Happy Dance Time

Out Standing!

A member of Connecticut's Working Families Party has just won their first ever seat in the Connecticut General Assembly:

Union leader Joshua Hall became the first Working Families Party candidate to win a seat in the state House, collecting 41 percent of the vote in Tuesday's 7th District special election.

Hall, vice president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers and a former Weaver High School teacher, received 625 votes in an upset of Rickey Pinckney, the Democratic-endorsed candidate, who received 512 votes, and petitioning candidate Kenneth Green, who took 367 votes, according to unofficial election results released late Tuesday by Democratic Registrar of Voters Giselle Feliciano.

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Hall's win marks just the second time a Working Families Party candidate has won a legislative seat. Ed Gomes was elected to the Senate in a 2015 special election.

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all has leaned heavily on his experience in education and promised to fight for resources that the district needs, including school funding. Earlier this month, he said he opposed a plan by the governor to have municipalities pick up a portion of teacher pension costs — a proposal that would cost Hartford about $17 million.

"That $17 million is going to break Hartford Public Schools. It's going to break the city," he said. "I'm going to make sure that it does not happen."

In his statement, he also said he would prioritize the availability of good jobs, strong neighborhoods and a "just budget."

"That starts with eliminating backdoor tax increases on working families and setting budget policy that generates revenue without harmful cuts," Hall said.

One hopes that the sort of bottom-up campaigning will be a trend.

The high profile campaigns for Governor, Senator, and President favored by parties like the Greens has been shown to neither win elections nor build the party.

Until there is a meaningful force to hold the Democratic party to account for completely ignoring their promises of a just society, they will never keep their promises.