nothin Get Ready For A George-Jorge Rematch | New Haven Independent

Get Ready For A George-Jorge Rematch

Sam Gurwitt Photos

I remember you: Cabrera, Logan.

Republican State Sen. George Logan will run again against labor leader Jorge Cabrera, a Democrat he beat by only 77 votes two years ago, now that Cabrera has won a Democratic primary for his seat.

Cabrera declared victory Thursday evening in a Democratic primary against activist and Hamden Legislative Council member Justin Farmer.

Cabrera is now the Democratic candidate for the 17th State Senate District seat. He will face Republican incumbent State Sen. Logan in in the Nov. 3 general election, a rematch of the race the two ran against each other in 2018.

Cabrera declared victory Thursday evening after Hamden announced its final results from Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Farmer conceded the race, handing Cabrera victory. About half an hour later, Cabrera sent out a press release declaring victory.

Tuesday evening, Cabrera appeared to be leading by a significant margin, but thousands of absentee ballots from Hamden had not yet been counted. Both campaigns said they would wait until official results arrived before making any declarations. On Wednesday, Cabrera pulled further ahead after Hamden counted most of its absentee ballots.

The district includes parts of Hamden, Woodbridge, and Naugatuck, and all of Derby, Ansonia, Bethany, and Beacon Falls. While Hamden is just one of seven towns, it is home to both candidates and comprises about 40 percent of the district’s electorate. With ballots counted in all the other towns in the district and Cabrera showing a significant lead outside of Hamden, the final result of the primary hinged on Hamden’s absentee ballots.

The final vote tallies Hamden sent to the state show Cabrera taking the town with 1,798 votes, edging out Farmer by just 18 votes. In total, Cabrera won the race with 4,723 votes, or 57 percent, an 1,198 lead over Farmer’s 3,525. He won every town, though the race was much tighter in Hamden than in other towns. (Those exact numbers are not official, and the vote count from Bethany used to calculate them is an unofficial count from election night because final numbers for the town have not been posted to the state’s website.)

The race featured two candidates who embrace the progressive label. They had the support of two different parts of the district’s Democratic Party. Farmer, a 26-year-old member of Hamden’s Legislative Council and a champion of a Green New Deal and other hallmark policies of the left flank of his party, got the backing of many youth-led progressive groups like the Sunrise Movement and Democratic Socialists of America. Carbera, a business representative at United Food and Commercial Workers’ Local 919, had the backing of a long list of state and local unions, as well as from many prominent politicians in Hamden and the Naugatuck Valley.

In his concession statement, Farmer congratulated Cabrera on his victory, but did not endorse him.

Connecticut’s 17th Senate District is now left to choose between two campaigns, neither of which has comprehensive plans to address income inequality, end energy company monopolies, prioritize a safe return to school, address the housing crisis, end police violence, establish reproductive justice, end regressive taxation, build the valley fire school, address climate change, protect our waterways and open spaces, secure healthcare as a human right, end mass incarceration and prison gerrymandering, demand worker’s rights for everyone including those not currently unionized, and so much more,” the statement read.

These issues affect nearly everyone in the 17th Senate District, and most in Connecticut. Most of us are not wealthy. Even those of us that are comfortable financially are being taken advantage of in a way that pulls vital resources away from our communities and funnels them into communities that already have more resources than they could ever expend. The greed must end. Residents of the 17th Senate District, Connecticut, and throughout the country must demand the rebuilding of these regressive systems. Voting is important, but voting without good trouble is not enough. This is true especially now, as community members struggle to navigate impending evictions, job loss, educational deficits, lack of access to healthcare, transportation that does not move, and an economy that divides us rather than lifts us up.”

Cabrera turned his attention to the general election ahead, in which he will once again face George Logan. In 2018, Cabrera lost to Logan in the general election by just 77 votes.

I ran because our district deserves better,” Cabrera is quoted as saying in his campaign’s statement. Whether it’s the underfunded public schools, the lack of investment in infrastructure and public transportation, or inadequate plans for economic development, the 17th district has been neglected by Hartford for too long. For the past four years, Senator Logan has consistently sided with corporations over the people. He voted against increasing the minimum wage, voted against paid family and medical leave and showed more concern about the bottom line of corporations like Eversource and Aetna than how families will pay next month’s bills. I am running because it’s time to put people first again. I’ve spent 25 years fighting for workers’ healthcare, wages, and workplace safety and it’s time to bring more of that experience up to Hartford.”

