Derby resident Joe Bomba voted for Donald J. Trump because there is a massive gap between wealthy professional politicians and the common man trying to scrape by every day to make a living.
“When I was a kid I was taught the government is about the people. We are so far from our politicians, especially on the federal level. And I’ll say that for both sides,” Bomba said. “They’ve forgotten about a lot of people in this country.”
Bomba, and thousands of his fellow Valley residents — and across the country — made them remember Tuesday.
Trump was elected president of the United States.
BREAKING: Donald Trump is elected president of the United States. pic.twitter.com/yJpgfsAbc6
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 9, 2016
Hillary Clinton won Connecticut, but Trump won everywhere in the lower Naugatuck Valley, besting Clinton by 11,000 votes. He won 59 percent of the top-of-the-ticket votes cast locally.
His momentum may have helped Republicans to unseat two Democratic incumbents — state Rep. Theresa Conroy, of Seymour, who lost her re-election bid to Nicole Klarides-Ditria, and state Sen. Joe Crisco, who lost to first-time candidate George Logan.
The Republicans made “stunning” gains in the state Senate, the CT Mirror reported.
Here are Trump’s totals in the Valley. The results are not official.
Ansonia
TRUMP: 3,621
Clinton: 3,541
Beacon Falls
TRUMP: 2,002
Clinton: 1,146
Derby
TRUMP: 2,650
Clinton: 2,326
Naugatuck
TRUMP: 7,310
Clinton: 5,219
Oxford
TRUMP: 4,685
Clinton: 2,398
Seymour
TRUMP: 4,439
Clinton: 2,777
Shelton
TRUMP: 12,051
Clinton: 8,001
Bomba, a Republican who served three terms on the Derby Board of Alderman, was a making a living as a landscaper until 2008, when the economy collapsed.
Since then finding full-time work has remained elusive. And the full-time work available doesn’t pay enough to make ends meet.
“Since 2008, it’s been losing a job, trying to find jobs in between, working two to three part-time jobs to make up for a full-time job,” Bomba said. “And with taxes in Connecticut, you’ve got to be making at least $30 an hour just to be able afford a two-bedroom apartment.”
Trump spoke to the middle and lower classes in a way other candidates don’t, Bomba said.
When Trump formally announced he was running for president, the candidate’s priorities matched Bomba’s concerns — immigration and the economy.
“I think he can make a difference. I believe a businessman in the political world today holds more water than it did 50 years ago,” Bomba said Tuesday afternoon while standing outside the Irving School polling place on Seymour Avenue in Derby.
Bomba, along with former Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri, were there holding Trump-Pence signs.
Throw Obamacare into the conversation, and you can see the frustration in Bomba’s eyes. He’s had some health problems for the last year. He eventually learned his long-time doctor was no longer accepting his insurance.
“There was some good ideas with that law. But it wasn’t thought out. You need both sides on the same page,” Bomba said.
While Bomba has deep connections to the city’s Republican Party, he’s voted for Dems in the past.
Not this year.
“This is one of the first times in my life I actually went straight across the board Republican,” Bomba said as a woman driving a SUV honked her horn and said “go Trump.”
Two other motorists did the same in the next five minutes.
Bomba said Trump has tapped into something that won’t be forgotten.
“I honestly think he’s opened many Americans’ eyes,” Bomba said.
He offered journalism as an example.
“Honestly, the way we see things through the media is not through neutral eyes,” Bomba said. “The news media today has taken a side, whether people want to admit it or not, and it’s not for the good.”
Another active Republican, Seymour GOP Town Committee fundraising chair Richard Demko, also talked about class. Class, the economy and guns.
Demko, 36, is a surgical assistant and a pistol permit instructor. His wife’s a teacher. They live within their means, he said. But, “just because of the economy,” they’re still finding it hard to get by.
He predicted that Trump, based on his business record, can bring in needed jobs.
“We’re not bringing in the wages to offset what’s going out, because of the high cost of everything,” Demko said. “I think if we start bringing jobs back to the area and we start putting people back to work, we get our tax situation under control, I think that things are going to be a little more affordable.
“I look back at my grandparents’ generation. They paid off their mortgage by the time the retired. They had a savings account. They were able to afford to go on vacations, do things of that nature. And I know that many grandparents of my friends were in the same boat. And one major thing that has changed between then and now is our economy and the loss of jobs. We just keep farming our jobs out to other countries.”
Outside Ansonia’s Holy Rosary Church, unaffiliated voter Brian Barrett (pictured) said he ended up voting for the “lesser of two evils” Trump in part because of his support of Congressional term limits.
“I think what happens when people become entrenched in Congress, they have a lot of IOUs,” Barrett said.”… It’s time that politicians be held more accountable.”
Barrett, a 65-year-old financial adviser and unaffiliated voter, said that representatives in Washington also have to spend too much time perpetually fundraising for their re-election bids.
“There’s so many different issues, but I would like to see more integrity with our politicians because we elect them to represent their constituents,” Barrett said. “The Clintons have been in this position for 30 years and they’re so self-serving. It’s incredible the things that they have gotten away with.”
The Rev. Walter Oliver of Seymour, 79, of Bible Speaks Ministry, voted straight Democratic except for Trump. He focused on Trump’s criticisms of Clinton: “I won’t use the term ‘Crooked Hillary,’ but I would use the term the feds used, which is she was extremely careless with delicate mail.”
And as a veteran of the armed forces, he held Clinton responsible for the death of four Americans in the attack on the embassy in Benghazi.
