I wouldn’t count on Candelaria winning huge margins in white Anglo areas such as West Haven; Holder-Winfield’s social liberalism would be seen as a feature, not a bug, for many such voters.
BTW, I lived in the beach part of East Haven for a year in 1996-97 (even back then, DeStefano already had been Mayor of New Haven for years), and it seemed to be a more socially conservative suburban area. But it’s not in that district, right?
No. Not in the district. We went thru a special election in 2011 in East Haven for state rep. GOP conservative lost by 84 votes.
Again, we ran into the same problem with groups. The New Haven Tea Party boycotted that race because “we don’t do local politics.”
And then there was a 2010 GOP primary we lost in Clinton by 21 votes ... to a “progressive Republican”. Tea Party would not support the conservative because “we cannot chase after every podunk candidate that throws his hat in the ring.”
The 3-pronged approach is dying ... all 3 prongs. If these groups won’t support conservatives that are in a real tight race, battling liberals ... they ain’t get involved in these urban races.
But, tomorrow, I am joining the effort to replace Winfield in his House seat.