Angel Reyes Qualifies To Challenge Christina Ayala In State House Primary

City elections officials today approved a ballot position for Angel Reyes after he submitted enough petition signatures to challenge Democratic Party-endorsed Christina Ayala in an Aug. 14 primary for Connecticut’s 128th State House district. Christina is the daughter of Democratic Registrar Santa Ayala who turned over the petition review process to Republic elections officials to avoid an appearance of conflict.

Christina Ayala and Reyes are seeking the party nomination for the State House seat of Andres Ayala who’s involved in a three-way race for State Senate with incumbent Ed Gomes and party-endorsed Ernie Newton.

Reyes says he will now move in earnest to try to qualify for Connecticut’s public financing program. He’ll need to raise $5,000 in small donations from within the district to spend upwards of $30,000. The House district covers portions of the heavily Latino East Side and crosses into The Hollow and a piece of the West Side.

Now that the petitioning process has come to a close with ballot positions established, Town Clerk Alma Maya will order absentee ballots. More than 1,000 absentee ballot applications are circulating throughout the city led by the Newton/Gomes/Ayala primary. The ballot lineup for the Aug. 14 primary in the 128th State House seat is:

Line A: Chris Murphy, U.S. Senate, Ernie Newton, State Senate, Christina Ayala, State House

Line B: Susan Bysiewicz, U.S. Senate, Andres Ayala, State Senate, Angel Reyes, State House

Ed Gomes will appear on Line C below Newton and Ayala

Why does any of this matter? Andres Ayala and Christina Ayala are cousins running on separate lines. East Side political operative Tito Ayala is Christina’s father and Andres’ uncle. The collective Ayala family when all working together has a solid campaign operation. They’ll need to educate voters about ballot position. Andres Ayala is popular in the district which could benefit Reyes.

Meanwhile City Councilwoman Lydia Martinez, the city’s queen of absentee ballots, appears to be working for both Andres Ayala and Angel Reyes so this race has a number of split alliances. Stay tuned.