Results
of November 8, 2005 Weston local election
First Selectman
1A - Woody
Bliss 995
2A - W. Glenn
Major 753
2B- Richard
Miller 515
3A- Charity
B. Nichols 921
Board of Finance
4A- Gerald T
Sargent III 835
4B- Robert
Atkinson 704
5A- Michael
Carter 861
5B- David
Muller 643
8B- Michael
O’Brien 680
9A- Joseph J.
Fitzpatrick 878
9B- Richard
Bochinski 665
10A- Lyn
Kimberly 867
12B- Melissa
Koller 691
13A- Jeffrey
K. Tallman 597
13B- Marina
Coprio 515
14A- Daniel F.
Gilbert 823
14B- Paul
Heifetz 661
15A- Stephan
B. Grozinger 848
17B- Jane
Connelly 668
Zoning Board of Appeals
18A- Frederick
C. Noyes 843
18B- W.
MacLeod Snaith 636
20A- Carolyn A
Armbrust Mulcahey 842
20B- Jennifer
Gremmel Hunt 652
ZBA Alternates
22A-Arthur Hahn - Alt - 822
23A- Robert A.
Morse Jr. - Alt 831
25A- Peter J.
Ottomano 823
25B- Walter
Marcus 668
26A- Richard
G. Phillips 791
26B- Richard
Saltz 704
The ‘Education' Candidate: Incumbent Mayor Taught Voters How To Cast Write-in Choice
By CARA RUBINSKY & ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published on 11/10/2005
Waterbury
Mayor Michael J. Jarjura figured he had given voters plenty of reasons
to back him in the four years since he took over a city reeling from
the arrest of its former mayor on federal child sex charges.
But after a Democratic primary loss in September cost him his spot on the ballot, he had to teach them how.
Election officials believe Jarjura's 2,450-vote victory — he won less
than 40 percent in a six-way race Tuesday — made him the first
incumbent mayor in Connecticut to win re-election as a write-in
candidate.
It's another chapter in Waterbury's unusual political history, which
includes three indicted mayors, a state takeover of the city's finances
and a native son who served as governor for 11 years before being
brought down by a corruption scandal.
On Election Day, hundreds of volunteers manned the polls, wearing
bright yellow rain slickers with “Jarjura, the ‘Write' choice” on the
back. They handed out pencils with the same slogan and cards with
pictures of voting machines and step-by-step instructions for casting
write-in votes.
Garrett Casey, Jarjura's former chief of staff and an architect of the
victory, said those efforts were key. “Forget about issues. The issues
were well-defined. The primary defined them,” he said. “This was about
educating voters and trying to create some reason for voters to try
something new.”
Jarjura initially planned to return to private life after he lost the
primary to Karen Mulcahy, a former tax collector whom he fired. But a
coalition of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters persuaded
him in early October to try a write-in campaign.
“They knew that the city of Waterbury needed Mike Jarjura as the
mayor,” said campaign manager Robert Brown. “What happened in the
primary, you had 6,000 people out of 58,000 voters in the city decide
who was going to be the nominee. We said, we're going to let those
58,000 people have the final say.”
A cable television commercial that ran 109 times a day for two weeks
showed Jarjura going into the voting booth and demonstrating how to
cast a write-in vote. The campaign also rented three voting machines,
set them up in headquarters and bused in elderly residents for coffee
and voting demonstrations.
Brown estimated that Jarjura, an executive with his family's produce
business, spent anywhere from $85,000 to $100,000 on the write-in
campaign, some of it his own money. Because it was a long shot, he was
reluctant to ask supporters for funds.
The effort worked, though poll workers reported that a handful of
confused voters penciled in Jarjura's name on a metal tab rather than
sliding back the tab and writing on the paper underneath it.
Enough voters cast their ballots correctly to give Jarjura 7,907 votes,
or 38 percent, to 5,455 votes, or 27 percent, for Mulcahy, the next
highest vote-getter, according to unofficial results. Turnout was about
40 percent.
The city's registrars of voters said there were no problems counting or interpreting the write-in votes.
Gary Rose, a political science professor at Sacred Heart University in
Fairfield, said Jarjura likely had an easier time than many write-in
candidates because the incumbent had strong name recognition.
“It would be obviously very difficult for voters to cast ballots for a
write-in candidate who didn't have much exposure,” he said. “In
Jarjura's case, it's a very different situation. He's very well-known,
a previous mayor. It was as if he was a party nominee, almost.”
Jarjura said winning required a lot of work. “I don't think people can
fully appreciate the odds we were facing here,” he said after declaring
victory Tuesday night. “It took going at full throttle for 30 days. We
had to educate people how to do something that's never been done.”