Hartford - The field of potential gubernatorial candidates continued to grow Thursday, as R. Nelson "Oz" Griebel, the president and CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance, launched a bid for the Republican nomination.

Griebel, who has run the Hartford-area chamber of commerce for the past nine years, gathered several dozen supporters and family members under the portico of the state Capitol's north steps to formally announce his candidacy, on a day of press conferences that took him from Torrington all the way to Mystic.

As Griebel and his backers avoided a sudden snowfall, he insisted his experience working with major Connecticut employers would make him the most effective Republican candidate in the fall, out of a field that is already crowded with contenders making similar claims about improving the state's business climate and reversing a long period of stagnation in job growth.

"We have to combat our problems and opportunities with a different attitude, with a much more private sector approach," Griebel said.

Griebel will not seek public financing for his campaign through the Citizens Election Program, which many other potential gubernatorial candidates do plan to use.

A core of wealthy candidates and prodigious fund-raisers, including Republican Tom Foley and Democrat Ned Lamont, is pulling away from participation in the public system, implemented after the corruption scandals of the last decade. Like those candidates, Griebel said he planned to move aggressively, using his business contacts to raise campaign cash.

Other candidates are increasingly swiping at those who opt out of the public system. Among the public financing participants, former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy and Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, both Democrats, have pledged to participate in the program. Malloy has also dared Lamont to abide by the strict spending limits of the public program through the duration of the Democratic primary, a challenge Lamont dismissed last week.

Griebel said Thursday that his policy experience would set him ahead of the Republican field, which also includes Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele and a growing cohort of lesser-known municipal officials and former legislators.

Griebel said he'd seek the elimination of regulations and mandates to ease burdens on business interests, and rattled off a handful of potential reforms to streamline state government, including regional delivery of municipal services, and questioned whether Connecticut needs "multiple higher educational institutions."

But he also did not foreclose on any future options as the state faces a potentially $3 billion deficit in fiscal 2012-13, including raising taxes. Griebel also said he'd consider adding tolls to Connecticut highways to help replenish the Special Transportation Fund, which supports road maintenance and transportation infrastructure.

"I will never rule anything off-limits," Griebel said. "I think that's a foolish thing to do at any time."

t.mann@theday.com