Politics & Government

West Hartford Voters Solidly Behind Murphy, McMahon

Voter turnout for Tuesday's primaries was 23 percent for Democrats and 28 percent for Republicans.

Those who went to the polls in West Hartford on Tuesday put their support behind Chris Murphy in the Democratic primary and Linda McMahon in the Republican primary. The two will face off in the race for an open U.S. Senate seat in November.

With a mid-August date and only one decision on the ballot, turnout was fairly low in West Hartford — 23 percent for registered Democrats and 28 percent for registered Republicans. Murphy beat his Democratic primary opponent Susan Bysiewicz in all nine West Hartford polling districts, and Linda McMahon beat her GOP opponent Chris Shays in all nine districts as well.

Statewide, with 77% of the precincts reporting at 10 p.m., McMahon was soundly defeating Shays with 76% of the vote. Meanwhile, Murphy cruised by Bysiewicz, the Middletown native and former Secretary of the State, by a comfortable 66% to 34% margin.

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In the Fifth Congressional District, Elizabeth Esty emerged on the Democratic side with a convincing 43% to 34% margin (as of 10 p.m.) over the embattled Chris Donovan, once considered the strong frontrunner before a campaign-finance scandal involving several members of his staff, and dark-horse Dan Roberti (23%).

Republicans in the Fifth District went down to the wire, with favorite Andrew Roraback pulling it out with 34% of the vote, followed by Mark Greenberg (28%), Lisa Wilson-Foley (19%) and Justin Bernier (19%) as of 10 p.m.

Find out what's happening in West Hartfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 In the Second Congressional District, East Lyme restaurateur Paul Formica was running away with the Republican primary over Madison’s Daria Novak by about a 2-to-1 ratio, as of 9 p.m. and was declared the winner.


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