11:00: Final update. Republicans have a lot of reasons to be optimistic tonight, and I think CT Bob makes an important point–Democrats need to figure out what’s going on if they want to have any hope of retaining their supermajority next year. It’s hard to translate local election gains into success at the legislative level, but this is as much of a party-based tide as I’ve seen in the local elections I’ve covered. Usually there’s no real partisan focus to municipal elections. Not true tonight, and that should give Dems pause.
I am out of here.
10:55: One more: Republicans take control of the council… in NEW LONDON. Seriously! Everything is now officially bonkers, and Chris Healy is king of Connecticut. Wow!
10:27: Okay, that is just about it for me tonight… but here’s what I’m seeing. Lots of wins by Republicans, including strong holds in cities, and plenty of seats flipping their way. Republicans can feel good about tonight.
10:26: Derby still exists? How disappointing.
10:25: Looks like Mary Glassman (D) is headed for another term in Simsbury. I got that not from a news site or somewhere else, but from the town website. …Yeah.
10:20: Republicans retain council majority in Enfield. Congrats to Mayor Kaupin, Bill Lee and the rest of the GOP team! They also retained their majority on the BoE. I can report that the consolidation of polling places didn’t cause any headaches that I could see.
10:15: Incumbents, mainly Dems, not doing so well in Fairfield County.
10:14: What’s going on in Enfield? I haven’t the faintest clue.
10:12: Some good-ish news for Dems: a possible win in traditionally GOP Suffield, though it looks like it’s headed for a recount.
10:05: Lots of hits on the ol’ blog tonight. Hi everyone!
10:03: Courant’s election coverage is very, very sub-par this year.
10:01: If I had to guess, I’d say a lot of the Obama voters from last year stayed home.
9:53: Tonight’s narrative: REPUBLICANS. Did Dems win any big races? Many of the Dems who are winning are incumbents. Republicans showing a lot of pickups. Small and medium cities are trending GOP, add Stamford into that column. Somebody send Chris Healy a big fruit basket.
9:50: FINALLY results from Newington. CTGOP reports that Republican Jeff Wright won re-election. I’m not surprised at that either. Good to know what’s what in the 06111.
9:44: Republican Peter Nystrom declares victory in Norwich. Norwich Bulletin has lots of election results–they have been a consistently good source for the last five years.
9:42: Ward (D) wins in Bristol by a lot.
9:39: I’m hearing Republicans have won big in Cheshire.
9:33: Sarno wins up in Springfield, MA. Good. Funny how invested I’ve become in that place.
9:26: Republican win in Darien. Dems win in Weston. Republicans pick up majority on Wethersfield council. Interesting, that.
9:21: Dems win in Norfolk, Beacon Falls, Essex, Harwinton, Kent, Killingworth, Sherman, Putnam. Republicans win in Westbrook, Sharon, Preston, Middlefield, Goshen, Columbia, Burlington.
9:18: Boughton declares victory in Danbury.
9:05: Another term for Ryan Bingham in Torrington. No surprise there.
9:02: Pavia declares victory in Stamford. Dan Malloy grinds his teeth.
8:58: Ooo, it’s a good night to be a Republican. GOP picks up Somers, and there’s more rolling in on their Twitter.
8:57: The Herald reporting Tim Stewart barely hangs on against Tim O’Brien. Unofficial results show Stewart winning by less than 100 votes!
8:55: TER reports results for Eastford, North Stonington.
8:54: Turnout was modest in most places.
8:53: Just saw a report on Facebook that Democrats are big winners in Portland. Facebook! Oh newfangled technology.
8:47: Middletown Eye reports Giuliano wins. Blogs are totally beating the regular media.
8:46: What. There’s no way to see all towns at once on the Courant’s site. Boo!
8:41: I’m following CTGOP on Twitter, they’ve got good real time results.
Okay! Final election results liveblogging: GO.
8:36: Nationally, it seems like a good night to be a Republican–take from that whatever you will!
