Politics & Government

Canty Wins Nomination, Three-Candidate Primary Secured

Democrats held a nominating convention at L.P. Wilson Tuesday, electing Leo Canty to be the party's nominee for the Windsor-Hartford fifth district assembly seat.

After years of lobbying for a voting district majority with hopes of having a resident of Connecticut's first town to represent fellow citizens of Windsor in Hartford, an big step was made Tuesday evening when Windsor's Leo Canty took home the Democrats' nomination.

Canty won nine of the 17 votes cast by delegates at Tuesday's convention held at , beating out Hartford's Brandon McGee and Windsor Mayor Don Trinks.

Canty, however, won't be able to set his eyes on November just yet, as both McGee and Trinks qualified for a primary, which will be held in August.

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Needing 15 percent of the votes to qualify for a primary, McGee and Trinks received 29 and 17 percent, respectively.

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

Canty's victory is historic in that Windsor has not had a resident serve in Hartford for 30 years, and while no one has won the 5th district assembly seat yet, a Windsor resident hasn't had this much of a chance in decades.

Having had its voting districts carved up following the 1980 census, Windsor failed to hold a majority in any voting district for the next three decades.

That changed in December 2011 when , giving Windsor residents a majority.

"Thank you to the Democratic party for giving me the nomination," Canty told those in attendance Tuesday. "I'm looking forward to being the first candidate in 30 years to carry the banner and win the prize for Windsor, and work with Hartford very closely as our new partners."

*This article has been amendended to correct the percentage of delegate votes received by candidates McGee and Trinks. A previous version of this article read McGee and Trinks received 55 and 33 percent of votes. - Julian


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