Most Dems prevail, as usual, in Bridgeport
BRIDGEPORT — Park City Democrats had reason to celebrate as polls closed on Tuesday, though minority party school board candidates continued to wait for numbers.
As midnight approached, three Democrats — Christine BaptistePerez, Erika Castillo and Michael Maccarone — came out on top on the machines, according to their campaign, and two Republicans, including John Weldon, an incumbent, and Peter Perillo, seemed to secure the final two open seats before absentee ballots were counted.
“I hope that we’ll be able to implement policies that help our children to recover from learning loss due to the pandemic, and that the district overall, and the city overall, will be performing better,” said Castillo as the final in-person votes were counted.
Anecdotal reports emerged on Tuesday afternoon of low turnout, despite a consequential school board election with more than half its seats on the ballot, and City Council races that, while expected to be won by Democrats, also involved Republican, third-party and write-in candidates.
The new Board of Education and City Council will oversee an influx in federal dollars, including more than $100.3 million in the latest round of pandemic aid for the former, according to a draft of school district plans.
Close to 1,300 absentee ballots were returned to the Town Clerk’s office as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a city report. Of those, 1,179 were Democrats, 43 Republicans, 58 unaffiliated and three “other.”
Nine school board candidates were on the ballot Tuesday, including two incumbents, three Democrats favored this election in the left-leaning Bridgeport and several political newcomers.
Many had backgrounds in education.
Five members of the nine-seat panel reached the end of their terms this election cycle. Two of them — Weldon, the board chair, and Joseph Sokolovic — ran for reelection. Meanwhile, Democrat Jessica Martinez, charged in May in an alleged campaign fund scheme, Republican Chris Taylor and Sosimo Fabian, who filled a one-year vacancy, let their terms run out.
Tuesday night’s winners will each serve four-year terms.
Democrats — Baptiste-Perez, Castillo and Maccarone — held a substantial lead by Tuesday evening, hundreds of votes ahead of the nearest candidate of a non-Democratic party.
“We’ve been everywhere today,” said Castillo, who on Monday night had a schedule of 12 polling sites to visit on Election Day.
More than 61 percent of the city’s voters are registered Democrats.
Also on the ballot were Republicans Weldon, Perillo and Mary Gaits, who secured the GOP nomination last month. Sokolovic, Jose Lopez and Khalid Muhammad ran on the Working Families Party line.
Meanwhile the council races, as expected, seemed to have mostly followed the results of the Sept. 14 party primaries, with 15 incumbents preserving their seats and three new faces joining them when that still-all Democrat legislative body is sworn in Dec. 2 for two years.
There were also several Republicans, third-party and write-in contenders on Tuesday’s ballot, but 42,408 out of Bridgeport’s 69,359 voters are registered as Democrats, making those primaries typically the main electoral event and November’s general elections formalities.
“This is not a glamorous race like the primary,” City Council President Aidee Nieves said around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, referring to the fact she and her council partner, Maria Valle, lost the Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement over the summer but prevailed on Sept. 14.
That new council roster will be: Councilman Jorge Cruz and Tyler Mack representing the 131st District; incumbents M. Evette Brantley and Marcus Brown from the 132nd District; newcomer Aikeem Boyd and Councilwoman Jeanette Herron from the 133rd District; incumbents Rev. Mary McBride Lee and Rosalina Roman-Christy in the 135th District; Councilmen Alfred Castillo and Avelino Silva representing the 136th District; Nieves and Valle from the 137th District; and Councilwoman Maria Pereira and her new running mate, Michelle Small, representing the 138th District.
The single council race that was still in question around 10:30 p.m. was in the 139th Council District, where incumbent Eneida Martinez, who lost her primary to Wanda Simmons, had mounted a last minute write-in campaign.
Martinez’s partner on the council, Ernie Newton, received 284 votes at the polls, Simmons got 257 and Martinez 122. But Martinez thought since she circulated around 150 applications for absentee or mail-in ballots that she might be able to overtake Simmons.
“We’re just waiting on the absentee ballot numbers,” Martinez said.
Boyd, Mack, and Simmons were all cross-endorsed by the Working Families third party.