"We are going to win this thing."
Gov. Dannel Malloy
Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy hasn’t officially won re-election, but he told supporters in Hartford early on Wednesday morning that, when all of the votes are counted, he’ll be on top.
Throughout the night, Democrats close to the governor said the race was tight. And so was the mood.
Eventually, things loosened up, as cities like Danbury showed big wins for Malloy. The governor lost that city four years ago, and he won it this time around.
Shortly after midnight, state Democratic party leader Jonathan Harris took to the microphone in front of the packed crowd at Hartford’s Society Room. "Governor Malloy: 413,081 votes. Foley 401,428," Harris said. "And that is without New Haven, Hartford, and West Haven reporting."
Then came Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman. She said the number-crunchers were waiting for two more cities to come in. One was Hartford, which had suffered through polling place problems all day. The city told Democrats that it would be the middle of the night until they’d be done.
"We’re really feeling good. We are feeling good. We are feeling good," Wyman said. "We have to wait for two more cities to come in. But, you know? It’s our cities."
Wyman then introduced Malloy. “He’s our governor for today and tomorrow – but we can’t announce that yet. But he will be our governor also tomrrow...our Governor, Dan Malloy.”
"We don’t have the final numbers," Malloy said. "But we know what the big numbers are, and we are going to win this thing."
And then came the stump speech. "We will have won it because people wanted a minimum wage of $10.10," Malloy said. "We will have won it because people wanted not to have to go to work sick if they were an hourly employee..."
Malloy may also have won it because he did better in places where he struggled in 2010. One of those places, Democrats say? Newtown.
