Update 6:00pm: According to The Everyday Republican the original result stands, and Simonetti is still the winner.

It’s interesting that Bolton, so long dominated by the GOP, was so close this year.

Union is not a big town. In fact, population-wise, it’s Connecticut’s smallest town. Still, I expected some sign of an impending election. Maybe a posting next to the town hall reminding people to vote, or a few yard signs. I didn’t see any of those things. It was very strange, and I started to wonder if perhaps Union had changed its election date to November.

But the election was on, and apparently Union’s voters didn’t need reminding. 43% of voters turned out (the best turnout I’ve heard of from yesterday), and here are the results:

Republican Joseph L. Kratochvil, with 72 votes, and petitioning candidate Albert L. Goodhall Jr., with 124, won the two selectman seats, defeating Democrat Paul M. Rizner, whose tally was 50. First Selectman Tom Fitzgerald was unopposed. (Summers)

There’s still a tight board of education race which may influence the outcome of other BOE races.

Source
Summers, Stephanie. “Election Results: Union.” Hartford Courant 7 May, 2007.

Bronko will have a Republican majority to work with on the Board of Burgesses.

More than 60% of voters approved Renaissance Place. Bronko got approximately 40% of the vote–the rest was split between Democrat Curt Bosco and independent candidate Peter Jurzynski.

Problems with voting machines at one polling station delayed the results. According to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, improperly manufactured ballots were to blame. Apparently the ballots were too wide for the machine, and caused jams.

In Bolton, the race for First Selectman is down to four votes! Bruno Simonetti, a Republican, apparently won the race over Democrat Leslie Shea by a total of 450-446. A recount should happen within the week. Full results here.

No major sea changes here unless Shea can make up the votes in Bolton.

Update: Bob Burbank was elected in Andover (he ran unopposed), but the chair of the board of finance lost his seat.

8:37 – Naugatuck voters, listen in to WATR 1320 for live updates. Right now, Bronko is slightly ahead, while Renaissance Place is up by “a couple hundred votes.”

8:39 – Naugatuck – with three polling places reporting in, Bronko 963 Bosco 822 Jurzynski 545.

Renaissance Place is up 1317 to 890.

8:43 Democrat Cynthia Kata wins in Jewett City, getting slightly more than half the vote. Turnout was 26%.

8:48 Naugatuck – Bronko (R) 1800+ Bosco (D) 1600+ Jurzynski (I) 1178

Renaissance Place is winning 2367 to 1812.

9:05 – Naugatuck Mayor – Bronko (R) 2157; Bosco (D) 1898; Jurzynski (I) 1368
Renaissance Place – Yes 3079; No 2045

Bronko starting to pull away, Renaissance Place seems pretty certain. A very interesting evening. One more polling place and absentee ballots to go.

No word on Woodbridge, Bethany, Bolton or Andover.

9:30 The Connecticut GOP blog Everyday Republican is reporting that Bruno Simonetti, a Republican, has won by a mere four votes over Democrat Leslie Shea: 450-446! There will be a recount.

9:31 SOTS Bysiewicz is on WATR now.

She is saying that some of the ballots were cut too wide, which is why they jammed in Naugatuck.

9:41 Woodbridge and Bethany are in. In Bethany, incumbent Derrylynn Gorski (D) defeated challenger Sal Amadeo (R) 1069-861 for First Selectman.

In Woodbridge incumbent Democrat Ed Sheehy defeated Republican Chris Dickerson 1536-1282 for First Selectman.

9:44 Mike Bronko has won in Naugatuck. Renaissance Place passes in a landslide.

9:50 – CT Blue reports that Democrats swept Republicans in Groton City.

In Naugatuck, Republicans will keep a majority on the Board of Burgesses.

And that may be it for updates for a while! A good night for the parties in power. The big stories are Naugatuck, and the close election in Bolton.

A report out of Naugatuck says that there has been a problem with four voting machines there. Don’t know what the problem is, but it looks like some of the ballots will have to be counted by hand. If anyone else has some info. on this, please post it here or email me.

The Rep-Am’s NewsBlog says that turnout was at about 33% as of 6pm.

Still better than 2005. Then voter turnout was 3.73%. Having more than one candidate per position helps, as does the publicity this election has generated. Still, no Democracy Cup for Jewett City this year.

