Independent candidate Rodney Mortensen ended a decade of Democratic rule in my hometown of Newington, Connecticut on Tuesday, winning the mayoral election in a stunning landslide with 58 percent of the vote — crushing both major-party candidates, including incumbent mayor Tom McBride’s hand-picked successor, John Kelly.
With 100% of the precincts reporting, the unofficial results are:
Rodney Mortensen (I): 4,711 (58.5%)
John Kelly (D): 2,742 (34.1%)
Mark Pappa (R): 596 (7.4%)
Mortensen served two terms as mayor — the first as a Republican, the second as an independent — from 1991 through 1995. (He bolted the GOP in 1993.) Mortensen was succeeded by Democrat Robert Randich, who served three terms from 1995-2001 and was then succeeded by McBride, who served two terms and will now be succeeded by Mortensen.
Mortensen ran this time as an independent petitioning candidate, and he rejected the Republican Party’s offer of a cross-endorsement, but he was still seen as a right-of-center candidate (by Newington standards, anyway). He was endorsed by the Hartford Courant, but his victory still comes as a surprise (to me and my dad, at least) in what is usually our reliably Democratic town. (In 2003, for example, Democrat McBride beat Republican Jeff Hedberg 62% to 38%, and in 2004, John Kerry beat George W. Bush in town 59% to 40%.)
The result is all the more surprising because, according to my dad, Mortensen didn’t run much of a visible campaign: few lawn signs, no mailings. But he did a good deal of door-to-door campaigning, and that apparently was quite effective.
My dad describes Mortensen’s win as a “tax revolt”:
Mortensen’s victory is a tribute to his popularity which DOES persist after many years, it turns out; but also very much of a No Damn Taxes backlash - he ran on a tight-budget platform, after the profligate spending of Dems re: big projects (police station, school renovations, downtown refurbishing, Eddy Farm thing, etc.). The big deal is now we have property reevaluation underway & people fear huge increases in value = huge tax increases. This worked for Rodney.
However, this was hardly a blanket rejection of the Democratic Party. As usual, the Democrats won five seats on the town council to the Republicans’ three, so assuming Mortensen (who, as mayor, has a vote on the council) votes with the GOP, it’ll still be a 5-4 Democratic majority (down from the usual 6-3).
BrendanLoy.com was, so far as I know, the first media outlet of any kind to report on the impending Mortensen win, predicting an “upset brewing” at 9:07 PM based on absentee ballot returns, and “calling” the race at 9:33 PM, when 50 percent of the precincts were reporting.
There is no word yet from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Jeff Greenfield on whether Mortensen’s win bodes good or ill for President Bush and the national Republicans heading into the 2006 midterm elections, but I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as they figure that one out . ;)
P.S. In comments on an earlier Mortensen post, my dad points out other notable Connecticut results, and also says, “Re Newington: The Irish Trojan totally scooped the CT MSM on what by tomorrow will be a significant state story: the triumphant Return to Glory, after 10 years out of public office, of Mayor Rod Mortensen.”
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November 9th, 2005 at 4:34:36 am
“Mortensen ran this time as an independent petitioning candidate, and he rejected the Republican Party’s offer of a cross-endorsement…”
Actually it was not a Cross- but rather a Singular party Endorsement ~ not merely Offered but formally Executed & Certified ~ but which Rodney then declined by formally Withdrawing in writing therefrom. / IOW if Rodney had declined to Decline the official GOP endorsement (AND had not been successfully Challenged for the Republican nomination by a Registered Republican [which Rod no longer Is btw :] in a Republican Primary), then his 3rd-line Nominating Petition (i.e., in this case, “independent”) candidacy would have been Void. // In CT established Major and/or Minor parties ~ i.e. those which may Nominate Directly without necessarily Petitioning ~ may Cross-Nominate between or among their sometimes-incestuous Selves :> ; BUT one person may NOT appear on the ballot as Both such an Established Party’s nominee AND ALSO as a newbie Nominating Petition candidate (either with a New Wannabe-Party designation, or with None at All (like Rodney), for the Same office. / See? :) / All this Pursuant to CGS Sec. 9-453t. / Which I Wrote in 1981. (No, Really, I Did. It was all part of a big Progressive Reform bill, as mandated by the veryliberal Federal District Court. No really, it Was. Fooled ‘em. Again. WAW haw haw! :)
November 9th, 2005 at 9:12:37 am
I worked the polls yesterday– youre still on the voting list btw.
While going around town before the election, I saw some Mortenson lawn signs and they looked hand done and they faded after a couple days in the sun while the others were those fancy plastic looking ones ones… I just found that interesting for some reason.
November 9th, 2005 at 9:18:55 am
Wow … I have nothing to say about a political matter!
November 9th, 2005 at 11:01:05 am
Reminds me of where I grew up - a Republican guy named Jeff Coleman won a neighboring state rep district by door to door campaigning and engaging the community. The incumbent sat around, confident that the district that he had won for years would just fall into his hands. So much for that plan.
Coleman was principled enough to leave after his pledged time was up. However, he helped out a guy in our district defeat an entrenched incumbant the same way. Doing things like that tend to give you much currency, espicially in small communities, where you often hear from a close friend how the candiate visited them, even if he never makes it to you. Doing this in a big city wouldn’t garner the same measure of goodwill, but there are other measures you can take.
November 9th, 2005 at 5:03:16 pm
Uh, oh, Brendan Loy’s webhost in deep doo doo!
November 17th, 2005 at 2:09:09 pm
Just wanted to point out that, while Mr. Coleman’s opponent may have sat on his laurels and not gone out to ask for people’s votes, John and his slate knocked on the door of every single registered voter in the Town of Newington. John started knocking doors in the beginning of August and was knocking doors every weekend and many weeknights until the election.
Also, for those who don’t know, John was definitely *not* Tommy McBride’s “hand-picked” successor. Just shows you how effective the Republicans were at linking the two of them.
I find it very ironic that John, who has been a fiscal conservative his entire life, was actually considered the liberal in this race.
I think if you were really to look at what made the difference, you should look at the personal popularity of Mr. Mortensen, the continuing posthumous adulation of Mr. Mortensen’s father, and the incredibly biased Hartford Courant.