Secretary of the State Denise Merrill says Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti has fallen short of submitting enough signatures to petition his way onto the Republican primary ballot for lieutenant governor.
In a letter to Lauretti, released Tuesday, Merrill said the mayor filed 6,723 qualified signatures from registered Republicans. He needed 8,190 to participate in the August 12 primary.
Lauretti had been Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton's best hope of qualifying for public campaign financing for the gubernatorial primary after Boughton's original running mate decided to run solo. Lauretti had agreed to pool his money with Boughton's to raise the $250,000 needed to qualify. However, Boughton dropped out of the GOP primary for governor last week, saying he expected Lauretti to fall short.
Lauretti was originally a Republican candidate for governor.
