The Write Stuff
12/01/2005

The Write Stuff

Waterbury Mayor, Michael Jarjura, Scores Stunning Victory

One week after winning re-election with an improbable write-in campaign, Mayor Michael Jarjura was still flush with success.

"This feels great," Jarjura said during an interview in the mayor's office. "This victory is the best by far. Nothing could top this in my political career. In the past 30 days I literally went from the political scrap heap to the height of my political career."

Jarjura won against astounding odds. He had been thumped by Karen Mulchay in the Democratic primary, in September, and was unable to get his name on the November ballot. His only option was to launch a write in campaign. He had to convince the Waterbury electorate that he remained the best choice to lead the city into the future, and then he had to educate the voters how to cast a write-in vote.

"We got 8000 voters to write in my name," Jarjura said. "And they did so in a nearly flawless manner."

To understand the magnitude of Jarjura's historic victory, consider that only five candidates in all of American history have won election from a write in campaign in a city as large as Waterbury. The first candidate to do so was Strom Thurmond, who captured a seat in the U.S. Senate in the 1950s.

"I'm the sixth," Jarjura beamed. "It's amazing."

Six months ago it seemed like Mayor Jarjura would stroll towards re-election. When the Observer interviewed him in early June the Mayor seemed disinterested in the upcoming campaign, and openly pondered whether he would consider running for a fourth term (even though he had yet to successfully win a 3rd term).

In many ways the shocking loss to Karen Mulcahy in September invigorated Jarjura to campaign more aggressively than he ever has in the past. "We took a very interesting route to re-election," Jarjura said. "And it makes the victory extra special. It was anything but a ho-hum race."

Pre-election polls conducted by the mayor indicated he had an excellent shot to win an historic victory on election night, but the uncertainty of counting on thousands of people to cast a write in vote gave even the strongest Jarjura supporter a bad case of butterflies.

When the first returns came in Mulcahy had a 15 vote lead and Jarjura said he grimaced. "Oh no," he said. "Not again."

But from there on out it was Jarjura all the way. It was going so well that a nervous Jarjura kept asking campaign staff "Are you sure you're getting these numbers right?"

The Jarjura team was lightning quick with the results and Jarjura had declared victory while WATR radio, the usual first horse to call the finish, was staggering around in the dark.

The key to Jarjura's quick tabulation was to take the total number of votes on the machines, subtract the tallies for his opponents Karen Mulchay, Tom Tremaglio and Larry DePillo, and then subtract an addition 10% for a margin or error. The remaining votes they figured to be theirs, and precinct after precinct, that number spelled victory.

And 45 minutes after the polls closed Jarjura headquarters was rocking with jubilation.
After the preliminary numbers looked like re-election for Jarjura, poll workers had to take rolls of paper out of the voting machines and individually count the names written down.

"Much to our surprise those numbers were even better than our first estimates," Jarjura said. "The numbers were phenomenal."

When it was totally obvious to the Jarjura team that they had seized the night, the Mayor headed down to the Republican-American newsroom where WATR radio was broadcasting live. Election night at the Republican-American is a traditional stopping point for victorious candidates, but on this night, Jarjura's visit had everyone scratching their heads. According to the numbers being broadcast to WATR listeners, Mulcahy had a slight lead, when it was announced that Jarjura had declared victory and was in route to the newspaper.

Once he was there, Jarjura said the three political pundits on the air, Reggie Beamon, Selim Noujaim, and Laura Nesta, all wanted to know the same thing - How did the Mayor know he had won?

In the end Jarjura tallied 2000 votes more than his closest opponent, Karen Mulcahy. Jarjura said the main reason his write-in campaign was so successful was due to the efforts of Fran Sullivan and Bob Brown. In addition, he said Dave and Betty Corbett, former mayor Mike Bergin, Garret Casey and Joe Macary were also members of a core group that pushed him to victory.

"Our field operation was the best I have ever seen," Jarjura said. "Normally poll standing is a non-event. A way to keep the candidates busy. But in our case our workers were so pumped up because they had to coach voters how to cast a write-in ballot."

Jarjura workers dressed in bright yellow jackets and handed out small yellow pencils with index cards how to cast a write-in vote."

Jarjura said his write-in campaign had a broad base of support across the political spectrum. Republican support, he said, was essential. "Tom Tremaglio (the republican candidate) is a decent guy," Jarjura said. "But people had an apprehension, a Giordano hangover. There is still a deep anger at the level and depth of betrayal by Giordano. The Republicans have to shed their past and build anew."

But what of the Democrats? Have they formed into two rival camps again?

"That's a good question," Jarjura said. "I can't make everybody happy. It's the nature of the beast. But it is irrefutable that I have broad support. Party politics is less important now. Look at Wolcott, they have an independent mayor and he ran unopposed."

But primaries can continue to be dangerous turf to navigate. "The people aren't all that interested in primaries," Jarjura said. "It's a place for special interests and a place to turn out the parochial vote."

The Mayor believes that if he had not re-entered the race as a write-in candidate that Karen Mulcahy would "have won handily."

And in the end Mayor Jarjura said the entire process has been good for him and the city. "There was some very legitimate criticism of my administration and I have taken it to heart," Jarjura said. "There are no monopolies on good ideas. I listened a lot during the campaign, out in the trenches."

Jarjura credits Larry De Pillo for energizing the issue of blight in the community, and the mayor said he is willing to talk with De Pillo about pursuing a water bottling plant in the city.

"I want Larry to bring something realistic to the table," Jarjura said. "If it's realistic, who wouldn't want a bottling plant in Waterbury. We do have excess capacity of water and I would authorize Larry to approach bottling companies on behalf of the city."

Jarjura credits Tom Tremaglio for his wealth of knowledge of the private sector. The mayor also credits Tremaglio for accurately pointing out the vast disparity of resources between the legislative and executive branches of Waterbury government. "Tom is right," Jarjura said. "We have to get more resources to the aldermen. Tom is a very passionate man and I hope he stays involved."

Jarjura was also laudatory towards independent candidate Jimmy Ayash. "Jimmy won the heart of the voters," Jarjura said. "He was out there all by himself. A young father of three. And he was pretty good on the issues, too. He has a bright future."

The Mayor was reluctant to talk about the woman who nearly ended his political career, Karen Mulcahy. There is a lot of animosity between the two individuals, and neither placed a congratulatory call to the other on primary night, or after the general election. Some in Mulchay's camp said the mayor bought the election by spending more money than all the other candidates combined.

Jarjura said he spent $150,000 on the unsuccessful primary campaign, and another $100,000 on his write-in campaign. Money was instrumental in educating the voters how to cast a write in vote, and Jarjura said he ran 100 commercials a day on Comcast, for ten days, leading up to the election. The commercials ran on CNN, ESPN and the Food Channel.

"We ran TV commercials, we ran detailed instructions in print media, we used direct mail and we rented three machines for a month," Jarjura said. "Two thousand people came to our open houses to see how to cast a write in vote. The response was phenomenal."

Jarjura doesn't deny that money helped his campaign, but he said "money wasn't going to win this. People won this. There were some mean and vicious things said about me during this campaign and it got my dander up. I worked harder than I ever have before and it's a great feeling to know that the voters of Waterbury recognize my accomplishments. It feels great to be vindicated."

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