Results are starting to come in. Hat City Blog is covering Danbury (and Bethel), while East Haven Politics says the mayor has won there by a narrow margin.
25 responses so far ↓
AP election results (on one page).
Dem Sweep in Branford
Anthony “Unk” DaRos and Fran Walsh win the Selectman race 2 to 1 (66.5%).
Republican John Opie, rumored to have thrown in his lot with Ed Marcus, hangs on to his Third Selectman position with a scant 69 votes.
Dems also sweep the BOE despite a concerted Republican effort to bash them for (gasp!) spending money on the town’s children.
Dems retain commanding margin on the RTM.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Governor Jon Corzine loses in New Jersey.
No surprise about Corzine, he was awful. Christie wasn’t much better.
Wounded Democrat loses statewide race to mediocre candidate… someone send Chris Dodd a damn memo already.
We got murdered in Milford tonight. Absolutely slaughtered. I guess lowering taxes while maintaining services is a BAD thing.
Well, I hope everyone enjoys Mayor 6.7% Increase for another two years. Because this time, he won’t have a Democratic majority board to hold him in check.
Jesus. Something awful is going on, and we as a party had better figure out how to deal with it.
Well the trick is for everyone to fall in line behind Dodd for 2010.
Or we could try to draft Dick Blumenthal to lead the ticket.
Personally I don’t like the risks the Dodd loyalists are insisting we take.
Here’s hoping we don’t live to see Connecticut play a major role in a national Republican rebound.
“Personally I don’t like the risks the Dodd loyalists are insisting we take. ”
Chris Dodd is on the verge of becoming the same entitled suck hole of energy that Sam Gedjenson became over his last three terms. Granted it’s easier to wear out people on two year cycles as opposed to six but the Iowa thing and the loan stuff have run a close second. You can only play defense for so long and as a politician you can only expect your supporters to play defense for so long. Dodd needs to think about what he owes us (Democrats), not what we owe him.
Given the high the Democrats were coming off of from last year, anyone expecting anything more than disappointment was delusional. Furthermore, there’s something to be said for the connection between the centrist voter and the feckless voter. Nationally, people self-identifying as conservatives reached record levels just months after a liberal Democrat received the largest majority of any presidential candidate in over 20 years. “Centrists” are often people who are disillusioned with whomever is in power. Given the large unaffiliated population in the CT, incumbents here are particularly subject to this phenomenon.
That being said, this will probably remain the viewpoint of voters going into next year. Another good Republican showing should probably be anticipated. The question is to what extent. This will be answered both by the actions of state Democrats but, also more noticeably by events at the national and international stage over which we in CT have little/no control.
I’m glad that slug O’Brien lost New Britain!
And so much for Malloy’s legacy in Stamford… that flipped.
And Nystrom in Norwich? Trumbull? New London? Somers? Stratford? Enfield?
I bet if Rell was unsure about seeking re-election, this my just convince her to go for it!
Cheshire was a 5-4 Dem majority. Tonight it went 8-1 GOP (7-2 limit by Charter, so one seat is given to a Dem).
I chalk it up to a combination of the globals and local issues, such as a recent unanimous vote of ‘no confidence’ by the police union in the chief.
>>Another good Republican showing should probably be anticipated.
Well, fund raising should get a little easier for us………….finally.
I’m quite sure there will be people in here spinning for all they’re worth within a matter of hours, but make no mistake:
State Republican Chairman Healy created the environment that made tonight’s results possible.
For decades various people would occasionally appear at local town committee meetings telling us how swell everything was going to be if only we’d give the state party a pile of cash and our first-born child.
Other state party chairs would start heading things in a direction where it might become a useful resource for it’s constituent local organizations; but then get distracted by things………..like having the lights go out, the phones turned off, things like that.
Our most recent former chair, George Gallo, with some help, got the party out of debt for the first time in about a decade just before he left which did put Healy in a better position than any predecessor in years.
