Alan Schlesinger, US Senate candidateAlan Schlesinger, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said Thursday that he was urged by Party Chairman George Gallo and Gov. M. Jodi Rell to drop out of the race because he once used a pseudonym when he signed up for a rewards card at Foxwoods Casino. He said when he was in the state legislature in 1992 he played black jack at Foxwoods Casino and signed up for a Wampum rewards card under the pseudonym Alan Gold. He said he didn’t use his real name because he was afraid of identity theft and “regarded my privacy highly.”
When asked if he knew why Rell would ask him to reconsider his candidacy because a former casino employee disclosed this information to her office, he said he didn’t know. “I’m disappointed she would make such a statement,” Schlesinger said. But, “The governor is entitled to her opinion,” he added. 
Schlesinger’s campaign spokesman Richard Foley said Bradley Beecher, a former casino employee who recently had a lawsuit against the casino dismissed, was the one who reported Schlesinger’s Wampum card pseudonym to Rell. Schlesinger will remain the endorsed candidate for the party and said Thursday that he has no intention of stepping down. Schlesinger is in a three-way race against U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman and Democratic challenger Ned Lamont. Two weeks ago Lieberman announced that he will petition to be on the ballot in November should he lose the primary to Lamont. State Rep. Diana Urban, R-North Stonington, announced Wednesday that she too would petition to run for Lieberman’s US Senate seat. Urban is a member of the state’s General Assembly and an economics and political science professor.
