercials, fliers that are sent to voters’ homes, and the get-out-the-vote effort on Election Day.

While Blumenthal has nearly $7 million, Hyde has only $128 in cash on hand, according to public records as of the most recent quarterly report as of Sept. 30. No other Republicans, including Lumaj, have reported raising any money. But Proto said that is not a disqualifier.

“I think the majority leader of the New Jersey state Senate had huge amounts of money and some guy — a truck driver with 150 bucks — beat him,” Proto said, referring to the recent upset Republican victory by Raymour and Flanigan furniture truck driver Edward Durr. “Money is important. I will never tell you that money isn’t important. But at the end of the day, it’s voters who decide elections, not money.”

Proto added, “Dick Blumenthal probably has the highest name ID of any politician in the state of Connecticut and regularly polls around 50% on a reelect. … With the right candidate, and a candidate with some money, he’s got a problem.”

Blumenthal declined to talk about Lumaj, Hyde, the campaign or how much money he has raised.

“I am totally focused on doing my job — working for the people of Connecticut,” Blumenthal said in an interview. “There will be plenty of time — next year — to talk about the campaign.”

In recent days Blumenthal has been thrust into the conservative spotlight by attending an awards ceremony by a group with ties to the Communist Party — leading to criticism by Republicans and national conservative websites and television. Blumenthal, though, told The Courant later that he would not have attended the ceremony at a New Haven church if he had known about the links to the Communist Party.

Blumenthal faced his toughest election challenge for the open U.S. Senate seat in 2010 against Republican Linda McMahon, who spent $50 million and constantly blasted her opponent. Blumenthal, though, still won the race by 12 percentage points after raising and spending about $8 million, less than 20% of the amount spent by McMahon.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.