Unofficial results show GOP gains on Trumbull council

TRUMBULL — The Democrats now have a slim majority on the Town Council, according to unofficial results late on Tuesday night.

Officials from both parties said, after absentee ballots, the Democrats have an 11-10 majority over Republicans on the town council. Republican Town Committee chair Chris Bandecchi said the election “resulted in a gain of five seats — which is a big win for the GOP but not a majority.”

The town council voted last August to go from four voting districts to seven. Under the new district plan, each district has three representatives and no party can have more than a 14-7 majority.

Since 2012, the council has consisted of four districts, with District 4 having six representatives and the other three districts with five each. Going into the election, the council had a 16-5 Democratic split.

From 2015 to 2017, Republicans had a 17-4 edge.

Trumbull Democratic Party Chairman Tom Kelly said the results showed that the Democrats have won two seats in Districts 2, 3, 5, and 7. It appears Republicans have won two seats in Districts 1, 4, and 6.

“If this holds up, the Democrats retain control of the Town Council by a margin of 11-10,” Kelly said in a statement.

The other major race affected by a restructuring was Board of Education.

During the last election, Trumbull residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of a charter change that increased the Board of Education from seven members to eight, with no more than four members from any political party. Members also will have staggered four-year terms, so half the board is up for re-election every two years.

That means some of the candidates elected this year were running for two year terms, and some are running for four-year terms.

On the Board of Education, all four Republican candidates — Bandecchi and incumbents Alison Squiccimarro, Marie Petitti and Jackie Norcel — were elected, as the town’s revised charter allows up to four members of each party. All of the Republican candidates ran for both the two-year terms and the four-year terms.

Early results showed that Norcel and Petitti received the highest vote totals for the both two-year slots and the four-year slots, so it wasn’t immediately clear which candidates would take which terms.

The Democrats ran eight candidates, and, of those, unofficial results showed that Tim Gallo and Lisa Nuland have won the 4year seats, and Lucinda Timpanelli and Julia McNamee won the 2-year seats.

Official results weren’t available Tuesday night, as the Registrar of Voters office reported problems entering data into the statewide election management system.