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GOP contests CT Senate result, but Dems retain majorities

Online Niel November 8, 2024

Chris Reddy, the Republican challenger to Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Windham, in the tightly contested 29th Senate District, asked election officials Thursday to investigate the votes cast by registered students on Election Day.

Reddy wants the state Election Enforcement Commission to determine whether the University of Connecticut students bused to the Mansfield town hall by Democrats were properly registered before they voted.

Unofficial results show Flexer won with 49.78 percent of the vote, followed by Reddy with 48.41 percent and the Green Party’s Alice Leibowitz with 1.81 percent. Reddy had given in to Flexer, then reconsidered.

With a net gain of at least four seats in the House and one in the Senate, barring a change in the Mansfield results, Democratic majorities are expected to increase to at least 102-49 in the House and 25-11 in the Senate in January. 8, 2025. Two-thirds of the House, or 101 seats, is a veto-proof supermajority.

Reddy’s complaint comes as newly elected and re-elected members of the General Assembly gathered in caucuses Thursday to formally, if uneventfully, vote to retain the Democratic majority and Republican minority leaders.

Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, whose caucus had a better-than-expected showing Tuesday, cemented his position as leader of the Capitol’s smallest and sometimes most agitated contingent.

His predecessor, Sen. Kevin Kelly of Stratford, had won the post after the 2022 election by a single vote. Kelly, who remains in the Senate and was present Thursday, resigned as leader Harding’s favor while facing a removal vote in February.

A rumored leadership contest starting in January never materialized, and Harding was re-elected Tuesday by acclamation. He admitted he welcomed a more conventional start to a new leadership term.

“It’s a little less hectic. I think it gives me an opportunity to bring a little more organization to our structure, the committee assignments, which is the general cause for the Senate Republican caucus,” Harding said.

House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, was re-elected unopposed, as were Democratic leaders: House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford, House Majority Leader Jason Rojas of East Hartford, Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney of East Hartford and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff of Norwalk.

As leaders of the House and Senate, as well as their caucuses, Ritter and Looney are also subject to votes by their full chambers on Jan. 8, the opening day of the 2025 session and the first day of the 2025-2026 term.

Harding came out of his caucus just to thank the staff for his election efforts.

Democrats targeted four incumbents who won less than 51 percent of the vote two years ago — and at least three of them, in districts where Donald J. Trump was a favorite, were expected to lose.

The only loss was Sen. Lisa Seminara, R-Avon, who defeated Democrat Paul Honig in a race for an open seat in 2022. Honig never stopped running, and unofficial results showed him winning Tuesday by 52% of the votes.

Democrats flipped six Republican House seats for a net gain of at least four: Republicans captured one Democratic seat in Greenwich and claimed a second in Torrington.

Counting continues in the 65th District, where Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, was trailing Republican Joe Canino in a district that favored Donald J. Trump.

“We have a passage of at least four to five if Michelle wins,” said Ritter, who will be only the third person to serve a third term as speaker of the Connecticut House. The others were his father, Thomas D. Ritter of Hartford and his successor, Moira Lyons of Stamford.

Canino, who is now a Senate Republican press adviser, was among the representatives and representatives-elect who endorsed Candelora as minority leader. The results have not been certified, but he said he believed he won by about 600 votes. Republican Tina Courpas defeated Rep. Rachel Khanna, D-Greenwich, in the 149th House District.

Joe Canino, who believes he will be declared as representative-elect on Friday, talks with Rep. Craig Fishbein outside the GOP House on Thursday. Credit: mark pazniokas / ctmirror.org

Republicans conceded losses to Rep. Holly Cheeseman of East Lyme, Rep. Kathleen McCarty of Waterford, Rep. Francis Cooley of Plainville, Rep. Rachel Chaleski of Danbury and Rep. Laura Dancho of Stratford. They also lost a vacant seat in West Haven.

Democratic winners in those districts are Nick Menapace over Cheeseman in the 37th, Nick Gauthier over McCarty in the 38th, Rebecca Martinez over Cooley in the 22nd, Kenneth Gucker won a rematch with Chaleski in the 138th and Kaitlyn Shake over Dancho. the 120th. MJ Shannon won the open 117th District seat in West Haven, which Republican Charles Ferraro held for a decade.

The tight race in Senate District 29 in Brooklyn, Canterbury, Killingly, Mansfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Scotland, Thompson and Windham was surprising but not shocking. Flexer won less than 51 percent of the vote in 2022, but typically runs stronger in presidential election years when Democratic turnout increases.

Her district is one of the extremes: seven small and mostly rural communities that vote Republican and two larger ones that favor Democrats — Windham and Mansfield. Getting UConn students to the polls is always a goal for Flexer, and one of Mansfield’s two early voting locations was on the UConn campus.

Reddy’s campaign manager, Wendy Sears, said Democrats handed out petitions in dormitories and offered bus rides to City Hall and pizza while they waited in line.

“It was a three-ring circus,” she said.

Stopping the certification of the results would most likely require court action, and Sears said a lawsuit has not been ruled out.

Flexer could not be reached for comment.

“We think Mae Flexer clearly won the election,” Looney said.

If the overall results fell short of Democrats’ expectations of flipping more Republican Senate seats, Looney said Democrats still found ample reason to celebrate: For the fourth straight time, Democrats have added seats — four in 2018 and one in 2020 , 2022 and 2024.

Looney said Democrats haven’t won more than 24 seats since 1986, when they also captured 25.

Republicans have not won control of the General Assembly since the Republican landslide led by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Republicans captured the Senate, but not the House, for a single term in 1994.

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