Greenwich GOP outperforms Trump
GREENWICH — The town of Greenwich is still considered as a Republican stronghold, but it may not seem that way to President Donald Trump after the 2020 election.
Trump was bested by Democrat Joe Biden in every single one of the town’s 12 voting districts. Biden improved on the voting numbers earned by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, when she also drew more votes than Trump, who once owned a home in Greenwich.
Many voters in Greenwich split their tickets, allowing Biden
to win in districts where Republicans candidates including state Rep. Harry Arora in the 151st, state Rep.-Elect Kimberly Fiorello in the 149th and state senate candidate Ryan Fazio posted big vote margins over their Democratic opponents.
Trump’s presence on the ticket created a unique situation in Greenwich, according to Republican Town Committee Chair Dan Quigley.
“The polling numbers suggest to me that our local candidates outpolled the president,” Quigley said. “That suggests there was definitely a drag from him.”
But the election results for 2020 show that voters in Greenwich are continuing to evolve.
State Sen. Alex Kasser and state Rep. Stephen Meskers in the 150th, who both made history in 2018 by winning elections as Democrats in traditionally Republican districts, were reelected by larger margins than in their first runs. At the same time, Republicans Arora and Fiorello both won their races by comfortable margins, keeping their seats in Republican control.
Additionally, the town supported U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat who lives in town, as he was elected to his seventh term in Congress.
District by district
In his unsuccessful race against Meskers in the 150th, Republican Joe Kelly won District 2 and District 5, which Fazio and Arora also won. In fact Fazio, won eight of Greenwich’s 12 districts and outdrew the sitting president of the United States in each of them.
In District 2, which includes the harbor area of town, Fazio had 1,165 votes to Trump’s 816. In Republican areas such as District 8, which covers most of Cos Cob, Fazio had 1,985 votes and Arora 2,056, both more than Trump’s 1,553.
Democratic state representative candidate Hector Arzeno, who lost to Arora, also got more votes than Trump in District 8 as well as in District 12 in the Havemeyer section of town near the Stamford border.
In District 2, Biden earned 1,310 votes and in District 8, he received 2,371.
And in District 10, which covers northwest Greenwich, Fiorello had 1,723 votes to go along with Fazio’s 1,743 votes in comparison to Trump’s 1,340 votes and Biden’s 1,709 votes. That pattern was repeated elsewhere.
Kasser improved on her Greenwich vote totals over 2018 and dominated in Stamford, giving her the margin of victory in her Senate race. The 36th District includes all of Greenwich plus portions of Stamford and New Canaan. In her hometown, she earned her strongest support in District 6 in Old Greenwich, where she beat Fazio 1,778 votes to 1,336. District 6 also had strong support for Meskers as well and was a blowout for Biden with 2,149 votes to Trump’s 916.
What’s next?
In next year’s municipal election, voters will cast ballots in races for the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Estimate and Taxation and four seats on the Board of Education as well as the positions of town clerk and tax collector.
Republicans dominated the 2019 municipal election, with Fred Camillo winning easily the race for first selectman and Republicans recapturing the majority on the BET after Democrats seized the majority for the first time in 2017.
Camillo has not announced his plans for 2021 but it is believed he will seek a second two-year term. And with next year’s election entirely focused on local races, Quigley said it is difficult to draw conclusions about what this year’s results could mean for 2021.
“It is going to be such a different election campaign next year,” Quigley said. “I don’t know we can draw too, too much from this. It’s going to be very local-centric and Fred and (Selectwoman Lauren Rabin) are unique candidates because they have a lot of support across political party lines. There’s no contentious presidential election that will be an overhang.”
And with a campaign based on local issues, the landscape could be dramatically different in September 2021 when the local campaigns will begin in earnest.
“I am primarily if not solely focused on Greenwich-centric candidates who are running as Republicans,” Quigley said. “Not having a presidential election in the background will, I think, make it easier to navigate and we can keep it focused on what’s going on locally.”
The Democrats
For his part, Democratic Town Committee Chair Joe Angland said the election results in 2020 show the growth of his party in the whole town. The Democratic strength is not just in the 150th District where Meskers won reelection, but also in the 149th and
151st as well where Kathleen Stowe and Hector Arzeno outperformed Democrats who had previously run for those seats.
“The gap is not enormous for us,” Angland said, noting a rise in Democratic voter registrations in town. “We are growing. There are a lot of variables, of course, but Kathleen far outperformed previous Democrats running in the 149th who had typically gotten about 30 percent of the vote.”
Fiorello beat Stowe by 9 percentage points in Greenwich — but Democrats had not even run a candidate in the district since 2012, when state Rep. Livvy Flo
ren, a Republican, held the seat.
Looking ahead, Angland said there is “some truth that the municipal races are not affected to the same degree as state races by national political issues.”
“That’s not to say they are completely irrelevant, though,” he said. “But I think the national issues play a bigger role in the state races. On the other hand, if you look at the registration gap, that suggests Democrats are gaining in town, then I think we should be in a good position for the coming municipal election.”