Connecticut Local Politics

Police Chief Neil O’Leary may join what is starting to become a crowded Democratic mayoral field in Waterbury:
“I’m very strongly considering a political career,” O’Leary said. “If I did make that move, and give up police work, I can’t think of anywhere I would rather do it than in the city I grew up in. [...]

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Paul Vance officially kicked off his mayoral campaign with a fundraiser yesterday, and had this to say:
[T]he vast majority of Waterbury voters don�t care how much money you�ve raised. They want to know what ideas you have and what you intend to do once in office. I have been gaining support and momentum by visiting [...]

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I know what you want–local mayoral politics!
Capitol Watch has a great piece about a looming primary in Waterbury between board of aldermen president Paul Vance and Mayor Mike Jarjura. Vance has been planning this run since at least last July, when he announced his intentions. It’s unclear whether Jarjura will run again, but if [...]

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Bill Finch refuses to make a decision about whether or not to resign his Senate seat. His reason? According to the CT Post Finch’s deadline is when the state Supreme Court rules on Caruso’s challenge of the primary. Because that could change everything, right?
Understandably some people in Trumbull and Monroe aren’t [...]

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Rep. Chris Caruso (D-Bridgeport) will appeal to the state Supreme Court, and is asking that the Bridgeport mayoral election scheduled for next Tuesday be postponed.
The appeal asks the Supreme Court to postpone the general election scheduled Tuesday and reverse a lower court ruling rejecting Caruso’s challenge of the Sept. 11 primary.
It was not known Wednesday [...]

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When Rep. Chris Caruso lost the Bridgeport mayoral election by less than 300 votes to Sen. Bill Finch in September, he quickly vowed to challenge the results in court, citing multiple abuses. Today Caruso lost that challenge on the grounds that the evidence presented was not enough to overturn the election.
“Political contests inherently produce strong [...]

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Rep. Chris Caruso is filing a challenge to the results of the Bridgeport primary in superior court, and calling for the results to be overturned, citing fraud and abuse.
Caruso has submitted affidavits from eight voters.
Two voters claim they were told to fill in the circle for State Senator Bill Finch, when getting instructions on how [...]

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Here’s the list of polling places that will be audited by the SOTS:
Harford: Sands Elementary School
Hartford: Rawson School
Hartford: Kennelly School
New Haven: Wexler-Grant School
Derby: Irving Elementary School
Bridgeport: John Winthrop School
Bridgeport: Bassick High School
Bridgeport: Central High School
East Hartford: Mayberry School
Cornwall: Town Hall
Cromwell: Cromwell Middle School

Three Bridgeport polling places are on there. …Speaking of, has anyone heard the [...]

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Bridgeport
Chris Caruso is going to fight on, claiming that reported voting irregularities have put the result in doubt. This will probably end up in court. Will it hold up? Who knows? It’s not a bad thing to go through the process, though. Let’s have the investigation, and find out for certain if there were irregularities. [...]

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The big news tonight will be the wins of Eddie Perez, by a lot, and Bill Finch, by a small and possibly contested amount. We’ll know more tomorrow, but the story of tonight is that endorsed candidates and incumbents were largely successful.
An exception was Art Ward, who won a contentious race in Bristol, defeating [...]

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Okay, polls are closed. Results should be coming in soon. Watch this space–we’ll post ‘em as soon as we hear. If you hear before we do, post what you know in the comments.
Update 10:00pm
August Anthony Palmer a winner in Oxford
Caruso hasn’t conceded yet…
Update 9:37pm
Sorry about the outages. I’m actually watching the server load, THIS [...]

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The Courant reports on conditions in Hartford:
With heavy rain falling and more expected later in the day, voters in Hartford’s Democratic primary trickled to the polls Tuesday, despite a four-man field trying to generate turnout.
Midday turnout at several polling places topped 10 percent, an indication that Democrats would hit their typical turnout of slightly more [...]

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Click here for a list of today’s primaries. If you’re registered as a member of a party having a primary in your town, go vote!
Any thoughts or predictions? I’m thinking Finch over Caruso in Waterbury Bridgeport (oops–guess I must be missing Waterbury this time around), Eddie Perez scoring a Pyhrric victory in Hartford, and Ward [...]

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A quick word: if you’re interested in Bristol politics, you desperately need to read Steve Collins’s Bristol News blog. Collins is a reporter for the Bristol Press and has done an incredible job covering the primary and Bristol politics in general over there.
Bristol politics have always been bare-knuckle (sometimes literally), and this year’s bitter Democratic [...]

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If you aren’t registered to vote, you have until Monday, September 10th at 12:00pm to go in person to your registrar of voters and sign up with a party. According to the Secretary of the State’s office, 23 towns and cities will be holding primaries.
Click here for the total list of primaries from the Secretary [...]

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Here’s the stream of the debate between Chris Caruso and Bill Finch, in which they will respond to taped questions from Bridgeport voters. Hopefully, the stream will actually work! Debate starts at 8pm.

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You have got to be kidding me:
City voters may � or may not � have heard the last from Mayor John M. Fabrizi.
Although Fabrizi bowed out of the race for mayor several months ago, and said he’s not seeking re-election, speculation is rampant that the Democratic mayor may yet end up on the ballot in [...]

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�If Democrats desire to see substantive progress in the state�s largest city
continue, they will cast their vote for state Sen. Bill Finch on Tuesday.�
–The Connecticut Post, in its endorsement of Sen. Bill Finch for mayor of Bridgeport.

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Here’s some news from primaries around the state today:
New Haven
The New Haven Independent is running an interesting article about the differences between three Democratic candidates for alderman in Dixwell. At issue is crime, Yale and independence (or lack thereof) from City Hall. The primary is basically the general election. Yesterday’s New Haven Register has more [...]

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State Rep. Chris Caruso and the Citizens for Real Change slate of candidates will take an “ethics pledge” today at city hall. Here’s what the pledge will be, according to a release from the Caruso campaign:
Reform City Ethics Commission: Give the Ethics Commission some teeth by allowing them to impose [...]

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