Jackson moves into the mayor's office

By Frederick Nevin

Democrat Scott Jackson emerged as the new mayor of Hamden in Tuesday’s election, which also saw the Republicans take three district seats on the Legislative Council.

Jackson, the mayor’s chief administrative aide for the last four years, defeated Republican Ron Gambardella. The unofficial tally gave Jackson 7,179 votes to 6,061 votes for Gambardella who lost two years ago to Mayor Craig B. Henrici who decided not to run for a third term.

Meanwhile, the Republicans will control five of 15 seats on the new legislative council. Craig Cesare and Betty Wetmore return as the at-large candidates. Republican Mike Iezzi III won the first district seat, while Republican Gabe Luppo took the second district seat. Republican Lynn Campo, a longtime member of the Board of Education, won the 9th district seat over Democrat Don Werner. Luppo garnered 1,117 votes to 777 for Werner. Iezzi defeated Democrat Michael McGary, 507-502 and Luppo defeated Anthony Brown, 639-528.

As with the last election, the mayoral race turned on results from a couple of districts. The Democrats came up big in the 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th districts. In the 5th districts, Jackson received 1,163 votes to 409 for Gambardella. In the 4th district, Jackson garnered 857 votes to 698 for Gambardella. In the 6th district, Jackson tallied 974 votes to 638 for Gambardella and in the third district; Jackson recorded 690 votes to 262 for Gambardella.

Gambardella took the 8th, 9th district by wide margins. He recorded 808 votes in the 8th district to 644 for Jackson. In the 9th district, Gambardella garnered 1,132 votes to 800 for Jackson. Other district results: Jackson, 526 to 517 for Gambardella in the 1st district; 629 votes for Gambardella to 626 votes for Jackson in the 2nd district; and 689 for Gambardella to 647 for Jackson in the 7th district. The absentee ballot favored Gambardella, 279-252.

Speaking after the results were tallied, Gambardella thanked his supporters. “The numbers are just too great,” he said in reference to the huge number of voters the Democrats have over the Hamden Republican party. “It’s impossible. There is nothing more we could have done. We spent $60,000 to bring this home,” he said.

But Mike Iezzi, a longtime party leader, said there was also some good news with Republicans winning three district seats on the council. “If not for Ron’s efforts, “ he said, “we would have ended up with only two at-large council seats.”

Meanwhile, Jackson said the voters got a campaign that was based on the issues and what each candidate could do for them. “I think Ron and I gave them that,” he said.

Now that the partisan work is done, Jackson said, “I look forward to doing the non-partisan work of the town.”

After taking office, Jackson said, he would immediately get to work on the budget for the next fiscal year. He plans to sit down with department heads and create some goals and priorities for the community, he said.

Unofficial results of other council districts were: 3rd district, Oswald Brown, 644 votes over Republican John Prete, 238; 4th district, Democrat David Henigan, 781 votes over Matt Corcoran, 662 votes; 6th district, Democrat Curt Leng, 1,009 votes to 507 for Chris Battipaglia; Democrat Michael Colaiacova, 805 votes to 457 for Republican Sarah Morrill; 8th district, Democrat John DeRosa, 773 over James Frolish, 608 votes. Results from the 5th district were not immediately available on Tuesday night.