He also thanked Farmer for the race: We all want the same thing for our families — whether it’s healthcare as right not a privilege for the wealthy and well connected, advancing the Green New Deal, or making sure our schools are fully funded and give our students the best opportunity to succeed, it’s clear Justin has fought hard to advance these issues and others to bring progress to the district. I look forward to working together with him for the people of the 17th.”

Cabrera told the Independent that he thinks the primary pushed him to work harder, if not on policy issues. I just kept talking about the things that I’ve been talking about and what’s been my life’s work,” he said.

He said he would continue to do so as he faces Logan, who, in his words, has put corporate interests above the people in his district over and over again.”

Logan said he disagrees with Cabrera’s assessment.

I’ve consistently shown that I care about and have worked hard for the people of the 17th District,” he told the Independent over the phone Thursday evening after a few hours of knocking doors in Bethany.

He was just picking up dinner at a restaurant after the evening canvass when he took this reporter’s call.

I have spent many hours going to all corners of the district to find out what’s important to the residents of the district, and I have done everything in my power to be their voice in Hartford. I’m going to cont to work hard to make Connecticut affordable for our residents. I think if you look at those that are supporting my opponent, these are all the folks that have put Connecticut in the dismal financial situation that we are in now. We need to go in a different direction, and I have been pushing for that, and I look forward to doing that in the future,” he said.

As Cabrera noted in his press release, the Democrats are one seat away from a veto-proof majority in the State Senate.

Minutes after Cabrera declared victory, Hamden Democratic Town Committee Chair Sean Grace sent out a press release endorsing him and calling on Democrats to unite around his ticket. Sean Grace, and much of the DTC which he now leads, is part of a wing of Hamden’s Democrats who have often supported Farmer as he clashes with the administration of Mayor Curt Leng and with longer-serving Democrats in town. Grace also ran a primary against Cabrera for the 17th Senate District in 2018, then endorsed Cabrera after he lost.

Following is an earlier version of this story.

Cabrera Opens Up Wider Lead

Sam Gurwitt Photo

Jorge Cabrera after primary polls closed.

Jorge Cabrera’s lead in the Democratic primary for a State Senate seat widened significantly on Wednesday, putting him in the likely spot of winner as absentee ballot counts appeared to tilt in his favor.

Cabrera and Farmer faced off Tuesday in a primary for the 17th senate district’s Democratic nomination.

At midnight on Tuesday, Cabrera had taken a lead of over 800 votes based on unofficial results from both campaigns and from the state, but absentee ballots in Hamden had not yet been counted. The town had received thousands of absentee ballots, and polling place results showed Farmer in the lead in Hamden. A strong showing among absentee ballots could have tightened the race.

After an anti-climactic election night of waiting for mail-in ballot results, a preliminary count of thousands of absentee ballots in Hamden appeared to widen Cabrera’s lead over Farmer in Tuesday’s race for the seat currently held by Republican George Logan.

The latest figures showed Cabrera winning not just towns in the district outside Hamden, but now perhaps even in Hamden itself, Farmer’s stronghold.

Tuesday night’s figures showed Cabrera leading by less than 1,000 votes, with thousands of absentee ballots remaining uncounted in Hamden.

Shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday, Tony Esposito, one of Hamden’s registrars of voters, emailed out a preliminary vote total for the town, which included results from polling places and preliminary results from absentee ballots that have been counted so far. The figures showed Cabrera with 1,744 votes in the town in total; Farmer trailed at 1,723.

With a strong lead in all other towns in the district, those new numbers from Hamden widened Cabrera’s total to about 57 percent — with an unofficial tally as of Wednesday afternoon of 4,604 votes for Cabrera in the full district and 3,438 for Farmer.

The town is still receiving absentee ballots. It will continue counting ballots postmarked Tuesday or before up until Thursday.

The 17th District includes parts of Hamden, Woodbridge and Naugatuck, and all of Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, and Derby. The Cabrera-Farmer primary was the single truly contested race in the region Tuesday.

