Theresa Conroy managed to convince more Seymour voters to support her Tuesday than she did in 2010, a key factor in her win over State Rep. Len Greene in an extremely close race in the 105th State House district.
The 105th covers Beacon Falls, Seymour and part of Derby.
Overall, Conroy received 5,141 votes compared to Greene’s 5,083 votes. That’s a difference of 58 votes.
It was a close race — but not close enough to trigger an automatic recount. Greene conceded the race to Conroy Thursday.
A Closer Look
Tuesday’s race was a rematch of 2010, when Conroy, then the Democratic incumbent, lost to Greene, a Republican.
The 2010 race was close, too. Greene won by 99 votes, according to the secretary of the state.
One might assume the presidential election and Dems supporting Barack Obama put Conroy over the top this time around. Turnout was much heavier Tuesday than in 2010, naturally.
However, Obama lost Seymour — so his coattails for Conroy only went so far. And the majority of Seymour voters chose Republican Linda McMahon over Democrat Chris Murphy in the U.S. Senate race, according to unofficial results.
Conroy carried Seymour, where she has extensive roots, while Greene carried Beacon Falls, where he has extensive family roots. That was also the way it played out in 2010 during Greene v. Conroy I.
However, this time around, Conroy managed to win Seymour, a bigger town than Beacon Falls, by a wider margin.
She picked up an additional 826 votes in Seymour Tuesday compared to 2010 and won Seymour, her stronghold, by 467 votes.
In 2010, she won the town by just 245 votes — and went on to lose the overall race to Greene.
Greene won his stronghold, Beacon Falls by 555 votes Tuesday. In 2010, he won Beacon Falls by 463 votes.
Greene Concedes
Greene, who had been waiting since Tuesday night to see if the close race would trigger a recount, officially conceded the race Thursday around noon by placing a phone call to Conroy.
He said he congratulated her on her victory and wished her well in Hartford.
“Both campaigns ran very, very hard campaigns,” Greene said. “There’s no excuses, the voters made a decision and I certainly respect their decision.”
Conroy could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The race was close — but not close enough under state law to trigger an automatic recount.
The threshold for triggering a recount is whether the amount of the vote difference between candidates is .5 percent or less of all ballots cast. According to the numbers, the difference in the 105th is .56 percent.
Asked if he thought there was a single issue or reason for the loss, Greene pointed out how close the race was when he first won the seat from Conroy in 2010.
“It was close two years ago, it was close this year,” he said. “We just came up a little bit short.”
Greene said high turnout for the presidential election could have helped Conroy’s tally, but that it wouldn’t have been a difference-maker.
As for his political future, Greene said he’s going to take some time off to spend some time with his family before making any decisions.
“I’m a young guy,” he said. “We’ll see what the future holds.”
Christine Conroy, Greene’s campaign manager, said Greene can hold his head high, despite the loss.
“I am proud of the re-election campaign that Len Greene Jr. had. While the results may not be what we hoped for, our team worked extremely hard and conducted an honest and fair campaign based on facts,” she said in an e‑mail. “Len worked extremely hard and would have been the best candidate to continue forth for the people of Beacon Falls, Seymour, and Derby.”
Was Derby The Spoiler?
The 105th State House district changed with this year thanks to redistricting.
It now includes a sliver of Derby. Both Greene and Conroy had to knock on doors in Derby and explain they were the new guys looking to represent a fraction of the city in Hartford.
The Derby voters favored Conroy by a 337 – 191 vote Tuesday.
While it might seem Derby put Conroy over the top, it really didn’t.
Greene pointed out the 105th until the recent redistricting included a portion of Ansonia, a heavily-Democratic city. Ansonia voted for Conroy in 2010, but Greene still managed to win that election.
While Derby may not have been the spoiler, voters there certainly didn’t help Greene’s re-election bid.
Ron Sill, a Democrat and president of Derby’s Board of Aldermen, said the 105th now includes Derby’s Second Ward on the west side of town. That area includes the neighborhoods surrounding Roseland Apizza and Derby Neck Library.
Traditionally, that section of Derby leans toward Democrats, he said.
“It’s an older, well-established part of Derby that is probably heavily Democratic and could have certainly made a difference in that race,” Sill said.
But Greene said he didn’t think the redistricting hurt him.
“If you look at the district prior (to redistricting), the section of Ansonia that was in the 105th always leaned heavily Democratic as well,” he said.
Seymour GOP Reacts
Robert Koskelowski, the former Seymour First Selectman, a Republican and a veteran of local politics, pointed to one reason and only one reason Greene lost to Conroy — the ballot.
Conroy’s name appeared twice on the ballot, under both the Democratic and Working Families lines.
Koskewlowski called cross-endorsements a “political ploy” meant to assure candidates more votes. He said people cast votes under the impression they’re voting for a third party, not realizing they are actually voting for someone who is affiliated with one of the two major parties.
Having a name appear multiple times on a ballot under a plethora of parties increases the chances of someone checking that name.
“Having your name twice on a ballot gives you an unfair advantage and the law should be changed. It should not be allowed,” Koskelowski said.
Koskelowski, a Republican, had high praise for both Greene and Conroy — but said the Working Families Party is simply an extension of the Democratic Party.
Both U.S. Senate candidates — Chris Murphy and Linda McMahon — appeared twice on Tuesday’s ballot as well.
Counting The ‘Unknowns’
In the 48 hours after Tuesday’s razor-close election, Seymour politicos were buzzing about votes being classified as “unknown” and then being given to Conroy.
However, the process by which Seymour tabulated votes was completely in line with state law, according to the town’s two voting registrars.
Republican Registrar of Voters Elise Wood said Thursday the “unknown” votes were from people who voted for Conroy on both the Working Families and Democratic lines. Those voters were supposed to check one bubble on the ballot for Conroy, not two.
Instead of throwing the vote out, the vote is classified as “unknown” and is given to the candidate for which it was meant — in this case, Conroy.
Members of the GOP had been questioning this issue, saying ballots in other towns were rejected by machines if someone checked the same name twice.
However, the method is the law of the land, Wood said. Since so many people have been asking about the issue, Wood called the Secretary of State’s Office Thursday, who again confirmed the way the “unknown” votes are calculated, she said.
A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office did not return calls for comment from the Valley Indy Thursday.
Wood said the way “unknown” votes were counted was not a surprise.
“This is something everyone who is involved in elections, registrars across the state, have known about,” she said.
Democratic Registrar of Voters Ron Skurat concurred, noting he has been asked countless times about the “unknown” votes since the results trickled in Tuesday.
Greene said the question of the unknown votes was “a little unusual” because it was something nobody had dealt with before, but said officials arrived at the correct vote totals.
“I’m confident that the election results were accurate, that’s why we decided not to push (a recount),” he said.
