Justin Elicker delivered a conciliatory victory speech Tuesday after unseating New Haven Mayor Toni N. Harp, the inevitable result since his overwhelming Democratic primary win, while Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim said he was humbled after prevailing over the write-in candidacy of state Sen. Marilyn Moore, the loser of a close and bitterly contested primary.
Luke Bronin, a Democrat with ambitions for higher office, was re-elected to a second four-year term as mayor of Hartford, topping a five-candidate field that included the former mayor, Eddie A. Perez. Mark Boughton, a three-time Republican candidate for governor, won his tenth two-year term as mayor of Danbury with 54 percent of the vote, dispatching an energetic and well-funded challenger
Bridgeport and New Haven, the two largest cities in Connecticut and the keys to Democratic victories in statewide contests, commanded the attention of the state’s Democrats, while Republicans celebrated unseating the Democratic first selectmen in the Gold Coast suburb of Fairfield and the small town of Sprague in the Quiet Corner.
Elicker won in a landslide, winning by more than a 2-1 margin. In Bridgeport, Democrats prepared for a long night of counting paper ballots by hand, but their concerns were unfounded. Ganim also claimed a 2-1 margin of victory.
State Rep. Brenda Kupchick, R-Fairfield, gifted the GOP with an early and decisive victory over First Selectman Michael C. Tetreau, an eight-year incumbent wounded by the arrest of his public works director and unease over a tax base jolted by the departure of its largest taxpayer, General Electric, and purchase of GE’s campus by a non-profit, Sacred Heart University.
The target in Sprague was state Sen. Cathy A. Osten, a Democrat and one of three state senators who also are chief elected officials, dual roles that often drag state issues like tolls and taxes into municipal elections. Osten, who is co-chair the legislature’s Appropriations Committee, lost to Cheryl Allen Blanchard, 568 to 489.
The other senators holding municipal office, First Selectman Norman Needleman of Essex and Mayor Daniel Champagne of Vernon, each were re-elected. Needleman is a Democrat, Champagne a Republican.
Republican Timothy C. Griswold unseated Democrat Bonnie A. Reemsnyder as first selectman of Old Lyme, leading a full slate of GOP candidates into office on his coattails. Amid claims of mismanagement, Reemsnynder resigned as chair of the Connecticut Port Authority in July at the request of Gov. Ned Lamont.
Republican Mayor Erin Stewart cruised to re-election in Democratic New Britain with 60 percent of the vote.
In Danbury, Boughton weathered criticism over his approach to education and infrastructure, and came under scrutiny for making a third run at the governor’s office. He was the convention-endorsed candidate for governor last year, but lost the primary election to Bob Stefanowski. In victory, he was defiant.
“At the end of the day, they threw every single thing that they had at us; every single thing,” Boughton said. “Think about that — we had unions, we had party union leaders running around, we had the Working Families Party running around. We had all these different organizations and groups that were trying to get us out of office, and guess what? They failed tonight and we won.”
His opponent, Christopher C. Setaro, a former city council president who ran against him in 2001, matched Boughton in fundraising, raising hopes among statewide Democrats of capturing the state’s seventh largest city, capitalizing on gains in nearby suburbs in 2017 and the victory last year by Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, over a conservative GOP incumbent. On Tuesday, Democrats won the races for first selectman in all five suburbs bordering Danbury: Ridgefield, Redding, Bethel, Brookfield and New Fairfield.
“If you’re on top of things and you care about people,” Boughton said, “it means that people will send you back to office time and time again.”
The race was one of toughest for Boughton, who was neck and neck with Setaro in fundraising – both campaigns put the final tally around $180,000 – and has fended off claims of being detached and disengaged.
Democrats had their own pickups, flipping Republican seats in Madison and East Haven. Democrat Peggy Lyons was elected first selectman in Madison, beating a two-term Republican incumbent, Tom Banisch. Senate Democrats saw the race as building a foundation for the re-election campaign of Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford. Madison is part of her district.
In East Haven, Democrat Joseph Carfora defeated “Big” Steve Tracey to win the open seat long held by a Republican, Joe Maturo Jr.
Open races for mayor in Middletown and first selectman in Greenwich produced a split.
Democrats claimed victory in fractious Middletown, where 27-year-old Ben Florsheim, an aide to U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, defeated Republican Sebastian Giuliano, a former mayor. The GOP did the same in Greenwich, with state Rep. Fred Camillo the convincing victor over Democrat Jill Oberlander.
Greenwich once was an automatic win for Republicans, but Democrats won two Republican state legislative seats last year, setting the stage for what Democrats thought would be a good shot of winning the seat opened by the decision of First Selectman Peter J. Tesei not to run again.
In Middletown, Florsheim arrived to chants of “Ben, Ben, Ben” at La Boca, the Mexican restaurant where his supporters were crammed into a long narrow room on the side of the restaurant, eating nachos and drinking beer.
“This is an opportunity tonight for the work to begin, for the work to continue,” he said. “There has been outstanding progress made in Middletown, and we said it every day on this campaign that wherever I go in the state, wherever I go through-out the city, people are excited about the potential of this community.”
Republicans had ambitions for winning the mayoral race in Bristol, a city carried by the GOP in the 2016 presidential and 2018 gubernatorial races. But Democrat Ellen Zoppo-Sassu won a second term with 58 percent of the vote
Democratic mayors re-elected in other cities included Marcia A. Leclerc in East Hartford, Curt B. Leng in Hamden, Kevin Scarpati in Meriden, Benjamin Blake in Milford, Michael E. Passero in New London, Harry W. Rilling in Norwalk, and Neil O’Leary in Waterbury.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan of New Canaan, a Donald J. Trump delegate who nearly lost two years ago, had an easy time this year, winning with 61 percent.
Voters went to the polls in 165 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities, and chief elected officials were on the ballot in 128. Democrats did nominate candidates for mayor or first selectman in 26 communities; Republicans, 23.
Elicker seemed assured of an easy finish after winning the Democratic primary, but Harp continued on, utilizing the ballot line provided by the Working Families Party. Some of Harp’s supporters tried to rally black voters as a matter of racial pride. At a sparsely attended march over the weekend, Harp said, “For too long, the Democratic Party has taken many of us for granted.”
One of her supporters, Boise Kimber, warned of a white takeover.
“In the past few weeks, there have been some pretty divisive things that have been said,” Elicker said at his victory party. But he quickly added, “When I think about the future, Mayor Harp is not going to be remembered for this past three or four weeks.”
Harp will be remembered favorably for her career as a state senator and mayor, and all that she did for New Haven. The crowd cheered, and some appeared visibly relieved at Elicker’s tone — and his account of a cordial congratulatory call from the mayor.
“Very gracious,” said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M.Looney, D-New Haven. “That should help get him off on the right foot.”
