UPDATE: Unofficial citywide results here.
Republican Rick Torres has ended the GOP’s drought on the City Council winning a seat in the city’s 130th District covering Black Rock and the West End which also saw Democrat Sue Brannelly hold on to her seat. Torres and Republican partner Phil Blagys, in unofficial returns, defeated Brannelly and running partner Steven Stafstrom on the machines. Unofficial results, with absentee ballots, for the two district precincts combined show Torres with 859, Blagys 768, Brannelly 820 and Stafstrom 806. Absentee ballots, however, put Brannelly over the top.
“There’s a watchdog on the council,” Torres, owner of Harborview Market, said Tuesday night. The mighty turnout at Black Rock School produced large wins for both Torres and Blagys, but the Democrats counter at Aquaculture School precinct made up ground, not enough to win on the machines but close enough for the Democratic absentee ballot operation to return Brannelly to her seat. Brannelly serves as co-chair of the council’s Budget and Appropriations Committee.
While the citywide turnout was anemic in most voting precincts, the turnout at Black Rock School approached 40 percent led by the high-profile council race. Torres was leading vote producer at Black Rock School with 733 votes, including absentee ballots, according to unofficial numbers, outpacing the Democrats by roughly 270 votes.
In addition to Brannelly Democrats won the other 18 council seats. But the makeup of the council will be different following several wins by challengers in the September 10 Democratic primary that led to their general election win.
Torres, for certain, will become the face of opposition on the council. City Council President Tom McCarthy is expected to seek the council leadership position when the budget and legislative body meets in December. Brannelly, assuming she continues in the budget leadership position, will be a key point person for the Mayor Bill Finch as he prepares for his reelection in 2015, The next two budget cycles will be critical in that effort.
Statement from Finch:
“Congratulations to the victors in the Board of Education race. I look forward to working together with them to continue to improve our children’s schools. Improving outcomes for our students is my highest priority and I welcome the opportunity to work with anyone who will help move our schools forward.
“Congratulations to the newly elected and returning council members. We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us in the coming months as we prepare to break ground on the new construction project on Steel Point, work moves forward to revitalize Downtown and Downtown North and we work to improve the quality of life for residents throughout the city. I look forward to working with the entire Council on the many challenges and opportunities we face in our quest to continue moving the City forward.”
I told y’all ’bout them ABs.
All incumbent heads need to continually roll in Bridgeport for at least a decade to clean house. Let Torres bust balls for a while … it will make good theater, and may just be good for the city. The remaining question is whether the machine, that ugly word, gets away with another steal in the absentee ballot-stuffing operation. Maybe yes, maybe they don’t really do that … right.
It’s not the ABs that lost the election for Phil. It’s the Machine total at Black Rock School that is out of whack. You mean to tell me 71 people bullet-voted Torres and cut Blagys? Tricky, tricky, tricky. Needs to be looked at.
That is exactly what it means. A lot of people who aren’t happy with the machine like Sue because she worked to close the massage parlors and that won her a lot of good will … Black Rock ticket splitting.
blog.ctnews.com/connecticutpostings/2013/11/05/in-black-rock-council-race-a-possible-gop-win-w-a-possible-dem-incumbent-win/
As of the above blog, Brannelly received 104 absentee ballots, Stafstrom 105, Torres 29, and Blagys 0. Brannelly and Stafstrom both the same number of ballots, with Torres anemic and Blagys none. Is the machine really that much better at getting absentees? Hopefully Torres holds out against an understuffed cavity.
Brannelly and Stafstrom 104 and 105 AB ballots, Torres 29 and Blagys 0 in the above blog. Is the machine really that good at getting absentee ballots? Hopefully Torres holds out against an understuffed cavity. No room for cynicism, pure coincidence in the numbers to be sure.
They are very good at it and they know which AB voters can be counted on to support them. Which is very frustrating when running against them. It is not just Lydia Martinez’ illegal shenanigans.
