Ben Healey ’04 was sworn in Aug. 3 as the New Haven Ward 1 alderman, becoming another in a long line of undergraduates to represent the Yale-dominated downtown ward.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. appointed Healey to serve until December to fill out the term of Julio Gonzalez ’99, who resigned this summer to concentrate on managing DeStefano’s re-election campaign.

Many had already considered Healey the front-runner to replace Gonzalez in this fall’s aldermanic election since he won the endorsement of the ward’s Democratic committee in February and will likely face no challengers in September’s Democratic primary.

Healey is not the first candidate to finish out his predecessor’s term in the ward. Gonzalez served in a similar situation after the resignation of Josh Civin ’96 in 1997.

Healey will likely face Republican and Green opponents in the November general election.