New Haven Independent

Jim O’Connell proved that Tuesday when he convinced just over 3 percent of those eligible to cast ballots in the ward to support him as a Republican challenger for alderman.

O’Connell was trounced by three-time Democratic incumbent Sergio Rodriguez. The ward comprises about 1,600 registered Democrats, 629 not registered with a party and 102 registered Republicans.

O’Connell Tuesday night said his shoestring campaign, which produced 82 votes to Rodriguez’s 468, suffered because of the plight of the national GOP, which he said is on life support.

O’Connell blamed the national Republican Party’s “standing with the electorate, especially minorities. The national party carries no weight” with the voters, he said. He said the extreme views of the party spokespeople drove moderate Republicans away.

So one would think that Republican candidates would be about as welcome as the swine flu in the ward, which flows from Upper Westville by the Yale Bowl and tennis center, then along Derby Avenue to Winthrop and Judson avenues in the Edgewood neighborhood.

Not so at all, according to an unscientific survey taken by a reporter Tuesday in the ward’s temporary polling place at the Mauro-Sheridan School.

About a dozen people were asked whether they would ever vote for a Republican in the ward and under what circumstance. Only one person said she would never vote for a GOP candidate no matter what. The rest said the candidate, not the party, determined who got their support.

The GOP’s recent history in the ward is not pretty.

Kiernan O’Connor, the last Republican to challenge Rodriguez, lost 576-193 in 2005 for a 32 percent showing against less than 18 percent for O’Connell. The GOP didn’t field a 2007 aldermanic candidate. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama beat Republican John McCain 1,551 to 263; McCain received about the same 18 percent of the vote as O’Connell was able to get. (About 78 percent of the ward’s eligible voters came out in 2008, against about 25 percent Tuesday.)

“I would vote for a Republican like Javitz, Rockefeller, Eisenhower,” said Democratic poll worker Susan Clemens, in photo, referring to the late New York senator, late governor and vice president and late war hero and two-term president, all moderate Republicans.

“If there was a reasonable Republican who could back up his stand on an issue and not just take an extreme position, I’d vote for that person,” she said.

A man calling himself “Mike C.” said he would consider a GOP candidate “who makes sense.” On the other hand, one young woman who would not give her name said the only way she would vote for a Republican “is if he became a Democrat first.”

Paul Mansfield, pictured, called it “unfortunate” that so few Republicans seek office here. He said he would “absolutely support a conservative individual who served the original intent of the Constitution.”

“It would benefit the city not to be a one-party town and to have robust discussions” of the issues, he said.

“Yes, I could If the views made sense,” said Tiffany Stafford, in photo, who said her decision would be influenced more by the candidate’s stand on issues than party affiliation.

Ken and Marie Ackerman, photographed after voting Tuesday, both said that a good GOP candidate would be good for the city. Liz Schramek, who described herself as an independent, said she would vote for whomever “would do a good job.”

Alderman Rodriguez laughed when first asked what it would take to get him to pull a Republican lever. Then he then thought for a moment.

“Yes, I could vote for a Republican whom I believe had the community at heart, who wanted to improve the quality of life for people in the ward, and who had the people skills” to pull it off, he said.

GOP candidate O’Connell said he has voted for Democrats “out of necessity” because of a lack of GOP hopefuls in the city. He then got a twinkle in his eye and said he would wait until a charter change makes it easier to elect nonpartisan candidates.