New Haven vote count reveals landslide victory for Lamont

Officials release figures days after hampered election process

As New Haven goes, so goes Ned Lamont.

The governor-elect ran up the score in the Elm City, which delivered him a 23,278-vote landslide over Republican Bob Stefanowski in Tuesday’s election.

That’s a wider margin than in the 2014 governor’s race, when fellow Democrat Dannel P. Malloy carried New Haven by 19,692 votes over Tom Foley.

The scope of Lamont’s rout of Stefanowski in the city didn’t fully come into focus until Friday morning, when local election officials released the vote count.

The process was hampered by a surge in Election Day voter registration applications and ballots that got wet while rain-soaked voters waited to feed them through scanning machines. Election officials were then forced to hand count many of the ballots, which jammed up the machines.

“That’s a real testament people’s civic engagement,” said Vincent Mauro Jr., chairman of the New Haven Democrats. “People stood in the rain. It wasn’t a drizzle. It was a pouring rain.”

Lamont, who will be sworn-in Jan. 9 as

Connecticut’s 89th governor, won by 43,137 votes statewide.

He trailed by 40,000 votes at one point during the counting, but that was before Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport reported their totals.

Mauro said a combination of the Trump resistance factor and angst over potential cuts to city aid resulting from Stefanowski’s state income tax repeal plan drove voters to the polls.

“We have the best team in this state about talking to voters, talking to neighbors, understanding how to get people to the polls,” Mauro said. “That’s how you get a number like that.”

Lamont paid close attention to the cities during the final weekend of the campaign, holding a rally with local clergy last Saturday in New Haven.

He also outperformed Malloy in Bridgeport by 4,000 votes, perhaps exceeding expectations after his primary victory in August over city Mayor Joe Ganim.

Greater Middletown Military Museum curator Ken McClellan is a Vietnam-era veteran and an Iraq combat veteran. Astory on Page B1Friday incorrectly identified him as a Vietnam combat veteran.