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11/11/2022 05:26 PMVoters from Connecticut’s 35th General Assembly District have elected Republican Chris Aniskovich to represent them in Hartford. Following the election, Aniskovich spoke to the Harbor News about what’s next.
The 35th district is comprised of Clinton, Killingworth, and part of Westbrook. According to the unofficial tallies reported in all three towns, Aniskovich received 5,836 total votes (51 percent), while Democrat incumbent candidate Christine Goupil received 5,522 votes (48.3 percent). Green Party candidate Hugh Birdsall received 84 votes (.7 percent).
For the past two years, the District had been represented by Goupil but will now be by Aniskovich. Aniskovich is the current chairman of the Clinton Town Council, a position he’s held since being elected in 2019. Besides the Town Council, Aniskovich has served on the Planning & Zoning Commission and Board of Assessment Appeals. Aniskovich will continue to serve on the Town Council in addition to his representative duties.
Reached for comment after his victory, Aniskovich told the Harbor News “I’m very excited by the outcome. It was about five or six months of hard work that paid off.”
Aniskovich said that he is looking forward to learning the ropes of the state capitol and getting to work on “the budget and bills.”
“There’s certainly some things I have in my mind, but ultimately, I’ll see what the committees I end up on are and what they have in mind,” said Aniskovich.
While campaigning for election, Aniskovich mentioned affordability as well as local control for zoning and education matters as examples of issues important to him.
Town by Town
All three candidates were Clinton residents, so it was no surprise that all three received their highest vote totals in Clinton. However, Aniskovich dominated the others earning 3,152 votes in Clinton, far surpassing Goupil’s 2,852 and Birdsall’s 58.
Aniskovich also won Killingworth, though by a more narrow margin of 1,744 votes compared to 1,729 for Goupil and 15 for Birdsall. Goupil won Westbrook, a town she lost when she ran in 2020, but the margin was extremely narrow and not enough to pass Aniskovich’s overall total. Goupil won 941 votes in Westbrook compared to 939 for Aniskovich, and 11 for Birdsall.
While the Green Party wasn’t expected to truly compete for the seat – in fact Birdsall himself said during the campaign he was more concerned with bringing attention to concerns he had than winning the election – the party had by far it’s weakest showing in years. Birdsall’s 84 total votes are well below the 351 votes that Green Party candidates John May (351 votes) and Madeleine Leveille (181) received in 2020 and 2018 respectively.
Reflecting on the vote totals Aniskovich said he looks forward to getting to know more about Killingworth and Westbrook as a state representative.
“I think I have the name recognition in Clinton, and I think the results showed that. I want to now get to know Killingworth and Westbrook a bit more and get to know what voters there have as needs and wants and concerns,” said Aniskovich.
Despite repeated requests for comment neither Goupil or Birdsall provided comment for this story. No messages of concession were posted on social media by press time.