Corey Paris sworn in as state rep

STAMFORD — Stamford’s delegation in Hartford officially has a new member.

Corey Paris, a Democrat, was sworn in Tuesday as the representative of the state House’s 145th District, a week after a special election that brought out a small number of voters from the city’s West Side and Waterside neighborhoods.

“To the members of the 145th District, this is a very proud day ... I will forever be humbled and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to work alongside each of you to do the good work of our district, to do the good work of our state and to make our state more resilient and sustainable for the future,” Paris said, speaking from the House chamber Tuesday. “May we all be good and decent people that serve in this chamber, who all decide that we will come in every day to achieve better today than we did yesterday.”

Paris received 730 votes, while Republican candidate Juan David “J.D.” Ospina garnered 225.

The town clerk’s office issued about 300 absentee ballots for the election. The office received back a total of 218, four of which were rejected.

About 10,800 people were eligible to vote in the election, meaning turnout was slightly under 9 percent.

A week before the election, Stamford officials celebrated the city winning a “Democracy Cup” from the secretary of the state. The award goes to towns and cities with the highest turnouts in even-year general elections.

For the 2020 general election, Stamford’s turnout was nearly 80 percent — which was higher than any other city or town in the state with more than 65,000 residents. Stamford also had more new registered voters and more received absentee ballots than any other municipality in that category.

The special election on April 27 came about two months after a special election for the state Senate’s 27th District seat. That senatorial district includes a chunk of Stamford as well as a part of Darien.

Patricia Billie Miller, who at the time was the representative of the 145th state House District, won the state Senate election on March 2.

About 56,000 people in Stamford were eligible to vote in that election. Turnout ended up being about 13 percent.

Ken Dixon / Hearst Connecticut Media New State Rep. Corey Paris, of Stamford, after he took the oath of office from Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, behind him. Speaker of the House Matt Ritter is left.