(Updated: 10:23 p.m.) At least four new faces appear on their way to serving on New Haven’s Board of Aldermen, as results were announced late Tuesday night in close aldermanic primaries that in some cases required absentee ballot counts to declare a winner.
Marcus Paca, Darnell Goldson (pictured below campaigning on Tuesday), Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, and Stephanie Bauer all won primaries that appear to guarantee them new seats on the board in January.
Based on the tally on the voting machines plus the absentee ballots, challenger Claudette Robinson-Thorpe defeated incumbent Alderman Moti Sandman 294 to 275.
Labor unions heavily supported Robinson-Thorpe in the race. City Hall and the Democratic Town Committee backed Sandman. Click here to read about that, and here to read about the race.
Seven primaries in all took place citywide Tuesday. They were all hard-fought; neighborhood as well as citywide issues were at stake. Click here to read all about that.
In New Haven, Democratic primaries are usually tantamount to general election. Especially in these races, where no Republicans are running.
The biggest victory of the night came in Edgewood’s Ward 24. First-time candidate Marcus Paca (pictured) defeated an 11-term incumbent, Liz McCormack.
“Thank you very much for a hard-fought race,” Paca shouted to the crowd at the Ellsworth Avenue firehouse, where a legion of supporters of in Paca T‑shirts jumped up and down. “Let’s take this ward to the next level.”
“I think,” Paca said afterwards, “this is the largest aldermanic election ever!”
Ward 26 in upper Westville also had a clear result: Sergio Rodriguez beat challenger LaShell Rountree. Click here for Len Honeyman’s report.
Incumbent Moti Sandman lost his Beaver Hills seat to Thorpe-Robinson, a first-time candidate. The final tally, once absentee votes were counted, was 294 – 275.
“They want a change. We want change,” Thorpe-Robinson said after the machine tally was read aloud at Hillhouse High School, Ward 28’s polling place.
“We registered 150 people. We just had to get them out. They came out in full force!”
In Ward 14, Joan Forte beat party-endorsed candidate Stephanie Bauer 172 – 156 on the machine vote in the race to succeed retiring Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale. But Bauer made up the difference on the absentee ballots.
The ward had 62 absentee ballots left to count. Bauer said she and her volunteers signed up 40 of those voters. The final tally was 202 – 189 in Bauer’s favor. (Bauer is pictured in between Sturgis-Pascale and Henry Fernandez.)
“You don’t know about a.b.‘s [absentee ballots],” Forte said. “It’s like craps.”
In Ward 22, a similar cliffhanger. Greg Morehead beat challenger Lisa Hopkins 224 – 216. Morehead had a 14-vote lead on the machines; it shrank to eight after the absentee count.
“I’m looking forward to a recount,” Hopkins said.
Morehead rejoiced in a speech outside the polling place, Wexler-Grant School.
“This was a true testament against CCNE [the labor-affiliated Connecticut Center for a New Economy], against the unions,” Morehead said. “I’m thankful above all to God.”
Then he started crying for joy.
Yale union Local 35 supported Morehead’s challenger, Lisa Hopkins.
In West Rock’s Ward 30, one of Mayor John DeStefano’s most prominent critics in town, Darnell Goldson, bested a candidate who had heavy City Hall support, Carlton Staggers. The vote was 234 – 175. City Hall staffers like Chief of Staff Sean Matteson and youth services chief Che Dawson came to the ward to pull voters. So did veteran party vote-puller Brian McGrath.
Allan Appel, Melissa Bailey, Paul Bass, Leonard Honeyman, Riquee Blackman Jarmon, Thomas MacMillan, and Melinda Tuhus reported this article.