(Updated 11:24 p.m.) The story this election night: Independent candidate Maureen O’Sullivan-Best (pictured), propelled by help from City Hall’s Democrats, unseated incumbent Alderman Robert Lee. Meanwhile, the Board of Aldermen’s only Green member, Allan Brison, was trounced by Democratic challenger Justin Elicker.
Ward 11: Maureen O’Sullivan-Best (I) 365, Robert Lee (D) 222.
Ward 10: Justin Elicker (D) 618, Allan Brison (G) 320.
Ward 18: Arlene DePino (R) 491, Sue Campion (D) 367.
Ward 22:Greg Morehead (D) 237, Lisa Hopkins (I) 194.
Ward 26: Sergio Rodriguez (D) 468, Jim O’Connell (R) 82.
Those results mean that the 30-member Board of Aldermen will have 28 Democrats, one Republican, and one independent, elected by Democrats.
(Vote totals do not include absentee ballots, which were too few to change the outcomes.)
Independent-minded candidate Lisa Hopkins mounted a last-minute, energetic write-in campaign in Dixwell’s Ward 22 against incumbent Alderman Greg Morehead, a staunch City Hall ally who beat her in September’s Democratic primary. Morehead won decisively at the polls Tuesday night, 215 – 87. However, an estimated 139 absentee ballots were taken out by the candidates. After those ballots were counted, the final vote was closer: 237 – 194.
The night’s results were good news for the administration of Mayor John DeStefano. Even the two non-Democrats who won were the mayor’s choices.
The results also make it harder for opponents of City Hall to mount a challenge to Board of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield. Brison and Lee were opponents of City Hall and would have supported a challenger to Goldfield.
The big surprise of the night was in Ward 11, which includes Bella Vista and the neighborhood around Bishop Woods School.
Three-term incumbent Robert Lee, a Democrat, has been an outspoken critic of the mayor. So the Democratic mayor’s forces turned out to work against the Democrat and for a first-time challenger, Maureen O’Sullivan-Best. Among those working for O’Sullivan-Best were the mayor’s chief of staff, Sean Matteson, and a platoon of students from Hopkins School who were participating in the campaign as part of a politics class project. They were directed to the O’Sullivan-Best campaign by the mayor’s campaign director.
“I guess the mayor beat me this time,” Lee said after the results were announced Tuesday night.
His election night statements contrasted with campaign comments about his opponent. “She needs to multiply never 10 times, and that’s the chances she’s got” of winning, he had said.
Lee refused to debate O’Sullivan-Best during the campaign.
Even Tuesday night at 6, Lee continued brimming with confidence, predicting an easy victory. “It’s over. I’m out of here,” he said, leaving the polls, to return at 8.
Said O’Sullivan-Best, after the results were announced: “I guess the people have spoken.”
O’Sullivan-Best may have even won over one of her toughest constituents: her mom. Mom still wasn’t saying whom she voted for on Tuesday. But mom pitched in by baking ginger snap cookies — and serving as O’Sullivan-Best’s deputy treasurer.
“I’m pretty convinced my mom voted for me,” the candidate said. “She likes to keep her ballot secret.”
One irony in the race: The bulk of the votes came from Bella Vista senior housing complex, where voters were motivated by anger at the mayor for closing their senior center. They ended up voting against the incumbent alderman — and for the mayor’s candidate.
Other Good News For City Hall
The other campaign with an uncertain outcome had been in East Rock’s Ward 10, where Democratic challenger Justin Elicker knocked off another City Hall critic, Green Alderman Allan Brison. Brison also lost much of his former support within the ward. Read all about that here.
In Morris Cove, even a Republican victory was good news for City Hall. The incumbent GOP Alderwoman, Arlene DePino (pictured), is basically on good terms with the administration. She was challenged by a Democratic critic, Sue Campion.
“It was a tough-fought fight,” said Campion, who was mounting her third challenge to DePino in the city’s only Republican redoubt. DePino proclaimed herself feeling “great, exhilarated” at the results.
DePino said that she was helped by support from the firefighter’s union. Union president Pat Egan is pictured behind DePino in the top photo.
DePino and her supporters headed off to Chili’s in East Haven to celebrate. She said she would like to support a New Haven business but that her preferred local restaurant, Soleo’s in the Annex, recently closed.
The View From Ward 26
Republican Jim O’Connell said he thought he did very well against the three-term incumbent Democrat, Sergio Rodriguez, considering the party’s lack of supporters in Upper Westville’s 26th Ward. The GOP has about 4.4 percent of the ward’s nearly 2,350 registered voters; O’Connell polled about 3.5 percent of those eligible to vote.
O’Connell, left in photo, is shown during a lively discussion about the placement of campaign signs with Rodriguez outside the polling place while Kenneth Driffin, center, watched.
A total of 583 ballots were cast. Rodriguez trounced O’Connell 80 percent to about 14 percent. He won 40 more votes than Mayor John DeStefano Jr.
Rodriguez said he will “step away from leadership positions” in the new Board of Aldermen and “focus on the ward.”
“I’m going to concentrate on helping block watches, particularly in the Stevenson Road and Kohary Drive areas,” he said. Those groups came into being after the tony Hopkins School began a short-lived attempt to build a driveway from its athletic complex to the Stevenson Road cul-de-sac.
“I’m also going to focus on the ‘B side’ of the ward,” which stretches from Upper Westville to the Judson Avenue area, Rodriguez said.
He said he’s worried about the effect the recession is having on families all over the ward. “There are lost jobs. Households that had two working members now have one,” he said. He said he was tired after a six-month campaign that featured a spirited primary challenge by LaShell Rountree.
Rodriguez also said he wasn’t ruling out “moving up on the political ladder. You always think about that and I wouldn’t rule anything out.”
O’Connell, who ran on a shoestring budget, blamed the national Republican party’s reputation with voters, “especially minorities,” he said.
“The national party carries no weight” with the electorate, he said.
He said he wasn’t sure if he would mount another political campaign in the future but would work to “try to keep two parties going” in New Haven.
Ward 26 moderators and poll-watchers said the most trouble came from what they called a lack of information about the single question on the ballot. Nearly two dozen people approached the officials to ask about the question, saying they were provided with no information. Others said they wouldn’t cast uninformed votes on the issue.
The ward machine tally showed 130 ballots with the question left blank, while 382 voted yes and 71 voted no on the question.
Allan Appel, Leonard Honeyman, Thomas MacMillan, and Melissa Bailey reported this story.
Some previous stories from this campaign:
• Next Term Will Determine Mayor’s Legacy
• 1 Mob, 4 Views
• Mayor Launches “School Change” Campaign
• Mom’s Not Saying
• Lee Won’t Waste Time Debating
• Race Pits Shoestring vs. Shoe Leather
• Grudge Match In Morris Cove
• Open, Or Close, A Gate To Schoolkids?
• Campaign $$ Seeds Races
• Elicker Swears Off Mayor’s Money
• Candidates Split On Schools
• Greens’ Leaders Split On Strategy
• Brison Calls For Noise Barriers
• Lone Green Alderman Faces Challenge