*** Well “thanks” to all the voters who came out to vote today as well as those who gave of their time to either volunteer or work at the local polls. Some districts did well in voting numbers while others were below average! In the 131st district total for City Hall and C. Batalla polls was about 425, give or take a few. The time spent out in front of the polls talking and sharing ideas, opinions and info with the candidates and public was very interesting to say the least! This general elections outcome will also send a political message like the past primary that residents, etc. are fed up with the current status quo in local city government’s decision making, ideas and lack of public transparency when it comes to the Mayor’s Office, BOE and City Council. And it’s not over yet, let’s hope voters and their political parties continue to keep track of some of our deadbeat incumbents, city and state and vote them out in the next up and coming elections! *** IT’S NOT OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER! ***
Something very wrong with the numbers. Stand by …
*** I will say a prayer for Mr.Torres, etc. tonight before bedtime in hopes in the morning the official word is he’s won along with other challengers in the election! *** IT’S NOT OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER! ***
Hey Mr. Mojica, John Iannuzzi here. What were the final #s in our district/your race?
*** Don’t know John, I did not stick around after the closing of the polls to get the numbers, especially knowing I was on the outside looking in once again vs the machine! However it was still a good day talking to voters and candidates about Bpt issues, etc. ***
Wow, so Stafstrom ran just 9 votes behind Sue, if he had 10 more it would be him over Sue. I voted for both Rick and Blagys and I’m a Democrat. Lennie, what were the exact numbers out of Black Rock?
Rick Torres said, “There’s a watchdog on the council,” news flash, I guess he wasn’t following Councilman Andre Baker’s time on the Council or Bob Walsh. Now, is Rick Torres going to be a show horse or a work horse (I’m not calling him a horse)?
There’s a new jingle in town: “WHO LET THE DAWGS OUT!?” Ron?
There will be a protest over the votes in the Black Rock Council race. The gap between the number of machine votes Torres and Blagys received is too great to pass a straight-face test. It is my understanding Blagys has not conceded yet. It’s time to review the machine ballots.
Dave, the gap between Joe Larcheveque and Steve Best was about double the gap between Rick Torres and Phil Blagys. What exactly are you suggesting?
Phil,
The Black Rock School machine vote for Sue and Steve was virtually identical while there was a large gap between Rick and Phil even though they were running together. That large a gap deserves scrutiny. It’s time to review the machine ballots. They have experienced problems in the past.
Dave, what that means is people split their ticket … and frankly if I were still living there I would have preferred Phil on the board to Torres. The last thing Bridgeport needs other than Finch continuing in office is Torres’ teaparty politics. There is a reason Torres never got elected to anything before … it is called being a loose cannon … that is why the GOP removed him as their party chairman.
Dave,
You don’t have to look beyond the official returns of this (or any other) election to find examples of vote differentials between running mates such as the one you cited. One such example is included in my earlier post.
They happen for a number of reasons, including voters voting for a candidate they personally know and like. In the absence of specific information, I think it is unfair and inappropriate to suggest some sinister reason for the discrepancy.
In any event, in the absence of a legally mandated recount, I know of no mechanism for re-examining the votes cast.
Dave, a review of ABs is the game changer. Those numbers are way too high for a CC race. Is it 2015 yet?
I doubt it very much. Too many people are watching this election. The machine is very good at getting the absentee vote out. If there were any shenanigans going on Torres would not have gotten elected … he would have been the target, NOT Phil.
The places where the real absentee ballot abuse goes on is in neighborhoods in places like the East End where there are lots of vacant houses and lots of confusing addresses.
David Moore, you said, “There is a reason Torres never got elected to anything before … it is called being a loose cannon … that is why the GOP removed him as their party chairman,” well, what did he do beside “acting” like he was supporting Caruso when he ran for mayor? This was a vote “against” and not “for” Torres and Blagys.
In the same vein, any vote for the WFP or Dem BOE candidates is a vote “against” Vallas and Finch and not “for” either slate, right?
No one connected to the Torres-Blagys ticket realized they would need ABs to win this election? Piss-poor planning.
Andy: It’s the machine total at Black Rock School that needs to be looked at. Everything else falls in line and trends with the ratios.
Andrew C Fardy, you got that right, “Piss-poor planning.” Rick Torres has been in the political game a long time, in fact he was at one time the GOP chairman and he still doesn’t know how to play the game. There has been ALL of this news about ABs in the media for almost a whole year but still Rick, the Republican Party and those few groups who endorsed Rick and Phil could not do an honest AB campaign? Did they try to do ANY voters registration in PT Barnum where they could have held a cookout in the ballfield? Hell NO.
