Danbury & Presidential Politics - 2004 Election

It's time for part two of the series where we are looking at how Danbury voted in the past two presidential elections.

In 2001, then-State Rep. Mark Boughton, became the first Republican elected Mayor in over a decade. He won by a very small margin of only 139 votes. Boughton ran on the message of putting "people over politics". It became a positive message, and is what led him to victory. Two years later in 2003 Boughton coasted to re-election, and the Republicans won 17 of the 21 seats on the Common Council, and also claimed the City Treasurer, City Clerk, and Town Clerk seats. It was a landslide win for Republicans, and it changed the city into a much more moderate place, rather than the Democratic stronghold that it once was. This is shown in the election for president in 2004.

President Bush seeked a second term, and didn't face much competition during the primary season. Democrats on the other hand had to pick their candidate, and the best who could challenge Bush on his post 9/11 actions, mostly the Iraq War.

Many Democrats entered the race. Over ten people were candidates at one point. Some higher profiled candidates were:

• Retired General Wesley Clark
• Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean
• U.S. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina
• Former U.S. House Majority and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri
• U.S. Senator John Kerry of Mass.
• U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
• U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman of CT
• Rev. Al Sarpton of NY

The list included, as you saw, our very own Senator Joe Lieberman. He was the party's vice-presidential nominee in 2000, and tried himself to get the nod. His chances at the beginning were looked at as pretty good, not great, but definitely better than how he did. Democrats saw his moderate side, though (which all of Connecticut has) and decided that he was not the best pick. Now to tell you the truth, I felt that Lieberman would be a good candidate because of his independent streak. I felt he would be able to attract the undecided voters, but of course party loyalty is more important in picking presidential candidates. In Connecticut Lieberman should have done well, but it wasn't really that way. These were the results from the Connecticut Primary:

1. John Kerry - 75,860 (58.3%)
2. John Edwards - 30,844 (23.7%)
3. Joe Lieberman - 6,705 (5.2%)
4. Howard Dean - 5,166 (4%)
5. Dennis Kucinich - 4,133 (3.2%)
6. Al Sharpton - 3,312 (2.5%)
7. Wesley Clark - 1,546 (1.2%)
8. Lyndon Larouche - 1,467 (1.1%)

Now in Danbury, Democrats voted like most around the state did. Those results were the following:

1. Kerry – 1381 (62%)
2. Edwards – 586 (26%)
3. Lieberman – 79(3%)
4. Sharpton – 47 (2%)
5. Dean – 44 (2%)
6. Kucinich – 34 (2%)
7. Clark – 24 (1%)
8. Larouche – 3 (.5%)
9. Undecided – 43 (1.5%)

As we all know, Kerry became the nominee, but in a hard fought battle lost to Bush. He picked John Edwards as his running mate, to attract the southern vote, which he failed to do. In 2000 Danbury went for Al Gore by fifteen percentage points. The Bush message of preventing terrorism, and strengthening our security got through to Danbury voters. Connecticut as a whole went for Kerry, by ten percentage points. But, this is how Danbury voted:

Bush – 12,399 (47%)
Kerry – 13,477 (51%)
Minor – 372 (2%)

Now Danbury didn't go for Bush, but it sure was close. What does this mean? Did the 2003 election, and Mayor Boughton really affect the way Danbury voted? Is he the one that got Bush only four percentage points away from Kerry in the city? Has Danbury really changed? Will a Republican really possibly win in Danbury in 2008? These are many questions that we ask ourselves. Nobody may know the true answers, but it sure makes you think about the saying that "all politics is local".