3rd District

DeLauro holds lead over Streicker

Facing what many called her toughest Republican opponent in 30 years, Democratic U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro appeared to be on her way to win her 16th term representing the 3rd District on Tuesday.

At 9:55 p.m., according to unofficial partial results, DeLauro had won 24,868 votes, 60.7 percent, to 15,283 for Republican Margaret Streicker, according to the Associated Press. Green Party candidate Justin Paglino had won 2 percent of the vote, though the total number of votes was unavailable.

Both Streicker spokesman Colton Kopcik and DeLauro aide Sarah Locke said their candidates were not ready to comment. Kopcik said “the votes will speak for themselves.” Locke said there were too many large towns yet to report to be able to say anything.

Paglino said he hoped the Green Party would keep the ballot line and that he would be willing to run again. The party needs to win 1 percent of the vote to be listed on the ballot in 2022 without gathering signatures.

“I’m really grateful to have the support of the voters who voted for me,” he said. “I went out today and I saw a lot of voters at the polls and I got lots of great feedback.”

Streicker was feeling confident just after polls closed at 8 p.m.

“It could be a very tense couple of hours, but I do think the decision will be on the earlier side and I’m thrilled at the prospect of being our district’s next U.S. congresswoman,” Streicker said in a phone interview.

Both Streicker and DeLauro spent Election Day crisscrossing the district to greet voters outside the polls.

“What I saw was extraordinary enthusiasm for the American democratic process and that was a beautiful thing to see,” Streicker said. “The lines were moving, they were calm. … As we were doing exit polling, it was just phenomenal response in terms of my candidacy and so I am very optimistic about the results of tonight’s election.”

DeLauro was also endorsed by the Working Families Party, while Streicker was endorsed by the Independent Party.

DeLauro, 77, a native of New Haven’s Wooster Square neighborhood, lost some support from some Italian Americans in the region, who objected to her support for removing the statue of Christopher Columbus from Wooster Square

Park. A group suing the city over the issue, the ItalianAmerican Heritage Group of New Haven, endorsed Streicker.

In a contentious race, Streicker and DeLauro each ran attack ads against the other as the Republican spent more than $1 million of her own money to defeat the longtime representative. Streicker, 45, owns several real estate management companies in New York City, Connecticut and other states. She grew up in Milford.

Streicker campaigned on themes of wanting to reduce the partisanship in American politics and called herself an independent thinker who would not be beholden to party interests. She said she would work to lower taxes and improve the business climate, which she said is hurting Connecticut’s economy.

DeLauro, who is chairwoman of the subcommittees dealing with labor, health and human services and education, had been mentioned as the next chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. She also serves on the subcommittee responsible for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is co-chairwoman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.

She is married to Stanley Greenberg, head of Greenberg Research in Washington, D.C., and much of their personal wealth is related to his businesses. Streicker would be one of the 10 wealthiest members of Congress if elected.

DeLauro has made working families the centerpiece of her legislative work, seeking equal pay for equal work, money for early childhood education and public schools, tax credits for child care and increasing Pell Grants for college students. Instead of Medicare for All, she is promoting

Medicare for America, which would preserve private health insurance but enroll people in Medicare at birth if they choose.

Paglino, 47, is originally from Shelton. He holds a medical degree, is a former researcher in virology, particularly viruses that attack cancer cells. He gave up that career to become a political activist, deciding earlier this year to run for Congress on the Green Party line. He also is a music teacher and plays keyboards in area bands.

Paglino’s campaign issues included Medicare for All, greatly reduced defense spending, efforts to mitigate climate change and rankedchoice voting, a system in use in numerous cities and the state of Maine, in which voters rank the candidates in order of preference, which enables people to vote for a third-party candidate, avoiding a spoiler effect in which that candidate takes votes away from one of the others.