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Stamford voters chose a native son, Dan Malloy, over a national figure, Ned Lamont, a novice, Linda McMahon, over a veteran, Rob Simmons, and nickel-and-dime issues over non-fiscal concerns in Tuesday's primary elections.
"The economy, that's number one. We need to clean this up," said Susan Hoehl about the major reason she went to Stamford High School, the District 10 polling site, to cast her vote Tuesday.
Hoehl, a Republican, was among the 34 percent of eligible GOP voters who cast ballots. Among Democrats, the turnout was 30 percent. Both parties fell slightly short of registrars of voters' predictions. Alice Fortunato, Democratic registrar, expected a 35 percent to 40 percent turnout, and Lucy Corelli, Republican registrar, was thinking 38 percent.
"It's sad that more people didn't come out. We have a duty to make a decision," said Hoehl.
Susana Vidan, Democratic candidate for state representative for the 144th District, suggested the timing of the primary might be a factor. "People don't want to think about politics in August," she said.
The majority of Democrats who did turn out favored Vidan. The political novice bested John Zelinsky, a longtime member of the Stamford Board of Representatives, receiving 967 votes to Zelinsky's 672.
Local Democratic voters also solidly supported native son and former Stamford mayor Dan Malloy with well over twice the number of votes cast for gubernatorial rival Ned Lamont, 5,352 to 2,146.
Stamford Republicans overwhelmingly backed Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele for governor, giving him a landslide victory in the city with 3,456 votes, compared with 978 for Tom Foley and 197 for Oz Griebel. Foley had the most votes statewide, however, and won the primary.
Along with Republican voters statewide, Stamford voters chose Linda McMahon as their nominee for U.S. Senate. The local vote was McMahon 2,580, Peter Schiff 1,283, and Rob Simmons 689.
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