Naugatuck, where voters are actually deciding the future of their city by casting a ballot for or against a controversial downtown revitalization plan (as well as for local elected officials), is also not seeing strong turnout. According to the Republican-American’s NewsBlog, turnout was around 17% by 2pm.

If you’re in any of the towns having an election today, GO VOTE! There’s still two hours before the polls close.

Source
“Jewett City election sees 14 percent turnout.” Norwich Bulletin 7 May, 2007.

Important: This will be the first municipal election where optical scan machines will be in use!

There’s a lot of information to go through on the CT Elections Wiki for the May elections. Here are a couple of late updates:

Woodbridge

The Orange Bulletin has gone all-out for these elections. You can read about the candidates for First Selectman: challenger Chris Dickerson (R) and incumbent Ed Sheehy (D). There are also pieces on the Republican and Democratic undertickets. You can also watch the candidates’ debate from Woodbridge, which was put up onto Google Video by the Amity League of Women Voters. Outstanding work!

Bethany

The Orange Bulletin once again has good stuff on the candidates for the top job and other positions. For First Selectman: incumbent Derrylynn Gorski (D) and challenger Salvatore Amadeo. The underticket: Democrats and Republicans.

Good stuff from the Orange Bulletin, which covers the “Amity” towns of Orange, Woodbridge and Bethany.

Naugatuck

Once again, Renaissance Place is dominating this race. The Waterbury Republican-American has a final story today about the development plan, plus a quote from outgoing Mayor San Angelo saying that he believes it will pass.

Read more about this election here.

Andover

Andover’s current First Selectman, Robert Burbank, was endorsed by both parties for a full term of his own. Burbank, a Republican, took over after the town very nearly fell into financial ruin, and has been given credit for helping to right the ship.

You can view the ballot for Andover’s election here.

Bolton

There’s info on who the candidates are over at the CT Election wiki. Growth and its many problems seem to be a big piece of this campaign, at least according to a recent article in the Journal-Inquirer.

Republicans did very well in the last election in 2005. We’ll see if they continue their dominance.

Boroughs

I’ve written about the elections coming up in Jewett City and Groton City. Other boroughs (sections of towns) having elections are as follows:

Bantam (Litchfield)
Danielson (Killingly)
Fenwick (Old Saybrook)
Litchfield (Litchfield)
Newtown (Newtown)
Stonington (Stonington)
Woodmont (Milford)

Danielson’s election should be boring–all the candidates there are running unopposed.

I’ll be following all of these elections closely tomorrow, but, if things stay true to form, we may not actually know who won some of these races until Tuesday.

Republican Mayoral candidate Mike Bronko is for it, as is outgoing Republican Mayor Ron San Angelo (who is leaving to take some sort of job with the state). Democrat Curtis Bosco has said he’ll vote against the plan, despite having supported it two years ago when he lost to San Angelo. Independent candidate Peter Jurzynski has never supported the plan.

The plan itself will reshape downtown Naugatuck, and cost the town $29 million (the rest of the project would be funded by the Conroy Development Company).

In 2005 Bosco and Jurzynski, who faced each other in a primary for the Democratic nomination (Jurzynski lost and ran as a petitioning candidate), split the Democratic vote and allowed San Angelo to win another term as mayor. In 2007, the winner will likely be determined by how the Renaissance Place vote goes. If it passes, Bronko will probably become mayor. If not, Bosco has a good shot. Jurzynski, who is sort of a serial candidate, is unlikely to place anywhere but third.

The Board of Burgesses (so-called because Naugatuck is technically a borough that is coextensive with the town) is currently dominated by Republicans. This is the election I’ll be following most closely on May 7th.

Not so this year. The usual Democratic suspects are running for re-election, but so is a Republican slate and even a slate from the Jewett City Party, a small independent party run by Ron Ward.

Jewett City, like Groton City, is a small urban section of a larger town. Unlike Groton City, however, the borough of Jewett City doesn’t have it’s own police and fire departments (these were phased out in 1995–although the borough does have two resident state troopers), and is much more closely linked with its parent town. Griswold’s town hall, for example, is located in Jewett City. The borough does control utilities like electricity and a sewer system, and pays for the state troopers and fire hydrants in the borough. Jewett City is governed by a warden and four burgesses. More information on Jewett City can be found on its website.

