Democrats dominate Election Day across Connecticut

Connecticut was mostly blue on Election Day, with Democratic victories across Fairfield County and most of the state.

In the most controversial race of the day, Bridgeport’s Mayor Joe Ganim squeaked to a victory of roughly 175 votes over John Gomes, who ran as a third-party candidate. However, Ganim and Gomes will be facing a do-over of the September Democratic primary after a court ruled there were irregularities in the absentee ballots that propelled Ganim to a narrow victory after Gomes established a lead with the in-person voting.

In Danbury, first-term Republican Mayor Dean Esposito was defeated by Democrat Roberto Alves, who was the city’s mayor when he was defeated by Esposito two years ago. A similar result occurred in Brookfield when Democrat Steve Dunn defeated Republican First Selectman Tara Carr, who beat Carr two years ago.

Elsewhere in the state, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker easily won re-election while Democrats Arunan Arulampalam and Paul Pernerewski won their open-seat elections to become the mayors of Hartford and Waterbury, respectively. In Newington, Democrat challenger Jon Tristers defeated Republican Mayor Beth Kinsey DelBuono.

Another Democrat, Joseph L. Martino, was elected mayor of Derby in a race that gained national attention when it was revealed the Republican candidate, Gino DiGiovanni Jr., was a criminal defendant in the Capitol Hill riot of Jan. 6, 2021. DiGiovanni placed third behind Martino and Mayor Richard Dziekan, who lost the Republican primary to DiGiovanni and ran as a petitioning candidate.

In Fairfield, Democrat Bill Gerber was leading Republican First Selectman Brenda Kupchick, although the race had yet to be called as of this writing.

Republicans had some victories on Election Day, with Bristol Mayor Jeff Caggiano winning re-election, Vincent Cervoni gaining the mayor’s office in Wallingford and Tony Giannattasio winning the race to become mayor of Milford.