Connecticut Local Politics

Here’s what we can take away from last night’s primaries:

Himes a winner

Jim Himes scored a big win last night, beating Lee Whitnum by about, oh, 80%. This is a win-win for him. He gets a huge victory, a lot of free (positive) press, and also gets to give his organization a test-run for the fall. For a low turnout election like this one, organization counts for a lot, and Himes’ organization worked just fine. Chris Shays will certainly have a fight on his hands.

Incumbents, endorsed candidates win

With a couple of notable exceptions, incumbents and endorsed candidates did well last night. A few winners: Kevin Witkos, John Fonfara, Duane Perkins, Jason Rojas, Cliff Thompson, Susan Johnson, Selim Noujaim, Deborah Heinrich, Corky Mazurek and so on.

In Hartford, endorsed candidate Abe Giles mercifully lost to incumbent Marie Kirkley-Bey. In Bridgeport, incumbent Rep. Andres Ayala defeated an endorsed candidate, as did Rep. Chris Caruso. The only real surprises of the night were the defeats of endorsed candidates Rep. Robert Keeley in Bridgeport, Charles Blango in New Haven, and Tom Harrison by Tim LeGeyt in Avon and Canton.

Public financing a wash?

So while public financing may have led to more primaries, few incumbents seem to have been replaced. In primaries like this, with very low turnout, GOTV matters. Endorsed candidates and incumbents have name recognition and organization behind them, and that’s something public financing doesn’t take into account. l want to see how the general election plays out, though, before I make any further calls on public financing.

Bottom line: a primary happened, but not many people showed up, and a lot of the usual suspects walked away with wins.