New Haven voters get their first of two chances Tuesday to weigh in on who should assume four open top statewide elected jobs, with a posse of self-funding 1 percenters leading the pack.
Registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in their parties’ primaries from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Confused about where to vote? Call 203-946-8035 during business hours.) Tuesday’s winners will face voters again in the Nov. 6 general election.
More candidates than usual are running, because more incumbents are stepping down from top spots than usual. So a lot is at stake for a state where companies and humans are leaving, the government bank account keeps bleeding red, and thousands of families struggle to claim a spot in the nation’s economic recovery.
Both parties have competitive primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and treasurer; the Republicans also have a competitive primary for the comptroller nomination.
In New Haven, where “Democrat” is practically the official state religion, 37,482 registered Democrats are eligible to vote Tuesday; 2,340 registered Republicans are eligible to vote in their party’s primary. By Monday morning, about half of the 956 Democrats who took out absentee ballots had returned them to the City Clerk’s Office, along with more than half of the 58 Republicans who requested them.
The names you might hear the most in campaigns this year aren’t on the ballot: Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who’s retiring in January. Republicans are banking on voter anger at the precariousness of state finances under Malloy’s watch to propel them into office. Democrats are banking at their base’s anger at the president’s policies and behavior to counteract Republicans’ momentum in state races.
We’re not going to suggest for whom you should vote. But we’ve been spending a lot of
