Sanderistas Win 1

Bernie Sanders was no longer in the running in the presidential election Tuesday, but some local activists inspired by his campaign regrouped to win a state representative seat.

The Sanderistas coalesced behind the campaign of first-time candidate Joshua Elliott, a Democrat who Tuesday won the vacant 88th state General Assembly District seat.

The group, many of whom met working for Sanders’ Democratic presidential campaign, first worked together to help Elliott win an upset victory in Aug. 9 primary for the Democratic nomination for the state representative seat.

The final tally at the polls Tuesday night (not counting absentee ballots) showed Elliott defeating Republican Marjorie Bonadies 5,686 to 3,496.

Elliott won handily at three of the four polling stations: Spring Glen School, Hamden Middle School, and Miller Library. Bonadies bested Elliott 1,214 to 1,211 at the West Woods polling station.

Elliott, who manages the Thyme & Season natural foods store in Hamden, ran on both the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines. He promoted a $15 hourly minimum wage, the reinstitution of highway tolls at the state’s borders, and regional public education.

He ran behind two other Democrats in Hamden: U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who captured 6,643 votes on the machines, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who received 5,909.

Beyond Rubber Stamps

Standing outside of the Miller Memorial Library on Dixwell Avenue a few minutes before the polls closed, Hamden Republican Town Chair Holly Bryk stressed the importance of sending representatives with different political perspectives and allegiances to the state capital in Hartford.

“I think Marjorie Bonadies has run a really strong campaign,” she said. ​“People in this town are very unhappy with how all of the Democrats in state office just act as a rubber stamp for the Malloy administration, and I know that Marjorie would challenge that single voice.”

Just a few feet away from Bryk and fellow Republican volunteer Joel Mastroianni, a campaign staffer for Democratic nominee Josh Elliott held a poster for his candidate and spoke about how Elliott represented the potential for a new wave of progressive Democratic politicians in Connecticut state politics.

“I see Josh’s candidacy as continuing the Bernie Sanders campaign’s focus on economic inequality and the environment, but raising those issues in the context of Connecticut,” he said.

The campaign staffer, who preferred not to be photographed or identified by name because of his job, first met Josh back in January during the New Hampshire primaries when both were canvassing for Senator Bernie Sanders along with other members of the group CT Progressives.

“I think the main reason for economic inequality in this state is wages that keep being driven down. You see people working two, three jobs, and still not being able to make ends meet, and it’s not because they’re not working hard enough. By pushing for a $15 minimum wage, I think Josh can help thousands of working people in this state achieve a better quality of life.”

Although the district reported nearly 70 percent voter turnout on Tuesday, according to the volunteers working at the polls, the last half hour before 8 p.m. saw only one or two people trickle in to cast their ballots before the evening was up.

The polling place moderator printed out the results and placed the sliver of paper on a table for the reporters and campaigners present to scribble down the vote tallies.

As the results sank in, Republican town chair Bryk found something to cheer about in Josh’s status as someone further to the left than most Democrats in Hartford.

“We need change,” she said. ​“We need better people. I hope Josh is one of those people, and I don’t think he’s going to be just a rubber stamp. If he wins, I hope he makes some changes to the status quo of the Connecticut state Democratic Party.”

New Blood

Members of Hamden’s party establishment joined the quest to elect Elliott, even though he beat the establishment in the primary. Distributing voter guidess outside Spring Glen School, Democratic Town Committee member Steve Mongillo said Elliott’s candidacy has brought in many new young people which is needed for the growth and future of the party.

One of those new workers was volunteer Phil Nista of Hamden.

Nista, 33, said he hopes Elliott’s win will be the first step to step down a long political road of change at the grassroots.

“I was very excited about Bernie Sanders, and getting big money out of politics,” said Nista, a self-described ​“news junkie” and freelance editor who met Elliott while phone banking for Sanders in January. ​“I’d never been political, and I kind of waded into it. I canvassed as much as I possibly could, phone banked as much as I possibly could.”

Canvassing for a progressive on the national level endeared him to Elliott, who exemplified the same values much closer to home. When the chance arose to jump on the campaign, he did. He’s been phone banking avidly since.

It doesn’t mean the two always see eye to eye. Almost as soon as Sanders had lost the Connecticut primary, Elliott joined Hillary Clinton’s team of supporters in Connecticut. Nista couldn’t see getting on that train; ultimately he voted for Green candidate Jill Stein in the presidential election election.

“I believe in the platform, I believe in the policies,” he said of Elliott Tuesday night.

“Like Sanders has said, the important thing is holding politicians responsible,” he said. ​“The important part of the Sanders revolution is that it got people like me involved. It built a human infrastructure that made new things like this [Elliott’s campaign] possible.”

As for his political future now that the campaign is over and Elliott has emerged victorious, Nista says he’s concentrating on his work with New Haven’s Peace Council, which meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.

“This might sound funny, but we’re really worried about World War Three,” he said.

Erica Pandey and David Sepulveda contributed to this report.