Esposito said that Hamden results will not be official until Thursday as the last absentee ballots trickling in are counted. It would take an unexpected avalanche of additional absentee ballots, and an unexpected turn to an overwhelming majority for Farmer, to change the outcome.

Town Clerk Vera Morrison said that as of Tuesday, the town had received 4,139 absentee ballots from Democrats, and that another 400 – 500 came in Wednesday. Not all of those ballots are for the 17th Senate District, though. A majority of voters in the town are in the 11th Senate district, so not all of those ballots count in the Farmer-Cabrera contest.

Cabrera’s campaign has not declared victory, nor has Farmer’s conceded the race.

The vote total released today was very positive and we look forward to seeing the final results after the remaining ballots are counted,” Cabrera’s campaign manager Dhrupad Nag wrote to the Independent.

Cabrera would have reason to wait until the last votes are counted before declaring victory: In 2018, when he ran against Logan in the general election, he was dubbed the winner on election night. The next day, while attending a victors’ lunch in Hartford, he learned that a recount had given Logan the election instead by a mere 77 votes.

Brad Macdowall, Farmer’s campaign manager, said the campaign would still wait until the results are official.
We are interested in making sure every vote is counted and we are concerned with the lack of transparency and procedural failures that have taken place at the Hamden Registrar of Voters office. Right now, that is our primary focus,” he wrote to the Independent.

Democratic Town Committee (DTC) Chair Sean Grace said that either campaigns or the DTC would file a complaint about the absentee ballot count with the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC). He said campaigns were not given access to absentee voter lists, which they are supposed to get, and they were not allowed to witness the counting of absentee ballots, which they normally are.

A previous version of this article appears below.

Cabrera Leads; Absentees Uncounted

Sam Gurwitt Photo

Jorge Cabrera, campaign manager Dhrupad Nag await results at International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 headquarters.

Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo

Farmer, center, at home HQ Tuesday night following results with Campaign Manager Brad Macdowall and press person Fiona Denttel.

Jorge Cabrera got off to a lead in Greater New Haven’s one contested race Tuesday night, though thousands of crucial absentee ballots from Hamden remained uncounted.

Cabrera, an organizer with United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 919 , faced off Tuesday against Hamden Council member and activist Justin Farmer in a primary for the Democratic nomination for the 17th State Senate seat, which includes parts of Hamden, Woodbridge and Naugatuck, and all of Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, and Derby. It was the single truly contested race in the region Tuesday.

The winner faces Republican incumbent State Sen. George Logan in the Nov. 3 general election.

Based on unofficial results collected by both campaigns and from a state database, as of a little after midnight, Cabrera was leading Farmer by over 800 votes.

Those totals included votes cast at voting machines as well as some absentee ballots. However, thousands of absentee ballots cast in Hamden had not yet been counted, and the town was proving a Farmer stronghold. Hamden had received about 1,500 absentee ballots from Democrats by the weekend. Many more continued flowing in Monday and Tuesday; the town has not yet reported how many.

Because of delays in mailing out absentee ballots statewide, the deadline for them to arrive at town halls has been extended to Thursday. That means Hamden may not count its thousands of absentee ballots until then.

While Cabrera appeared to have won every town in the Valley, Farmer was beating Cabrera in Hamden by around 300 votes. That means the Hamden absentee ballots will prove crucial in determining the winner.

Sam Gurwitt Photo

Cabrera with supporters Tuesday night.

Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo

Farmer supporters swapping campaign stories Tuesday night via Zoom and on a Deepwood Drive deck overlooking New Haven.

Both candidates live in Hamden, and that’s where they gathered with supporters gathering results after the polls closed. Cabrera, who racked up union endorsements, was at the headquarters of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 with eight supporters, one of them being State Rep. Josh Elliott. Farmer was at a supporter’s home on Deepwood Drive with about 10 supporters in person and many more on a Zoom call.

Around 11 p.m. Farmer addressed supporters both on the deck and via Zoom. He spoke about his goal of addressing income inequality if he prevails in the primary. He spoke of how the result of the primary won’t be known until the absentee ballots are counted.

I’m going to keep running. At some point ya’ll going to find out I don’t tire,” Farmer said. I’m 26. I don’t tire.”

