Rossi’s slate claims victory in West Haven.

WEST HAVEN — When Democratic Town Committee chairman Michael Last announced that all but one candidate on Mayor Nancy Rossi’s slate emerged victorious in Tuesday’s primary, he called the margins “significant.” Rossi disagreed.

The mayor told supporters that the margins “weren’t as large as they could be.”

Rossi triumphed over opponent John Lewis, a former aide to her predecessor Ed O’Brien, by a vote of 1,860-1,380, according to numbers released by the Rossi team.

Rossi said she believes the margins were tighter than she had wanted because of “negativity” coming from her opponent’s campaign. She urged her supporters to “push back” on attacks as the Democrats prepare for the November general election.

Rossi’s campaign spotlighted positive strides in the city under her mayoralty, including closing a multimillion dollar city budget deficit with state assistance and enticing developers to the city’s once-prosperous shoreline. Lewis’ campaign was critical of Rossi’s leadership, alleging that spending COVID relief funding on overtime related to the pandemic for managerial employees in City Hall was a misappropriation of those funds.

Soon after Rossi addressed her supporters, Lewis arrived at her headquarters to concede. He declined to explicitly endorse Rossi in November, though.

“I think it’s going to be an interesting race. There are some issues in the city that need to be addressed,” he said.

Lewis said Rossi is “the Democrat that’s moving on” and he would “support the party.” He said he plans on voting, but would not confirm whether it would be for Rossi.

Other than the City Council race in the Eighth District, Rossi’s slate emerged victorious — including a Board of Education slate with two newcomers over a Lewis slate including two school board incumbents.

Most voters spoken to at the polling locations for the 8th and 10th districts, Edith E. Mackrille School and Alma E. Pagels

School, declined to share their voting preferences. At least a dozen said they were exercising their civic duty by voting in Tuesday’s primary and declined to share who had received their vote.

However, some said there were specific reasons for bringing them to the polls, even if they declined to share how they were voting.

“I’ve seen my taxes spike every year, and I haven’t done any work to my house,” said voter Amara Delfrano at Mackrille.

A voter at Pagels who identified herself only as Rosemary, said that she was voting to see progress on The Haven experiential mall project on First Avenue.

“I want the shoreline developed the way it’s supposed to be developed,” she said.

Pagels voter Michelle Rivelli said she was motivated to vote by the city’s financial history and its education system.

“I’ve been happy, Nancy Rossi has done a good job moving us in the right direction,” she said. “Hopefully, we keep moving in a good direction.”

A voter at Mackrille who only identified herself as Rosemarie, declined to share how she would vote in the Democratic mayoral primary, but she said she was certain she would vote for council president Ron Quagliani, an atlarge council member, because of his responsiveness to constituents.

“He does a great job. He sends out personal notes to people,” she said.

Mackrille voter Renee Morales also would not share her vote for mayor in the primary, but she expressed her vote for Victor Boras, a candidate for the 8th District on the Lewis slate.

“We’ve never really seen a Hispanic person (in politics) in West Haven,” she said.

Boras was the only Democratic candidate in the city who did not run on Rossi’s slate that won his primary race.

Morales said she is relatively new to voting, but she is now passionate about it. She said her daughter inspired her to change her thinking about the importance of voting.

“Your vote can really make a difference,” she said. “We want things to change, but if they don’t change then we can make that change.”

Although Republican mayoral candidate Barry Lee Cohen clinched his party’s nomination when challenger Steven Mullins dropped out from the race before ballots were printed, there was also a Republican primary to determine who would represent the party in the race for at-large council seats.

Republican Town Committee Chairman Dave Riccio said incumbent Colleen O’Connor — who narrowly missed her party’s endorsement ahead of the primary — was the top vote getter and will run in November for her at-large council seat alongside Thomas DellaCamera.

“We had all good candidates, and we’re looking forward to the Cohen team to take victory in November,” he said.