Politics & Government

McGee Wins 5th District by 1 Vote; Recount on Horizon

A recount of votes will be held to determine the winner of the fifth house district race following Tueday's primary.

Residents in the re-drawn fifth assembly district will have to wait a little longer to find out who will represent them in the Capitol come January, as the slim victory margin represented in Tuesday's Democratic primary has triggered a recount.

Hartford's Brandon McGee was named the unofficial winner of his party's nomination, beating Windsor's Leo Canty by one vote. Unofficial tallies have McGee earning 774 votes to Canty's 773 in the district, which serves residents in Windsor's south end and Hartford's north end.

Given the slim margin, McGee said he is "cautiously optimistic" heading into the recount.

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

Windsor's Mayor, Don Trinks, finished third in the race, picking up just under 20 percent of the votes cast.

In Windsor, Canty earned roughly 66 percent of the votes to McGee's 34 percent; however, support for McGee in his hometown proved significant.

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

In the races for federal office, Linda McMahon won big in Windsor, taking home nearly 80 percent of votes cast.

Chris Murphy topped Susan Bysiewicz in Windsor, receiving 60 percent of the votes.

As expected, Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Chris Murphy will face off in November for the right to succeed Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Senate.

With 77% of Connecticut's precincts reporting at 10 p.m., McMahon was soundly defeating former U.S. Rep. Christopher 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.

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. 

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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