Healy’s Leadership
It’s been through Chairman Healy’s personal fund raising abilities and his generous and considerate treatment of superb subordinates that has in turn allowed the party to suffer very light internal turnover.
That retention of our Mensa-staff (that is quite convinced that 90 hours is a “normal” work week) has brought the party to the promised land.
Local town committees can actually rely on state central for help, including hands on, that was simply impossible to offer previously.
The overall “mood” of the voters of course has to be receptive to the message; but if the party isn’t ready to strike at that time it won’t have the far reaching impact the CTGOP did today; and today we took a lot of seats that two years ago would have seemed impossible.
Chairman Healy’s genuine leadership, incredible work ethic, and his willingness to roll up his sleeves and drag his staff, along with anyone else he can enlist, off to any town that asks for help is the foundation upon which the Connecticut Republican Party will continue to build.
>>I chalk it up to a combination of the globals and local issues
Having closely observed more than one local party operation; I would put most of the credit where it belongs:
Cheshire Republican Town Committee Chair, Marlyn Bartoli.
I would seriously doubt that any local party leader anywhere in the state, out worked yours this election cycle.
Certainly none did so while so regularly being treated as a Pinata.
As always in town politics the winners are the incumbents. How many incumbent mayors were defeated? In cities with new faces more often than not I read that the party breakdown is the same. In a nasty issue-oriented West Hartford race all but one GOP incumbent won but the lost seat was replaced by another GOP candidate. It remains a town controlled by Democrats. Enfield a very similar story.
Maybe when all the results are released a pattern of change will appear.
Looks like Independents broke for the GOP in a big way…..Rasmussen nailed the NJ race, his final poll had Christie at 46-43-8, other polls were wrong.
He is also a former member of Team Squid. No thank you.
Someone needs to deal with The Masters of the Universe. Thank you New Jersey!
Maybe a nationwide pattern will emerge that begins to convince President Obama that Team Squid and their buddies need be given their walking papers and get evicted from DC? Maybe Senator Dodd will finally step up to the plate and issue the eviction notice?
With all due respect to ACR, the Republicans and their substantial gains this year, the role of State Central shouldn’t be overstated. Certainly, the dedication of the staff should go without question. However, we’re not talking about a cabal of political masterminds single-handedly manipulating the will of the voting populace. These are people that rally old ladies to hand out palm cards. Their idea of effective counter-marketing was to impersonate people on Twitter. Frankly, in another business someone would have gotten fired for that.
Fundraising is a big deal and any money that the state party was able to pump into local campaigns certainly went a long way. Republicans won, though, because the people that will show up and vote in local elections are still disgusted with their government and, across the state, that means Democrats.
>>the role of State Central shouldn’t be overstated
You don’t know which local races requested and received help; and in all honesty I doubt I know *all* of them either!
However, some local leaders more directly involved our staff and resources than others; while a surprising number haven’t any idea what state central can do for or with them what-so-ever.
Upon reviewing yesterday’s elections; the earlier and more fully a local party engaged state central, the greater the likelihood that city or town enjoyed superior results – with only a few exceptions.
Under a few consecutive party chairs, but most especially over the past year or so, the resources available at CTGOP have mushroomed dramatically.
The state party is able to do more for our constituent local party organizations, because we have more assets at our disposal.
The above, coupled with a more cohesive state party than at any time in memory, allows local organizations to avail themselves of the strength of the state party’s assets integrated seamlessly into their own campaigns.
The Wall Street Journal, the day after a Republican sweep, acknowledged that President Barack Obama was dealt a tough hand, a deep recession and a financial crisis.
“But in New Jersey especially,” the paper notes, “former Goldman Sachs chief Jon Corzine became governor in the belief his financial industry skills would bring the state’s high taxes and high spending under control. He didn’t and he lost. If Washington’s Democrats keep pushing taxes and spending in the same direction, they may be joining Jon Corzine on the retirement beaches soon.”