Asked how he felt after the polls closed, he replied, I’m feeling younger and wiser.”

Cabrera did not make any speeches Tuesday evening. When he ran against George Logan in 2018, it looked like he had won on election night, and he declared victory. But the next day, it turned out there was going to be a recount, and he ended up losing by 77 votes.

I’ve been through this before,” he said at about 10:30 Tuesday, after it was all but certain that there would still be thousands of uncounted Hamden ballots by the end of the evening. I learned to wait until everything is officially done.”

The pizza his campaign had ordered was gone, but two large trays of cookies went uneaten. Instead of celebrating his lead, Cabrera began cleaning up the room, picking up plates and pizza boxes and throwing them away.

Earlier in the day, both campaigns worked the polls while in other parts of the state voting places were sleepy because of the lack of competition.

Farmer In Home Territory

Fay Crawford and Sonia Powell.

Fay Crawford, Farmer’s mother, sat against the wall of the Keefe Community Center, shaded by the rectangular shadow of the building where two decades earlier she had brought her son to daycare.

She used to drop the toddler Justin Farmer off at daycare in the community center with his green blanket. It was green flannel, she said, with a silky lining around the edges where she wrote his name so his naptime blanket would stay separate from those of the other kids.

Now, over 20 years later, Crawford was not at the Keefe Center to drop her son off. He was at another polling location somewhere else in the district, and probably hadn’t taken his green blanket with him in the sweltering heat (or if he did, he didn’t display it when he ran into this reporter at another polling place).

Farmer, at another polling place Tuesday.

As voters parked and walked into the building, Crawford approached them and handed them a card with Farmer’s face smiling from the front.

I know that no one can stop Justin,” she said of her son. I never have to say, Get out of bed.’ He’s already gone before I even know.”

Crawford sat with her friend Sonia Powell and talked in between the trickles of voters.

As long as he getting into good trouble and not bad trouble, I support him,” she said.

So did all the voters at the Keefe Center who spoke with the Independent. Though the center is not in Farmer’s Legislative Council district, he lives only a few streets away, on the other side of Dixwell Avenue. As voters made clear, they see him everywhere in the neighborhood.

’Cause I see him around town,” said Ron Johnson (pictured above), explaining as he climbed into his car why he had voted for Farmer. It’s like working at a job. You want to know if your boss is good or not before you even work at the place.”

Sherese Williams gave a similar answer: I see him throughout the neighborhood, and he speaks with us.” He also has a track record of fighting for the neighborhood and following through on his promises, she said.

Destinee Anderson (pictured above), a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, was voting in person at home for the first time.

They were really aggressively messaging me, and I have to say I don’t always care about primaries, but it made me look into him,” she said of Farmer’s campaign. She said she read about him and found that she liked his stances on police reform and the environment, so she decided to vote for him.

Turnout was strong in the district, despite the fact that many voters cast absentee ballots. 470 people ended up casting ballots in person at the Keefe Center, which is where people in Hamden’s third legislative council district vote. In last year’s mayoral Democratic primary, only 374 people voted there.

Abdul Osmanu, who was poll standing for Farmer, said there had been a line out the door in the morning, something he’s never seen in his multiple election cycles representing campaigns at the Keefe Center.

Based on unofficial results, Farmer won the third district with 316 votes to Cabrera’s 154.

Cabrera Impresses Derby Voters

Nora Grace-Flood Photo

Christina Moody at the polls.

Christina Moody’s boyfriend pushed her awake and drove her with a sense of urgency over to Irving School to cast votes in Tuesday’s primaries for president and for the Democratic nomination for the 17th State Senate District seat.

Moody’s boyfriend, who declined to give his name or have his photo taken because he said I look for missing persons, and I can’t do that if people know what I look like,” had already been by the school once that morning.

He had registered recently to vote online as a Democratic voter. However, when he got to the school the election poll workers said that he was listed as nonaffiliated. Nonaffiliated registrants are not allowed to vote in primary elections. They said this happens a lot, that the computer makes a lot of mistakes,” he said. I honestly don’t get what unaffiliated even means!”

Because of the discrepancy, he said he would not be able to vote until November. They told me it’s too late,” he recalled. Everything they can do to discourage you, they’ll do,” he contended.

