Democrat Ed Krumeich concedes the race for the 151st State Senate seat as Selectman Lyn Lavery watches.
(Keelin Daly/Greenwich Time photo)
Dems soak in Obama victoryAll was quiet at the Democratic headquarters just before the states' polls closed at 8 p.m., but everything changed with one loud announcement.
"He's got Connecticut," one woman yelled about Democrat Barack Obama after hearing the projected presidential results on television, prompting a group of anxious people to crowd around the television and erupt in cheers.
The cheers didn't stop there, as more good news continued to pour into the Greenwich Senior Center, where a gathering of more than 100 Democrats watched the tide turn in their predominantly conservative town.
Though Democrats were dealt two upsets in the local races with candidates Edward Krumeich, vying for the state House 151st District seat, and Mark Diamond, a candidate for the state Senate 36th District seat, losing their bids to the Republicans, the mood was still one of victory, especially after the announcement that Obama had carried Greenwich and Jim Himes was going to unseat longtime U.S. Rep Christopher Shays, R-Conn.
"There is no way around it, Obama carried the town of Greenwich," said David Roberson, chairman of the Democratic Town Committee, leading to applause that was amplified as an unexpected announcement came in that the incumbent Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Shays, had just conceded.
"I think it is absolutely fantastic. I am thrilled," said Michael Sandifer of Greenwich, who said he was a longtime supporter of Himes.
"We put in a lot of work here and we did......
Black residents relish victoryBy Eileen Byrnes
Special Correspondent
Article Launched: 11/05/2008 01:00:00 AM EST
STAMFORD - For Drew Hawkins, voting for Barack Obama was a moment that brought tears to his eyes. Joseph Nunn cast his vote reflecting on the days when he was in the deep south and not allowed to ride in the front of the bus.
Lynn Sullivan said she brought her 10-year-old daughter to the polls today because she wanted her to witness history, and Lise Leist said she was so excited about voting early Tuesday morning that sleep the night before was fleeting.
All are black and adamant Obama supporters who were out in Stamford Tuesday night watching the election results roll in. Each said this election has brought them hope.
Nunn, the outgoing board chair of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, said supporting Obama and being.....
...."I walked and reflected on every step," the incoming board chairman of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut said while sipping drinks and smoking cigars at the Connecticut Cigar Co. on Bank Street, where he gathered with friends Tuesday night.....
....But Anderson R. Livingston, who gathered with Hawkins to watch the election results at the private cigar club, said the African-American community has to be realistic about the immediate changes that will take place with the Obama election.
Livingston said he believes the group forced to make the biggest adjustment with an African-American president is the non-educated white male from southern or midwestern states. And he is optimistic that adjustment will be positive.
"When a poor white guy in America can say (Obama) helped me, that is when you are going to see positive change," he said. "That is going to be the more important part of how this plays out. The world as I know it doesn't exist anymore."
Full StoryGreenwich voters rebuke Republican traditionBy Colleen Flaherty
Meredith Blakeand
Neil Vigdor
Staff writers
Article Launched: 11/05/2008 01:30:51 AM EST
Greenwich voters made history Tuesday night, casting aside its Republican tradition to back a Democrat for president for the first time since 1964 as Barack Obama carried the town and the nation.
But residents stayed true to the town tradition of sending an all-Republican delegation to the General Assembly in Hartford and backed 21-year Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays even as Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes beat Shays in the overall vote.
Voting was heavy at polling places across town as voters joined in what many saw as a history-making election at a time of critical choices for the nation.
Members of the town's longtime minority party were exultant as they surveyed the political landscape from their headquarters at the Senior Center on Greenwich Avenue, on a night when the nation also made history by electing its first African-American president and the 4th District sent a Democrat to Congress for the first time since 1966.
"This is a remarkable time in Greenwich," said Selectman Lin Laverey. "Barack Obama took Greenwich. It's amazing. Who ever thought in our lifetime we would see this."
Unofficial returns without absentee ballots counted showed Barack Obama and Joe Biden with 52.8 percent of the local vote, compared with 46.7 percent for Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin. Independent candidates Ralph Nader and Matthew Gonzalez received 0.5 percent of the local vote. The Democratic presidential ticket prevailed in most of the town's election .....
.....With the retirements of Nickerson and Powers, state Reps. Livvy Floren, R-149th District, and Lile Gibbons, R-150th District, become the seniors members of Greenwich's legislative delegation. Both Republicans, running unopposed, won a fifth two-year term.
Unopposed in all but one of her previous re-election bids, Floren, 66, a Round Hill Road resident, represents western and backcountry Greenwich, as well as North Stamford. She is an assistant Republican leader of the General Assembly and a member of the Finance, Aging and Government Administration and Elections committees.
"I'm really looking forward to the next two years," Floren said in an interview at Republican headquarters. "There's going to be a lot of challenges. I'm impressed with the wonderful turnout. I've got the sense that people really thought this was an historic moment."
Never having been opposed during a general election, Gibbons, 65, is a ranking member of the General Assembly's Human Services Committee. An assistant Republican leader in the House, she also serves on the Energy and Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees. A resident of Sunset Road in Old Greenwich, her district lies along the town's shoreline.
Gibbons too reflected on the GOP's mixed showing Tuesday night.
"Greenwich is no longer the Republican stronghold that it used to be 10 years ago," she said in an interview. "We have our work cut out for ourselves to get our message out on smaller government and lower taxes."
In town races, Sharon Vecchiolla, 62, won a ninth two-year term as Democratic registrar of voters after running unopposed. On the GOP side, Fred DeCaro III, 37, won the uncontested race for Republican registrar, succeeding retiring Veronica Baron Musca, who held the position since 1996.
Full StoryGOP in high spirits despite lossesBy Colin GustafsonStaff Writer
Article Launched: 11/05/2008 01:17:57 AM EST
A Democrat may have been closing in on the White House Tuesday night, but members of Greenwich's Grand Old Party were in high spirits at the party's Cos Cob headquarters as a handful of Republican candidates for state office appeared headed for victory.
The mood was upbeat at the former Minuteman Cleaners on East Putnam Avenue, where more than 200 town Republicans gathered to chat with fellow party members, sip wine and nibble on finger food as they awaited the arrival of local and national election results.
With the party kicking off at 8 p.m., voters mingled quietly in front of a large American flag draped in the middle of the room between two plasma-screen TVs broadcasting live election results from Fox News.....
.....According to the registrars of voters, there are 13,604 registered Republicans and 9,081 Democrats in Greenwich, where Republicans have seen their 2-to-1 advantage over Democrats diminish in recent years.
"The town is shifting more toward Democrat," Ducret added, pointing to a local poll showing Obama leading in Greenwich. But "regardless of what people think nationally," he continued, "locally, you're still getting a very strong base of support for Republicans."
Lifelong Greenwich resident Hans Helbig, 86 - who sported a fisherman's cap covered in dozens of pins from presidential and Congressional campaigns dating back to the candidacies of Ronald Regan, Richard Nixon, even Dwight Eisenhower - said he was thrilled by the results.
"I'm a Republican," said Hans. "I wear the hat because it just feels like the right thing to do tonight."
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