Reynolds Concedes Defeat To Osten

Tom Reynolds has been serving Ledyard residents on the Town Council for 10 years and eight years at the state level as a State Representative but come November, Ledyard residents will have to rely on someone else for support in Hartford.

Reynolds was campaigning against Cathy Osten, the First Selectman of Sprague, for the 19th District Senate Seat in this election and according to his campaign staff, Osten received 2,287 to his 1,631 (excluding absentee ballots).

In Ledyard however, Reynolds received 345 votes, or 81 percent of the votes cast today. He also won in Montville, according to his campaign staff.

“Eighteen years is a pretty good run,” he said. “I think it’s time I do something else now.”

The Gales Ferry resident is married and has two sons and he said he’s looking forward to spending more time with them although a Ph. D. may be in his future.

Reynolds said he congratulated Osten upon learning of the results.

“She’s one of the hardest working advocates I’ll ever meet,” he said. “If elected, I know she’ll work aggressively on behalf of our town.”

Reynolds offered his endorsement and support for her campaign.

Osten received 80 votes in Ledyard and said she is looking forward to meeting the residents of Ledyard soon.

“I will support them with the same passion that Edith Prague has.”

Osten said her campaign was a true grassroots effort and the victory was hard-won.

“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” she said of the results. “the campaign was unsupported by the political machinery and we won by having a campaign of the people, by the people.”

25.9 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans in Ledyard cast votes in today’s election.

More Republicans voted today. 698 of 1,211, or 57.6 percent, ballots cast were Republican; 513, or 42.4 percent, were cast by Democrats.

The unofficial tallies at the Ledyard polls are:

State Senator, District 19
Tom Reynolds                        345
Cathy Osten                           73
U.S. Senate, 2nd District Republican
Linda McMahon                      455
Chris Shays                           227
U.S. Senate, 2nd District Democrat
Chris Murphy                         325
Susan Byseiwicz                     170
U.S. House of Representative Republicans
Paul Formica                           439
Daria Novak                            198

Results from around the state:

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 the 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.