Moody had stayed home that morning because she said she was feeling sick. After hearing about the issue with his voter registration, her boyfriend returned home and said Get up! My vote has to count!”

Moody was not thrilled. I’m living up to my name right now,” she joked.

She voted for Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary; her boyfriend said they were just looking for someone to beat Trump. In the Democratic primary for State Senate, they went for Jorge Cabrera over Justin Farmer.

I see him on foot, taking action,” he said of Cabrera. I saw him get Maced once, at a protest, while helping up some Caucasian people who had been pushed over. When he did that he was saying, I don’t care what color you are, I’m here to help.”

Rafael and Rosa Arrivera also faced disappointing news after arriving at Irving.

When Rafael Arrivera pulled into the school’s parking lot, he said he was voting for Biden on the grounds of lack of insanity.” He had yet to decide who to vote for in the state senate primary.

However, when he got inside the building, he was told that he could not vote because he had too recently changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. In Connecticut, there is a three-month waiting period for officially switching parties.

His mother, Rosa Arrivera, was able to vote. She went with Biden and Cabrera.

Jennifer Desroches was also eager to show her support for Cabrera. I voted for him last time around,” she said, referring to two years ago when the candidate faced current incumbent Republican State Sen. George Logan and lost by 77 votes. He does a lot of work for the community. He came to my door and talked to me. Any questions he couldn’t answer at the time, he got back to me about.”

As for the presidential primary, she said she was voting for Biden. I don’t care if it’s Joe Schmoe,” she said, laughing. Just not Trump!”

Jerry Borrelli, on the other hand, proudly announced that he was voting Republican.”

I think they’ve gone too far this time, the Democratic Party,” he said. There’s too much lawlessness… and then the guys who are trying to reverse that end up looking bad.”

This is not the America I want for my children and grandchildren,” he continued.

He said that if the Republican party does not win more seats in the General Assembly, Connecticut is done,” adding, That’s why General Electric left Connecticut.”

Borrelli also shared that he is in several groups,” some on Twitter, whose members agreed that they plan to move out of Connecticut if more Republican candidates are not elected to the state’s House and Senate in the near future.

Patricia Martin (pictured) was, like Borrelli, hoping for change. I’m looking miracle,” she said. Unlike Borrelli, Martin, who works at a funeral home in Derby, said that she was planning to vote progressive across the board.” For her, that meant Sanders and Cabrera.

Martin asserted that she was looking for candidates who prioritized accessible education, affordable housing, and job creation.

I voted for Bernie because I think Biden’s got a little bit of Trump in him,” she said. Not a lot. But a little!”

Martin’s husband and young grandchildren had accompanied her on the ride over to the school. Her husband, however, did not plan to vote. When asked why, he responded, No reason.”

Patricia Martin shook her head. I always vote,” she stated. I always say if you don’t vote, you don’t have a voice. No vote, no voice.”

Farmer Democrat, Trump Republican Get Along

Sam Gurwitt Photo

Nick D’Amato and Marnie Hebron.

Nick D’Amato stopped by the Booker T. Washington Academy in Hamden just to cast a vote — for Donald Trump. He was supposed to go run some errands after.

But instead, he ended up sitting for hours and talking and laughing with Marnie Hebron, who was at the polling place working for Farmer’s campaign.

You might not expect Hebron and D’Amato to get along. D’Amato is a conservative Republican,” in his own words, in it all the way for Trump. Hebron is one of the most active Hamden residents calling for police accountability, and is a vocal supporter of the most progressive flank of Hamden’s Democrats.

And based on their conversation Tuesday, that was clear. But they still got along. They talked about race and community policing, Hebron jumping up periodically to make her pitch for Farmer to a voter.

He’s probably cost me a couple of votes because I’ve been sitting here enjoying talking to him,” Hebron joked, referring to D’Amato.

At one point, D’Amato began to show Hebron photos of he had taken with famous people.

Oh, I loved I Dream of Jeannie,’” Hebron said as she looked at a photograph of Barbara Eden.

Let’s see, who else. Oh, these people you might know,” D’Amato said, showing Hebron another photo.

You don’t have to be a star, baby …” D’Amato began to sing.

Hebron finished the lyric: “… to be in my show.”

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