This year’s race for warden and burgesses is surprisingly lively. Incumbent Warden Cynthia Kata (D) has been the target of recent grumbling over a long vacation she took, and, for the first time in years, candidates have appeared to oppose her. Republican candidate Melinda Seaman Brooks wants to see a changing of the guard, although she agrees with Kata on many issues.

The wild card is Ron Ward of the Jewett City Party, which very well may be the state’s smallest political party (except, of course, for the even tinier Connecticut For Lieberman). Ward petitioned his way onto the ballot (he only needed two signatures, owing to Jewett City’s small voter turnout), and has been making some waves. He advocates more business development in the borough, but his main claim to fame is his appearance on a Daily Show bit about the ringing of church bells in the town. He also ruffled some feathers when he alleged that Brooks had improperly used the town of Griswold’s seal on her campaign website (the charge was dismissed as unfounded in April).

The Norwich Bulletin took an interest in the livlier-than-usual campaign, and ran pieces last Sunday on each of the three candidates for warden: Ron Ward, Melinda Seaman Brooks and incumbent Cynthia Kata.

No matter how this one goes, turnout should be better than 2005.

Municipal elections often produce amazingly terrible websites. Often, it seems that local political parties think that having a presence on the web isn’t terribly important, and this attitude is apparent in many of the sites I’ve visited lately.

This thinking is sadly incorrect. As the May elections near, I’ve noticed more and more links coming to this site from searches related to town races. In fact, there are very few reliable outlets for news concerning these elections as newspapers’ local coverage recedes, so voters turn to the web. This is one of the reasons I set up the CT Elections Wiki (which you should go add something to, right now. The password is election). Smart candidates and parties will establish a useful, findable and informative website, and they’ll do so as early as possible.

What are the qualities a good municipal election website should have?

Clarity and simple design. The page should be easy to use and look at, and should incorporate at least some of the principles of good web design. Just because you have found an animated GIF of a flag waving does NOT mean you are required to use it. For example, Naugatuck mayoral candidate Curt Bosco’s page is a cluttered mess, with a huge (HUGE!) banner at the top with the aforementioned flag GIF, a big sign, and a scrolling news ticker. The navigation is below the banner, and is surprisingly difficult to find. I clicked on the “issues” link only to find myself, alas, staring at black italic text on a gray background. Very hard to read. Worse, the links are still in white–which on a light-ish gray background is almost impossible to see.

Bosco’s main rival, Republican Mike Bronko, has a much simpler page, although it looks like he lifted his “I Like Mike” button from a certain dictionary company (although it may just be the red background). There is still an obnoxious scrolling ticker on the interior pages of the site, but the homepage is refreshingly movement-free. The navigation is readable and easy to find. However, the site doesn’t have all that much information on it. The “platform” page is notably spare, containing only eight one-sentence pledges. From a design standpoint, however, Bronko’s page far outdoes Bosco’s. Not that that’s saying much.

The Bolton Republicans website has an excellent design. It’s clean, clear, and easy to navigate.

The Woodbridge Republicans have a nice site–if you’re using Internet Explorer. I don’t recommend going there if you’re using Firefox. Trust me.

Informative: As we’ve already seen, even a site that has a decent design is useless if there’s not much information there. Mike Bronko’s page needs more information–what does exist there seems shallow, and if I were a voter trying to decide whether to vote for him, I’d be a little turned off by that.

None of the sites I visited had much information beyond the snippets that might occupy space on a flyer. In fact, a lot of candidates simply turned their fliers into PDFs and posted them.

It’s also good to keep things up to date. The website for the Woodbridge Democrats proclaims that “The Woodbridge Municipal Election is just six months away: May 2, 2005.”

Serves as a gateway for fundraising: Few sites had any way to donate, and none of them had a way to do so easily online.

Findable: So important. For example, a search using a common search string, naugatuck election 2007, turned up CTLP, the CT Election Wiki and tons of commercial sites having to do with Naugatuck on the first page of results, but didn’t turn up the mayoral candidates’ sites, the party sites or any other candidate sites in the first ten pages of results. No one is looking that far back.

The good news is that searches for the mayoral candidates’ names turned up their sites right away, as the first results. This is good. However, in other towns, the names of leading candidates did not turn up candidate sites right away. For example, a search for Derrylyn Gorski didn’t find the Bethany Democrats’ site until the middle of the second page.

Municipal candidates need to learn about Search Engine Optimization if they want voters to be able to find them online. A good plan for candidates is to start relatively early, and try to get as many other sites to link to yours as possible. Search engines like links.

