Fifteen Scalps

While the GOP wave crashed across America on Tuesday, Connecticut voters managed to still find reason to keep all five Democrats representing the state in Congress, and a full set of Democrat constitutional offices, presuming Dan Malloy prevails as governor...  a spectacular thing happened in the belly of this Blue Beast.

Fifteen incumbent legislative Democrat scalps were taken.  One of those was actually a squirrel pelt as the scalp belongs to Senator Tom Colapietro, long known for having the worst toupee in the Connecticut General Assembly.  His was the lone seat added to the Senate Republicans.  The remaining victories were to house Republicans who pushed their ranks from 37 back up to 51 members.

Among those defeated were many I am pleased to see that made my short list of those Democrats deserving defeat.  Elizabeth Esty in Cheshire, Jim O'Rourke in Cromwell, Jason Bartlett of Bethel, and Annie Hornish in Granby went down. 

To add to the delight is the defeat of Steve Fontana in North Haven, Corky Mazurek in Wolcott, Theresa Conroy on Seymour, Joan Lewis in Coventry Thomas Keho in Glastonbury Peggy Reeves in Wilton and Ted Graziani in Ellington.  The remaining victories were open Democrat seats.  Not a single incumbent Republican was defeated election night.

While this is good news, Democrats still hold just under two-thirds of the House chamber.  The potential loss of the governor's mansion will most likely mean that more taxes, more spending and more borrowing will be the solutions from your inadequate state leaders going forward.

But in the meantime, the victories that were mounted against some of the most incompetent and onerous Democrats in office were admirable and should be savored.