In line with New Haven’s traditional Democratic leaning, Gov. Dannel Malloy won the Elm City by a landslide.
While the statewide results of the gubernatorial race were still undecided as of press time, Malloy triumphed over Republican Tom Foley in New Haven, winning 86.6 percent of the vote to the Republican’s 13 percent. Malloy took home a total of 21,763 votes in New Haven, according to the Associated Press.
“The numbers for Malloy really dwarfed the Foley numbers,” said Lily Sawyer-Kaplan ’17, communications director for the Dems. Although she did not have access to hard numbers on Foley’s voter base, she added that
The Yale Dems and the Yale College Republicans had starkly opposing strategies to encourage students to vote. While the Dems had over 100 student-volunteers spread out across campus yesterday, the YCR took a less aggressive approach.
Andrea Barragan ’16, president of the YCR, said the group’s strategy largely consisted of sending out emails and text messages reminding registered Republicans to vote.
“Unlike some, we won’t knock on your door six times a day or stage impromptu sit-ins in your living room,” read a post on the YCR’s page yesterday morning.
On the other hand, the Dems sent out canvasses from 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. yesterday. Their last push efforts also included hanging cards with polling place information on the doorknobs of students’ rooms, distributing pamphlets, writing chalk messages on prominent campus spots and driving voters to the polling stations.
“We really embrace our role of organizing students, getting them to the polls and making sure they have the resources to vote in Connecticut from freshman to senior year,” said Rebecca Ellison ’15, president of the Dems. “We don’t take the sort of wait-and-see approach — we want to go after it, and I think we did a great job of that today.”
While the Dems only targeted students who were either registered as Democrats or unaffiliated, Dems elections coordinator Tyler Blackmon ’16, who is also a staff columnist for the News, said that if the Dems push all students to the polls — regardless of their political affiliation — statistically, these added votes are much more likely to benefit Malloy.
Malloy received a majority of the votes in Wards 1, 7 and 22 — the three wards in which Yale undergraduates reside on campus — with 91.2, 88.3 and 92.6 percent of the vote, respectively.
A number of student voters named social issues — such as gun control, education reforms and climate change — of special significance. Evi Steyer ’15, for instance, said she supported the Democrats across the board because of the party’s stances on climate change and other environmental issues.
But other students opposed Malloy because of his economic policies. Mark DiPlacido ’15, president of the Yale Political Union, said he voted for Foley because Malloy’s recent tax hikes have had a crippling effect on businesses.
Other student voters said that they had found the race hard to understand and information difficult to find.
“One of the big problems I’ve had with this election is that people don’t know where to vote,” said Sukriti Mohan ’17. Still, she added that the Dems did a good job of educating the campus about the candidates.
Malloy performed better in New Haven this year than he did in 2010 — a development that bodes well for his chances at re-election. He earned 86 percent of the New Haven vote in 2010. In a race coming down to the wire, the difference from 2010 may prove decisive.
Foley’s support was based in the East Shore and Morris Cove areas of New Haven, areas that traditionally have higher levels of Republican support than the remainder of New Haven. He won 36 percent of the vote in Ward 18 — his highest percentage in the city.
Malloy, meanwhile, did well in traditionally Democratic sections of the city. He won 97.5 percent of the vote in Ward 20 and 97.2 percent in Ward 21, mirroring the percentages in Mayor Toni Harp’s win over Justin Elicker last November.