This Week's News:

Ortiz submits petition for Bridgeport senate challenge

Does Trump define the CT GOP? ‘Wrong question,’ says chair.

Where oh where did the CT voters go?

One word: missing.

As of Friday morning, there are still no “official” voter turnout numbers. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations put CT voter turnout at about 12-13% overall. Can you believe this? What happened?

Some will say there wasn’t anything exciting about the US Senate race; the Secretary of the State and Treasurer primaries or even the Republican US Congress primary in the 4th District. There were a few fireworks in the one Senate primary and the seven house seats for sure.

But if you look at the “raw” unofficial numbers - out of the 3,517,000 residents of the state – 2,240,905 are registered to vote (there are 463,656 Republicans and 825,286 Democrats and a whopping 930,963 unaffiliated and throw in several thousand other minor party registrations).

In the main event - the US Senate seat - even with former President Trump jumping into the fray at the last minute, the unofficial turnout was less than impressive - 94,000 Republicans showed up or sent in absentee ballots for the right to challenge current US Senator Dick Blumenthal in November. That’s about a 20% turnout of Republicans. Somewhat in the low range of election officials' anticipated voter turnout.

In the Democratic primary for Secretary of the State and Treasurer, it paid to be the endorsed candidate. Despite the campaign noise and the proliferation of mailers, paid media ads, and some lawn signs, the turnout for Democrats came in around 15% while Republican voter turnout held around 20%.

Stephanie Thomas, a freshman legislator from Norwalk came in with an unofficial but impressive 75% of Democratic voters while Dominic Rapini, a marketing executive, captured 58% of the Republican turnout. It’s been almost 20 years since a male has held this seat.

In the Treasurer’s race, history might be made not just in CT but in the nation if primary winner Erick Russell pulls off an expected victory in the fall as the first Black LGBTQ candidate elected to statewide office in national history, according to the Atlanta-based nonprofit, The LGBTQ Institute. You might recall CT elected the first LGBTQ statewide official when CT voters affirmed Kevin Lembo in the 2010 election as CT’s Comptroller. (I know often that many would be preferred to be recognized for what they did, not who they are, but sometimes it does matter as role models for those up-and-coming aspiring candidates to know that it is possible to break a couple of molds!) 

In our ELECTION UPDATE we issued earlier, we outlined the winners and losers and still-to-be-determined races for the CT House and Senate seats. Different from the statewide races where being the endorsed candidate did mostly matter (except in the US Senate race) in the local primaries sometimes it didn't matter. Take current State Rep. Cindy Harrison (R-69th) who failed to get her party endorsement at the local convention. She came back with a roar and beat her opponent to secure not only the nomination, but in this case, the election - the Democrats in that district failed to seat a candidate for the fall election. 

And current State Representative from Bridgeport Jack Hennessey (D- 127^th) in the race against Marcus Brown for the 127th seat is still in limbo as the margin in their election lies at five votes in favor of Brown.

And then there’s the Senate seat in Bridgeport's 23^rd District, where current senator Dennis Bradley has come under fire from a variety of sources and got himself into a pickle with the Bridgeport town committee and ran as a challenger. On election night as the vote count kept flipping depending on polling districts and absentee ballots, the unofficial results have him losing to the endorsed candidate, Reverend Herron Gaston. Unofficial results have him losing the race by 147 votes.

So as the Secretary of the State finalizes the final voter turnout and vote counts, not much will change based on the primaries. The fall election will definitely take a turn for the “crazy” as candidates will need to have a robust absentee ballot plan in place as well as the traditional GOTV.

Hopefully, with the extended use of absentee ballots, we’ll see some real participation from CT’s 2.2 million registered voters and the unaffiliated will certainly have A LOT to say come November!  

With the end of summer, comes the start of school. For those of us with kids, that is full of school supplies, school lunch preparation and school buses. The problem with this year, which has remained a constant since the start of the pandemic, is finding and training school bus drivers to fulfill that all important role. Many school districts are beginning to post their bus routes for the upcoming school year while many more are still trying to work around a shortage of drivers. In South Windsor, the school notified parents on Monday that "the bus driver shortage will impact our school community again this year." In a letter to families, Director of Finance and Operations Chris Chemerka says the situation from last year has not improved. Many bus drivers retired or found other jobs in 2020 when students were learning remotely. Once they started to go back to hybrid schedules, it was easier for districts to staff routes. When kids went back for five days of in-person learning, districts struggled to staff up to pre pandemic levels, which impacted school districts and parents alike last year.

