Chris Donovan has withdrawn from the 5th District.
Donovan was the endorsed candidate going into a three-way Democratic primary and lost to former Rep. Elizabeth Esty.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that the Working Families Party has become a "major player" in this election and that Donovan had yet to announce whether he planned to continue running for the open seat under the banner of the Working Families Party.
On Thursday, Donovan submitted a letter to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill announcing his decison.
"Pursuant to Title 9, Section 430 of the Connecticut General Statutes, I hearby withdraw my name from the nomination of the Connecticut Working Families Party for the office of Representative in Congress from Connecticut's Fifth Congressional District, effective immediately," Donovan wrote.
“I have received Speaker Donovan’s letter withdrawing his candidacy for Congress in the 5th Congressional District,” Merrill said in a statement. “Since Speaker Donovan was the endorsed candidate for the 5th Congressional District of the Working Families party, that party now has until September 5th to nominate someone else if it wants to put a candidate on the November general election ballot.”
Much attention has been focused on Donovan’s campaign because of a federal probe into an alleged scheme to hide the source of some campaign contributions.
Federal agents arrested Donovan’s former campaign finance director, Robert Braddock Jr.; his former campaign manager, Joshua Nassi, 34, of Fairfield; Ray Soucy, 60, of Naugatuck; a former state Department of Correction worker; Paul Rogers and George Tirado, two Waterbury men who co-own Smoke House Tobacco, a roll-your-own smoke shop with two locations in Waterbury; and a store employee, Benjamin Hogan. Tirado is a detective with Waterbury police.
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Esty was scheduled to meet with the Working Families Party on Wednesday and the Meriden Record-Journal reports that she is scheduled to meet with the party again on Thursday.
The general election will be held on Nov. 6.