Interactivity: One of the major purposes of a candidate website is to rally the candidates’ base and help to create a sense of community among them. One way to do that is to have a website with some interactive features, like a message board or a blog. No candidates in this round of May elections are doing this. Update The Jewett City Party, a third party in the tiny borough of Jewett City (Griswold) is the only party or individual candidate I know of to have a functioning and up-to-date blog.

A lot of new and exciting developments are happening with campaign sites in national and state races. However, municipal races often seem to be stuck in 1998 when it comes to using the web. In time, as web tools become easier to use, I expect this will change. For now, however, the current crop of May campaign sites are a disappointment.

There’s the Town of Groton, which is governed by a 45-member Representative Town Meeting (RTM) and a 9-member Town Council, one of which is elected by the others to be mayor. There is also a Town Manager which administers town departments. The RTM’s duties include “[R]eviewing the actions of the Council and the power of initiative to institute legislation or force reconsideration of legislation already adopted. In financial matters, the RTM must approve the budget before the Council sets the tax mill rate.” The council appoints the Town Manager and other offices, approves the budget and sets the mill rate.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the City of Groton, which is a subdivision of Groton occupying three square miles along the Thames River south of I-95. The City is governed by a strong mayor and a six-member City Council, and has separate departments of health, utilities and police, as well as others. It has a somewhat complicated relationship with the Town of Groton.

A current bone of contention between the two is the possible closure of the City’s four elementary schools. The City has no control over education within its borders–that’s a Town matter.

Groton City holds its elections in May, while the Town of Groton holds its elections in November. Groton City’s mayor and city council are all Democrats. This has been the case since 1999, since a Republican mayor and council were voted out.

Katie Warchut of the New London Day has written two articles (both published today) about the Democrats and the Republicans running for election on May 7th. It does look like it’ll be another victory for the Democrats, however, as even the Republican candidates can’t find anything bad to say about the governing Dems.

Other towns and boroughs will be having their elections May 7th, as well. More on them as the date approaches.

The events will take place on Tuesday, April 10th, at the Woodbridge Senior Center (4 meeting House Lane) and Naugatuck Senior Center (300 Meadow St.). The Woodbridge event is at 12:30 PM and Naugatuck is at 1:30 PM.

For more information on the May elections, which are being held in the towns of Andover, Bolton, Bethany, Woodbridge, Naugatuck, Union and other smaller jurisdictions and autonomous neighborhoods (such as Jewett City, which is having an interesting race), you can see our list of articles here or check out the CT Elections Wiki page on the subject. Less than a month to go!

Bronko said he will continue with the work San Angelo has done. Bronko supports a $729 million downtown revitalization project called Renaissance Place, which San Angelo has supported. Although he supports the concept of Renaissance Place, Bronko said he wants to see more information about it before giving it his total approval.

Bronko said economic growth will be his major focus if he is elected.

“We need to continue to create an atmosphere where businesses of all sizes can thrive here,” he said. “That will expand our tax base.”

He considers himself a fiscal conservative, and lowering taxes will be a major concern. (Singley)

His wife is a member of the Board of Burgesses (town council), but she is not running for re-election.

Source
Singley, Paul. “NAUGATUCK: Bronko has blue-collar roots.” Waterbury Republican-American 2 February, 2007.

The Rep-Am’s news blog is reporting that Stephanie Gunnoud has dropped out of the race to be Naugatuck’s mayor. Republicans suddenly find themselves without a candidate, again.

Torrington

They also report that Owen Quinn may return to challenge Mayor Ryan Bingham in a rematch of 2005, when Quinn, then the mayor, lost to Bingham in an upset that made national news.

Hartford

Mike Peters reflects on Eddie Perez in this Stan Simpson column.

Parties this week chose their slates in the towns holding elections this May. Here’s what we’ve got:

Andover

First Selectman Robert Burbank (R) has been endorsed by both parties. Burbank, an accountant, has been steering the town through a fiscal crisis after the original First Selectwoman, Charlene Barnett, resigned due to her role in the crisis and the interim First Selectman moved to Massachusetts. You can read about the crisis in Burbank’s letter to the town. This is a strong vote of confidence in a town that usually has pretty interesting partisan battles–either that, or no one else wanted to run for the position. Burbank was the only candidate to put his name forward to become First Selectman last year. Given the state of the town’s finances, who can blame them? Still, it looks like Burbank has done a lot to set things back on track.

