Norwalk Republican chief Conroy looks at election results

NORWALK, Conn. —  Hillary Clinton’s coattails probably helped Democratic candidates in Connecticut, Norwalk Republican Town Committee Chairman Andy Conroy said Friday, expressing optimism over Donald Trump but disappointment over local races.

Conroy supported Trump, saying that he’d promised to support the Republican Party nominee.

“I thought there was an awful lot of foolishness that went on in that election on all sides, by all people, including him,” Conroy said. “You end up with people making a tough choice between the two presidential candidates. That was a hard one to make. I ended up making my choice, I voted for him, and I want him to do now what he said he was going to do, across the whole spectrum of things.”

Trump, throughout his campaign, said he’d address the problems of inner cities, Conroy said.

“I want him to make good on that. I think that’s going to make a real difference and be good for our country. All the rest of the stuff is much higher profile but that’s an important one,” Conroy said. “Getting the economy cranked up, I think is going to take a lot of work and going to be hard to do, but if you don’t go do that deliberately then it won’t happen. So, I am glad that he is going to give that a shot. I am hoping the effects will take place sooner than later. I don’t really want to see the effects five years out, I want to see them sooner than that.”

Among the “whole host” of issues that Conroy sees for Trump to work on is the “weakened” military.

“I don’t know if that means we have to be a World War II-size military but it has to be stronger,”
Conroy said.

It’s time to get something done on veterans’ issues, instead of “lip service,” and Trump has ideas on how to fix the nation’s infrastructure and how to fund that expense, he said.

“I don’t know how he’s going to get it all started, there’s so much to do,” Conroy said. “… He’s going to have to come up with some management technique to make this all happen.”

The stock market went up when Trump was elected, Conroy said.

On that topic, The Telegraph, a United Kingdom news source, said, “Shares and bonds whipsawed violently as initial concerns about a Trump presidency gave way to cautious optimism that the businessman-turned-reality-television-star would be less divisive than originally feared.”

Investopedia reports that markets tend to bump up after an election.

“Stocks posted a much better post-election day than in 2012, when the Dow and S&P both dropped 2.4 percent, while the Nasdaq slipped 1.4 percent,” CNBC reported.
Early Monday there was more news: “Emerging market bond, currency markets face ‘meltdown’ after Trump’s win,” pronounced a CNBC headline.

The local level

Chief among the local races was the unsuccessful attempt by Greg Ehlers of Darien to unseat State Sen. Bob Duff (D-25)

“I am disappointed. I thought Ehlers ran a pretty hard fought campaign that made a lot of sense. Strangely, (State Rep.) Terrie Wood ran an almost identical campaign and she did very well,” Conroy said.

Duff beat Ehlers at a nearly two to one margin in Norwalk, with 24,047 votes to 12,416 votes, according to Democratic Registrar Stuart Wells.

In Darien, Ehlers got 5,136 votes to Duff’s 2,386, according to Darien’s municipal website.

There was a stronger than usual turnout of Democrats in Darien because of the presidential election, Conroy said, asserting that Ehlers would have won overwhelmingly in other circumstances. He had hoped that the Norwalk vote would be close and the Darien vote would carry Ehlers to a win, he said.

Still, “I don’t think Duff has had quite the challenge that Ehlers presented. I think Ehlers really made him defend hard,” Conroy said.

Wood, in District 141, got 1,782 votes in Norwalk, while her Democratic challenger, Randy Klein of Darien, got 1,497, according to Wells. In Darien, Wood got 6,924 votes and Klein got 2,472.

Republican Darline Perpignan fell short in her quest to unseat State Rep. Chris Perone (D-137); Perone won with 6,754 votes to Perpignan’s 3,293 votes.

Conroy said he was “stunned.”

“I haven’t seen a candidate do as badly as Perone did in a long, long time,” Conroy said. “I just didn’t see any enthusiasm, he really didn’t start to run until the last few weeks when he kicked into high gear, finally. Prior to that it just wasn’t there, and he was also pretty down on his performance at the state. When he was in the debates I was thinking it’s pretty odd that a candidate would talk about himself in a negative way but he did.”

He continued, “Perpignan did a zillion doors and I don’t know that Perone or anybody for Perone really did a lot of doors. That should have added up to her doing much better compared to Perone than she did. Is that all the federal effect? I don’t know. But I really would love to know why she didn’t do better.”

State Rep. Fred Wilms (R-142) handily fought off his challenger, Democrat Anna Duleep, running on the Working Families Party line. In Norwalk, Wilms got 6,122 votes to Duleep’s 1,583, Wells said; in New Canaan, Wilms got 1,338 votes to Duleep’s 131 votes, according to Patch.

State Rep. Gail Lavielle (R-143) had no competition.

“Incumbents are hard to beat, ala Perone,” Conroy said. “I think if we ran an even better candidate than Perpignan, somebody who was just stellar, I think they would have lost. I don’t think they would have beat Perone.”

Look at the top line, showing that Clinton/Kaine got 24,229 votes in Norwalk to Trump/Pence’s 12,288, he said.

“It immediately becomes apparent that if Clinton has any coattails, and I think she did, she’s going to drag people with her,” Conroy said, pointing out that all of the Democratic incumbents won with an about two to one ratio.

Ehlers might have had a much better shot if not for the presidential race, Conroy said, speculating that Duff might have a harder time in two years.

“I don’t expect Connecticut to turn around quick enough,” Conroy said. “… I wish it would, but there isn’t (a success story) at the moment. Regardless of his political rhetoric, I think we’ll have a problem in Connecticut. Watch and see what happens with taxes over the next year.”

“Nobody ever goes in with any intention to raise taxes,” Duff said on Election Night. “That’s certainly not my intention to do that, I don’t think anybody ever wants to do that. So, there is no secret plan or anything else. We have cut over $4 billion from spending over the last few of years and we have made a lot of reductions, some of which are very painful. We will continue to make some tough choices.”