May Elections: Democratic Gains in Bethany, Woodbridge

Last post on the May elections...

The Orange Bulletin reports that Democrats came up big in Bethany and Woodbridge on Monday:

But while [Republican First Selectwoman Amee] Marrella won her seat back she lost the edge she had on the Board of Selectmen when Republican Judith Schwartz lost to Democrat Sandra Stein. Previously, the board was Republican dominated.
...
In Bethany, it was a Democratic sweep. ...Democratic First Selectwoman Derrylynn Gorski won 1,111 votes, Republican Newton Borgerson garnered 834 votes and unaffiliated candidate Boaz Itshaky won 52 votes. The Democrats now dominate all boards with the exception of the Board of Finance. (Albert)

So, to sum up, there was a little movement on Monday towards Democrats in traditionally Republican areas. In Andover, the board of finance will now be dominated by Democrats. Woodbridge, which had been trending Republican, is now back in Democratic hands. Naugatuck remained dominated by Republicans, but the Democrats did pick up a seat on the board of burgesses (the town council), narrowing the Republican majority to 5-4. The biggest surprise of the night, however, was Bethany, which had been considered a GOP lock but is now controlled entirely by Democrats. In fact, the only town that didn't see any kind of Democratic pickup at all was Bolton, which stayed essentially the same.

Republican incumbents, like Marrella and San Angelo, mostly did well, but Republican challengers fared very poorly.

Here's my final take on the results:

--Democrats picked up a few seats in nontraditional areas
--Incumbents by and large fared very well
--Non-incumbent Republicans were mostly unsuccessful
--Ethics, while a big issue in a few campaigns, didn't appear to affect the voters very much
--Third-party challengers did poorly outside of Naugatuck

In all, a good night for Democrats and incumbents. I will be updating the town council control map soon--Bethany and Woodbridge will change from red to blue.

Source
Albert, Bridget and Pamela McLoughlin. "Dems sweep Bethany while Marrella wins, loses BOS seat." Orange Bulletin 4 May 2005.