In other municipal news, the City of New Britain Mayor and her team recently launched a new microgrant program which is aimed to support small businesses impacted by the pandemic. These grants, up to $7,500, are available for qualified businesses for signage, security systems or equipment. The program is being funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development block grants. New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said the microgrants will allow the city to support current “small business owners who are in need in a fiscally responsible way, while also creating an environment that encourages economic growth throughout our city.”

House Tour, Let’s Talk Primaries – REWIND!

Last week, our focus was directed at the House races that were around the Norwalk, Bridgeport, and West Haven areas. While we spoke about a few campaigns around the Metro North stops, we have to go back. Why? This past Tuesday we had some WILD primaries for the Connecticut General Assembly and let’s be honest, we have to revisit Bridgeport, West Haven and maybe a surprise stop off the line in Simsbury. An exciting week full of surprises and for anyone that knows Bridgeport, maybe one that was not such a surprise…and we’re off!

Our first stop brings us right back to Bridgeport. Councilman Marcus Brown hit a few more doors on the trail which led him to a FIVE vote unofficial victory against State Rep Jack Hennessy. Naturally, a recount will decide this 127th District Democratic primary. For campaign wonks everywhere, a five vote win is like winning the lottery. It’s almost too exciting. Sure, it was low turnout, but FIVE VOTES! A state mandated recount has to occur within a few business days so stay tuned for this one. Staying in the Park City we head over to Senator Dennis Bradley’s primary vs Herron Gaston. Rev Gaston beat Bradley for the victory in the 23rd Senate District. Supported by Mayor Ganim and Democratic Town Committee Chair, Mario Testa, Gaston won 1,775 votes to Bradley's 1,628. Bridgeport, as always, stays. newsworthy.

Up the road, West Haven State Rep Treneé McGee was challenged by Joe Miller for the Democratic election. She beat back the challenge for the 116^thDistrict Seat winning by over 200 votes. A pretty substantial victory considering less than 900 people voted. Just over 13% turnout for this one which seemed to be similar to other turnouts across the state on Tuesday.

In Simsbury, Democrat Melissa Osborne NARROWLY defeated First Selectman Eric Wellman (who was also the endorsed candidate) for the open seat. Melissa texted on Wednesday saying that Wellman had conceded, which may lead to avoiding a potential recount. 1,088-1,053 is close. Osbourne heads into November running for a tough seat.



The larger races of course took the news cycle. It should be noted that House primaries are sometimes rare, but these Democratic races for the house (and senate) did not disappoint. We are back to our regularly scheduled train route next week, stay tuned! 

August 12th: Gidget Born in Bridgeport

Today in Connecticut history, actress Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport in 1941. With nationally famous ice skaters and choreographers Edith and Nathan Walley as her parents, young Deborah caught the show business bug at an early age, performing on the ice with her parents for the first time at the age of three. She soon expressed a preference for acting over choreography, and enrolled in New York City’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts as a teenager.

Walley’s first big film breakthrough was the 1961 summer hit Gidget Goes Hawaiian, a sequel to the popular 1959 film Gidget starring teen sensation Sandra Dee. The film’s producers were originally concerned that the film might bomb owing to Dee being replaced with a relatively unknown actress, but audiences loved Walley and the film was a smash hit at the box office. Walley was even named Photoplay magazine’s Most Popular Actress of 1961.



Gidget Goes Hawaiian launched Walley’s career as an actress who specialized in ingenue-style roles, and she went on to star in a number of comedies and beach-themed films over the next few decades. In addition to starring opposite Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in Beach Blanket Bingo and Elvis Presley in Spinout, Walley starred in the hit 1974 film Benji — one of many Disney-related roles she held throughout her show-business career. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she also enjoyed several high-profile cameos in popular TV shows like Wagon Train, The Virginian, and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. Even as Walley’s on-screen presence diminished in the 1980s, she maintained a productive relationship with Disney, where she occasionally worked as a writer and voice actor. In 2001, she passed away at the age of 59 from esophageal cancer.

To view the full story on the CT Historian's website, click here.