Here in Connecticut, Democrats ought to heed the same warning. The depth of the disenchantment with Democrats in Connecticut, as reflected in some astonishing spreads – Torrington: DEM 1796; GOP 6571 – should be worrisome to Democratic leaders who interpreted Obama’s win as a signal that his progressive programs would lift all the Democratic boats.
There is room for second thoughts. And some progressives are beginning to bite their nails.
If I were Republicans, I wouldn’t get very excited about this. I will note, I have been very involved in Republican politics in the past and I am a loyal Republican.
But here are a few facts –
1. Local races always have a more Conservative tilt to them. Republicans have always done well in municipal elections in CT.
2. New Jersey and Virginia – they shold have already had Virginia and Corzine was a disaster in NJ.
3. Early prediction for 2010 in CT. Gov. Rell wins if she decides to run. This is only because the Democrats don’t have a good candidate. Senate stays at 12 if Senate R’s are lucky. They now have to defend Debicella’s and Caliguiri’s seats and which D Senator are they going to beat? House will gain a few R seats but it would only be 7 at the most. Still a supermajority for the Democrats.
4. While I think Chris Healy has done a good job as Chairman the state central committee deserves little praise for their efforts. It’s very hard to help with races when you are a member of a dinner club.
Do not assume that members of State Central belong to a dinner club. Many of us are deeply involved in out town committees and worked very hard on local races and I might add were successful!
Barbara J. Ruhe
Wethersfield
>> defend Caliguiri’s seat
Done – bank on it.
>> While I think Chris Healy has done a good job as Chairman the state central committee deserves little praise for their efforts. It’s very hard to help with races when you are a member of a dinner club.
A criticism that has been out of code for a few years now.
The Republican State Central that raised money only so it could exist & did little else and nothing of much or any value for statewide Republicans; of the past 30+ years is no more; and thank heavens for that.
Healy’s full time – he’s not out working elsewhere as has been the previous norm.
Yes! That means we have to actually pay him with checks that don’t bounce; and considering how much of his personal income he donates to various other Republican causes (probably close to 25 or 30% of his gross pay) we pay him less than half what he’s worth.
Two major membership turnovers have changed the face and demography of the state party.
Over one third of the members came on just over 3 years ago; almost a full half have been on only since this past May.
We shut the dinner club mentality down some time ago but most haven’t noticed.
However you did notice the results yesterday.
Healy’s on the phone or texting us constantly, as is his staff.
While no member can make every possible opportunity to lend a hand to those out of our own districts (things such as employment tend to ruin our political careers as volunteers) there has been a marked increase in such activity, with some members often including other locals from their own areas.
Without leaving the 16th district I put on almost 100 miles yesterday doing what I could and whatever was asked of me in four towns, *and* took care of over 200 GOTV phone calls in one of my constituent towns, not my own.
My 16th confederate spent close to 18 hours working in his hometown as the death of a longtime for town committee chair left a massive void there as it regards boots on the ground labor. (I’m not sure they ever really knew how much they would miss him until yesterday.)
I know of several other state central members that worked as hard, and in a few cases a helluva lot harder than I did for the past month and half and most especially yesterday.
Election day GOTV and other activities themselves can alter outcome by up to 7%
Take a look at our results and notice how many were substantially below that benchmark.
>>Do not assume that members of State Central belong to a dinner club.
Could have added “anymore”, Barbara.
It sure liked one until the past few years, I can assure you of that!
1st Gallo would notice which members were receptive to doing anything; then he’d start getting those (few) members to do it.
Healy just kicks butt and takes names and if we want to win we follow his lead; at least that’s pretty much what I think I’m doing.
Good point–I’ve only been on State Central since Chris Healy has been chair–actually I took his place–so I never experienced the “dinner club” mode. Winning really is nice–
Does anyone have a compiled count of the following?
Mayors: Seats gained and lost by Party.
Town Council: Majorities gained and lost by Party.
Board of Education: Majorities gained and lost by Party.
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