Districts Set For Branford Elections

The first primary election to be held in Branford’s expanded election districts takes place Tuesday, as registered voters select the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor and other top state posts. The general election takes place November 2nd.

As of July 23rd, there were 18,296 voters in Branford, but only those registered as Democrats or Republicans may vote in their respective primaries. There were 6,146 registered Democrats and 2,765 registered Republicans as of that date. Click here to see sample ballots. Residents seeking to vote in the primaries may register by Monday, the day before the primary. Special voter registration and enrollment sessions for both primaries will be held on Monday August 9, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Registrar of Voters Office, 40 Kirkham St.

Tuesday’s election marks a change in the way Branford residents vote. For more than 50 years, they voted in five election districts. Then, in October, 2009, the Representative Town Meeting, (RTM) expanded the town’s voting districts from five to seven in order to balance the town’s voting population. It was the first major revision since the RTM was created more than 50 years ago. State election officials urged Branford to change the districts because of voter imbalance.

The largest district, the Fourth District, was split into two districts, the Fourth in Branford Hills and the Sixth in the Brushy Plains Road area. The First District, also large, was split into the First District along the Mill Plains Road area and the Seventh District in the Pine Orchard area.

Voters were notified by mail several weeks ago as to their new (or old) polling places. Two new polling places were opened this year. Registered voters in the Fourth District will go to Branford Hills School at 40 Burban Dr., and voters in the Seventh District will go to the Walsh Intermediate School at 185 Damascus Rd. Click here to find the other districts. Polls open Tuesday at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. 

There is no primary contest for those running for state representative or state senate from Branford. Democrats Lonnie Reed of Branford and Pat Widlitz of Guilford have no opponents within their party. Republicans David Goclowski of Branford and Cindy Cartier of Guilford will face Reed and Widlitz respectively in the November election and Democratic State Senator Ed Meyer will face Republican Lisa Davenport. 

For Governor, Democrats Dan Malloy and Ned Lamont are in a neck and neck battle to tie up the Democratic nomination. Republicans Tom Foley, Michael Fedele, the current lieutenant governor under outgoing Gov. M. Jodi Rell, and Oz Griebel are vying for their party’s nomination for the state’s top seat.
 
For lieutenant governor on the Democrat ticket, Nancy Wyman, the current state controller, is running on the Malloy ticket. First Selectman Mary Messina Glassman of Simsbury is running with Lamont. The secretary of state’s race pits Democrats Denise Merrill, an attorney and the current House Majority Leader, against Gerry Garcia, a former member of the New Haven Board of Aldermen. The Democratic comptroller’s race pits Kevin Lembo, a former assistant state comptroller to Nancy Wyman and the state’s Healthcare Advocate, against Michael J. Jarjura, the current Waterbury mayor. 

Looking at the official Republican ballot, a voter could easily be misled into thinking that Tom Foley is running with Danbury Mayor Mark D. Boughton and that Michael Fedele is running with Lisa Wilson-Foley.

This is not the case as readers pointed out. Fedele has selected Boughton as his running mate. Boughton is also the Republican endorsed candidate for Lt. Governor. Foley has said he prefers to have the Republican electorate choose either Boughton or Wilson-Foley, a business entrepreneur, for the number two post.
 
Foley choose at the outset not to have a running mate for Lt. Governor and Wilson-Foley chose not to have a running mate for Governor. She is not related to Tom Foley. In her first run for elective office, she is running alone.
 
Republican candidate Oz Griebel, the president of Hartford Metro Alliance, did not select a running mate either. 

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is the endorsed Democratic candidate for United States Senate. He runs unopposed in this primary. The action is on the Republican side of the aisle with a three- way primary among Linda E. McMahon, Rob Simmons and Peter David Schiff. In recent weeks Simmons has gained on McMahon. 

George Jepsen, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, is the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate for that office. He runs unopposed in the primary. Two Republicans, Martha Dean and Ross Garber, are seeking the Republican Party’s spot in Tuesday’s primary.

Until now Branford has had five election districts, but in reality it operated seven polling stations because the town has two state General Assembly districts within its borders. Some residents in Stony Creek and Pine Orchard vote in the 98th General Assembly District. The rest of Branford votes in the 102nd. The two assembly districts required a total of seven polling places. Widlitz of Guilford represents the 98th and Reed of Branford represents the 102nd.

The registrar of voters had been working on the change for two years. Dan Hally, the Democratic registrar, said in a prior interview that state election officials had been concerned about Branford’s imbalance in voting districts.

“The state has guidelines by which they recommend that voting districts be divided up and apportioned. In Branford’s case we are way out of proportion. In the Fourth District we have about 5,600 voters, whereas in the Third District we only have 1,900.” Those nearly 3 – 1 figures were out of whack, he said. 

Hally initially wanted the RTM to act in time for the 2008 presidential election, but the RTM wanted more time to study what turned out to be a major change in how the RTM itself is geographically distributed.

The redistricting changed the number of RTM members elected from each district. This change will take place for the November, 2011 election. The RTM is a 30-member body. The minority party must have at least nine members. Currently the Republicans are the minority party with nine members. The Democrats have 21 members and they get to choose the RTM moderator. The Republicans choose the RTM Clerk. 

Under the old redistricting line-up, the First and Fourth Districts each had nine RTM slots. Now there will be six members for the First District and six members for the Fourth District. There will be three RTM members for the Second District, three for the Third District, four for the Fifth District, four for the Sixth District and four for the Seventh District. The First and Fourth Districts will each have at least 2 minority party members, and each of the other five districts will have at least one.

RTM Rep. Alinor Sterling, (D‑3rd) was the chair of the Rules and Ordinance Committee in 2009 when she held many meetings to discuss, revise and analyze the plans that led to the new redistricting. It became law on March 29, 2010. Sterling, an attorney, told colleagues months ago that she planned to resign from the RTM before her current term was up. She recently did so.

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