Danbury's Winners and Second-Placers from Tuesday's Election

Bob Godfrey (D) is no stranger to winning elections. He'd won 12 before Tuesday's lucky 13.

In Tuesday's election, Godfrey, the long-time, downtown Democrat, won 3,445 to 1,255, garnering more than 73 percent of the votes against Republican Scott DeMuth.

David Arconti Jr., who has a name associated with Danbury politics dating back to the 1960s, won the 109th Assembly District, defeating City Council member Andrew Wetmore 4,450 to 3,059. Both were running for the seat vacated by Joseph Taborsak, so there was no incumbent in the race.

Jason Bartlett, a Democrat, lost to incumbent state Senator Michael McLachlan, who holds the 24th state Senate district. The final numbers were not available Tuesday night because of problems with a polling machine in New Fairfield.

Dan Carter, (R), of Bethel, defeated Steven DeMaura, but neither candidate could be reached Tuesday night for comment.

David Arconti Jr., speaking at Democratic Party headquarters, thanked the dozens of people who worked on the election. The Democrats worked four headquarters around town with six callers and drivers at each office. They phoned 9,947 voters according to an unofficial tally at 8:30 p.m.

"Without you guys, I don't win," said Arconti, 25. "It was a great for me to be running at this young age. Thanks for helping me."

Wetmore, who lost the race, said he enjoyed himself, he worked hard, and he had no regrets.

"There wasn't a single moment I wasn't working on the election since the day I was nominated," Wetmore told the Republican audience gathered at Anthony's Lake Club on Lake Kenosia. Wetmore said he was up against a candidate with a strong Danbury name and he was up against a strong President Obama victory. "There is no negative in this for me."

Danbury voters faced four referendum questions on their ballots asking them to improve water, sewer, schools, bridges and the library. All four measures were approved.

In the 110th Assembly District, Robert Godfrey said he was thankful for the victory.

"In my district, we hit about 3,000 doors. I personally hit about 2,000. I got to talk to people, and I was surprised. They wanted to talk about national issues, like health care, Medicare and elderly care. It was hard to focus them on state and local issues," Godfrey said. "In the last three or four weeks, they wanted to talk about Obama."

Godfrey said the upcoming legislative session will focus on jobs, on controling spending, on election law reform and on how to adopt the federal health care law.

Godfrey defeated Scott DeMuth, who said he joined the race to focus attention on the lack of control the state has over spending and how most people don't know that. He said Godfrey is not a fiscal conservative, but he is.

DeMuth thanked the people who helped him with his campaign, including PJ Prunty and other friends.

State Rep. Jan Giegler, who ran unopposed in the 138th Assembly District, said Tuesday's outcome was a whole lot different than they expected early Tuesday, when she saw dozens of voters from her district pouring into Danbury High School to vote.

"I was one of the lucky ones who wasn't opposed," Giegler said.

Sal Chieffalo, Republican Town Committee Chairman, told the audience not to feel down about Tuesday's results.

"We lick our wounds. We get up, and we're going out and win big in a year. We're going to do much better than we did tonight," Chieffalo said.