See the full slate on the CT Election Wiki: Andover election May 2007

Bolton

Leslie Shea (D) is running against Bruno Simonetti (R) for the position of First Selectman, which has been held for the past 18 years by Republican Robert Morra. Shea is a current member of the Board of Selectmen. She defeated Simonetti in 2005.

See the full slate on the CT Election Wiki: Bolton election May 2007

Bethany

Republican Salvatore Amadeo is running against incumbent First Selectwoman Derrylyn Gorski, who is running for a third term.

See the full slate on the CT Election Wiki: Bethany election May 2007

Woodbridge

First Selectman Edward Maum Sheehy (D) is running for his first full term. Sheehy took over for Amey Marrella when she left to take a job with the state. He is opposed by Republican Selectman Chris Dickerson.

See the full slate on the CT Election Wiki: Woodbridge election May 2007

Please go add to the CT Election Wiki if you know of more candidates, candidate websites or any other information that would be helpful to voters!

Gunnoud, a Republican who has been San Angelo’s aide for two years, saw the announcement as an opportunity. She was endorsed by state Rep. Kevin DelGobbo, R-Naugatuck. The nomination was seconded by San Angelo.

DelGobbo said San Angelo’s announcement created a challenge for the Republicans to find a good candidate, and he believes Gunnoud is that person.
[...]
“I don’t think age matters,” she said. “And I don’t think gender matters.” (Singley)

If elected, Gunnoud would join a growing group of young Republicans holding office at the local level. Her election is far from a guarantee, of course, but the recent entrance of perennial candidate Peter Jurzynski into the race makes it more likely. Last time around, San Angelo defeated both Jurzynski and Democrat Curtis Bosco–Bosco is again the Democrats’ choice. Jurzynski may try to primary Bosco again (he lost to him in 2005, and ran as an independent), which would only help Gunnoud.

Bosco and Jurzynski had a fun primary fight in 2005. I wrote about it here and here.

Sources
Singley, Paul. “NAUGATUCK: Jurzynski hopes fourth time will bring success.” Waterbury Republican-American 23 January, 2007.

Singley, Paul and Jodie Mozdzer. “NAUGATUCK: San Angelo aide wins GOP nod.” Waterbury Republican-American 23 January, 2007.

Mayor Ronald S. San Angelo will not run for mayor in the May election and may leave office as early as the beginning of February.

San Angelo, who has served as mayor since 2003, said Friday he has a job offer that pays more than the $68,000 annual salary he earns as mayor. He refused to discuss the offer.
[...]
The earliest he would leave would be Feb. 8. That’s because, per town charter, there would need to be a special election to decide who would take his place and serve out his term if he left before Feb. 8.

If San Angelo leaves Feb. 8, Deputy Mayor Tamath K. Rossi, also a Republican, would fill the post until the winner of the May 7 election is inaugurated on May 21. (Singley)

The scuttlebutt seems to be that San Angelo may have landed a state job (according to the article, he’s long been looking for one), including a possible post within the Rell Administration. However, there’s no confirmation of anything right now–we’ll presumably know soon.

At this point, Naugatuck Republicans are adrift. Deputy Mayor Tamath Rossi is not a candidate–she was approached to run but declined. Democrats have nominated Curtis Bosco, who narrowly lost to San Angelo in 2005 largely because independent candidate Peter Jurzynski split the Democratic vote. Jurzynski may run again as an independent or force a primary.

Of major concern to people in Naugatuck is a downtown redevelopment deal, which is also on the May ballot. San Angelo was a major mover behind that project, which has been in the works for years.

Source
Singley, Paul. “NAUGATUCK: SanAngelo won’t run again, may resign.” Waterbury Republican-American 20 January, 2007.

Towns with elections on May 7th, 2007:

Andover
Bolton
Bethany
Naugatuck
Woodbridge
Union

There are also May 7th elections in the following boroughs (parent town in parentheses):

Bantam (Litchfield)
Danielson (Killingly)
Fenwick (Old Saybrook)
Groton City (Groton)
Jewett City (Griswold)
Litchfield (Litchfield)
Newtown (Newtown)
Stonington (Stonington)
Woodmont (Milford)

Primaries, if there are to be any, will be held on Monday, March 12th.

(more information can be found on the Secretary of the State’s website)