Senator-elect Ed Gomes (Working Families Party) |
Free Elections - What a Concept
- A rare thing. A small left-wing opposition party defeats a Democrat for a State Senate seat in Connecticut.
- Question of the day - Why is not a true Tea Party being formed to oppose the open borders, big government loving GOP?
Working Families Party candidate Ed Gomes won a Connecticut state Senate special election Tuesday night, making him the first state legislative candidate to win solely on the party's line.
Gomes' victory represents a vindication of strategy for the progressive party, which typically cross-endorses Democrats.
As a former Democratic state senator, the 79 year old Gomes was known in his Bridgeport-based district as an advocate for a higher minimum wage, guaranteed paid sick days and funding for public education.
"I've supported WFP since the beginning because they always are willing to take a risk in support of a candidate who fights for our progressive vision," Gomes said in a statement. "I'm extremely proud to return to Hartford as the first-ever WFP legislator," reports the Huffington Post.
The WFP has seen some issue advocacy success. A fight over the school board energized Bridgeport activists, who were upset by the board's drive to hire outside consultants and increase standardized testing and teacher evaluations.
In September, WFP-backed candidates defeated three members of the board in the city's Democratic primaries. Connecticut's WFP chapter also helped advocate for the state to pass the nation's first law requiring some companies to provide paid sick leave days.
Since the party had previously run state legislative candidates on its line and failed, it was hesitant to set its expectations too high before the returns came in.
"[Gomes is] definitely the underdog because it's a heavily, heavily Democratic district," Joe Dinkin, the party's national communications director, told The Huffington Post Tuesday. "Voters are habituated to voting on the Democratic line in cities like Bridgeport, as a matter of habit. It's ingrained and it's difficult to overcome. And yet the city has history of electing WFP candidates against the machine, and the public financing system levels the playing field, so we actually had the resources to compete."
It is Tea Time - No more Republicans. It is time to form our own party. |
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