Andy and Ron M. are on the money here. With Rick Torres’ years attempting to win office as well as being the Republican party’s best chance to be victorious, it is absolutely absurd there would be no plan in place to go after Republican absentee ballots. Who was in charge? Rick may have won his seat and we should congratulate Sue Brannelly for winning her seat again, but honestly, how could the Republicans not cover all their bases? The Republican party is truly dead in this city. Congrats to my council members Michelle Lyons and AmyMarie. All three members I voted for won for the BOE. That did include the Republican Joe L. I wish them all well! Thank you all in advance for serving this city.
What are the numbers out of Black Rock, please post Lennie. Everybody is talking about the wide gap from Torres to Phil and Sue and Steve had identical numbers how is that possible? Only thing I can think of is people just voting for Rick and no one else and I doubt that.
Results are posted. See link at top of story.
These AB numbers make nooo sense. At Longfellow Rick and Phil ran even with the Democrats but the AB numbers from Black Rock showed Rick and Phil got blown out by ABs, they only got two votes I repeat only two votes by AB from Black Rock School and they got 25 votes by AB at Longfellow School. Those numbers make no sense at all!!!!!!!!!
donj, no one seems to want to say the obvious. Rick Torres’ numbers were higher at Longfellow because there are a large number of Spanish-speaking voters who will vote solely for the Spanish-speaking candidates. Normally those voters vote straight Democrat. In this case the lack of Spanish-speaking candidates for any of the other seats allowed Torres’ name to stand out, it might be interesting to see how Mitch Robles did at Longfellow and then compare the two.
Ron, in addition to PT there is a large senior complex near the ballfield and I bet that is where the Dems’ ABs came from. It’s not rocket science is it.
Andrew Fardy, look, the election for city council in the 130th district was ONLY an election for Black Rock and not for the West End, PT Barnum Apartments and Twin Towers. David Walker and group endorsed the two Republican candidates but did they do any campaign work? It truly looks like there was no door-to-door contact and visits outside of Black Rock, no one knew ANYTHING about ABs, the Republican Party did no outreach or registration of NEW voters, what did they do? This is a gang that can’t shoot straight and it shows. These two Republicans ran against two Democrats who did nothing in a district that has a lot of Republicans, that’s why the Republican Party in Bridgeport will be lost in the wilderness for a long time.
Okat thanks Len, what I don’t understand are these AB numbers. How did Rick and Phil get over a 200-vote plurality at Black Rock on the machines but lost Black Rock ABs by only getting two votes while Steve and Sue got 80 AB votes? But at Longfellow where Sue and Steve won by over 100 votes they ran even with Rick and Phil on the AB with Steve and Sue getting 26 and and Rick and Phil getting 25 AB votes at Longfellow. Something does not smell right at all!!! Ron, Black Rock does not have many Republicans, they are outnumbered by more than 3 to 1 at Black Rock School but many Democrats at Black Rock vote for candidates they like rather than party id. In case you do not know Ron many blacks and Hispanics vote at Black Rock School as well just look at the during the 2008 and 2012 election there were so much black voters at Black Rock voting when I voted. Even yesterday there was many blacks voting around 6pm like I did. Many think of Black Rock as just a white precinct but it sure is not. You have to remember south of Fairfield Ave is very mixed from Fox Street go all the way to Hanson Ave many minority voters live and they all vote at Black Rock.
donj, looks like the AB numbers for the precinct results are slotted with the wrong schools. A good portion of the Dems’ AB operation came out of Twin Towers that votes at Aquaculture.
*** By the look at some of the “large election vote numbers” for returning Dem. incumbents, it’s obvious many of the same residents who always cry wolf and constantly voice their opinions of displeasure about city government in general and the city’s education system, once again voted for the present seated incumbents to another two-year term; go figure! You know who you are and we do too for the most part; so there’s nothing left to do now but lie down in the same political beds they’ve continued to make and support! *** SHAME ON YOU ALL, WHO FIT THESE POLITICAL SHOES! ***
All those new faces will not have an immediate effect of the state of politics in Bridgeport. Expect them to remain in a state of FUBAR for some time yet.
The Bridgeport Kid, you got that right and Rick Torres can’t go in like a bull in a china shop, is he trying to make a splash or he going to try to work with Democrats and stay low-key.
*** Wonder how many PT and Twin Towers residents still voted for Torres & Blagys even though they didn’t have a cookout there? *** FORGETABOUTIT ***