When considering the recent special election for the Connecticut House of Representatives in the 39th District (Feb. 26, 2019) – basically the northern ⅔ of New London – a second look at the numbers reveals that Connecticut College students could have changed the outcome. The Connecticut Secretary of the State Election Center website indicates that, as reported in this newspaper (March 5, 2019), Anthony Nolan won the election with a mere 963 votes, roughly half of the College’s student population.
Despite running on the Green Party line, which carries unequal barriers to ballot access and public campaign financing when compared with the Democratic and Republican parties, Mirna Martinez still managed to secure 535 votes, and she collected enough signatures to become the first Green to qualify for public funding under the Citizens’ Election Program during its 13 years in existence. Martinez lost the election by only 428 votes. Not only was it a very close election, the outcome of which could have been different if it was raining or snowing instead of clear and sunny, it could have also been the first election in history of a Green Party member to the Connecticut state legislature, as well as New London’s first election of a female state representative for the 39th District, a Latina no less.
In what should be considered a significant political upset, following the Feb. 20 public debate between the candidates, The Day broke rank with traditional Democratic town politics by endorsing the Green Party’s Mirna Martinez. Day Editor Paul Choiniere expressed shock at Nolan’s “combination of arrogance and awkwardness” in a Feb. 24 column. Recognizing the difficulty of Martinez’s running on a third-party line, The Day explained its endorsement in a Feb. 23 editorial: “If voters want someone to represent them who works hard to understand the issues, is willing to consider a variety of perspectives, and is dedicated to making sure her city’s needs are not ignored in Hartford, the choice is clear — Green Party candidate Mirna Martinez” The Day Editorial Board elaborated, “Martinez impressed us with her depth of knowledge on critical issues, including education, the state budget, tax policy, energy, transportation and health care.” Other Martinez endorsements published in the paper included those of former mayor, Daryl Justin Finizio (on Feb. 19), town historian Sally Ryan (Feb. 17), and Staff Writer David Collins (Feb. 7).
According to data obtained from the New London Registrar of Voters in January, there are 438 students at Connecticut College registered to vote in New London. That’s 23% of the 1,844 students taking classes at Connecticut College in Fall 2018, and more than enough to have changed Connecticut history if they had all voted for Martinez. It should be noted that the Registrar of Voters data notoriously contains inaccuracies due to the natural movement of voters in and out of the area. But the overall point remains the same: as evidenced in the latest, perhaps unusual, election, Connecticut College students could have more political power locally than anyone may have realized. The seven Connecticut College students who worked on Martinez’s campaign were not registered to vote in New London, as pointed out by Joshua Steele Kelley, Martinez’s campaign manager, in personal correspondence.
In the interest of scoping this out to see just how much electoral influence Connecticut College students may have had over the last few decades, I will work with the New London Registrar of Voters and the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office to see if there is any correlation between past local election outcomes and how many students at Conn were registered locally. Please be on the lookout for a follow-up article. •
Editors’ Note: The author is a research support librarian at Shain Library
