OLD LYME — Unofficial results from Old Lyme show incumbent Governor Ned Lamont (D) polling 2,583 votes compared to Republican Bob Stefanowski’s number of 1,822. Lamont has claimed victory but Stefanowski has yet to concede.

Other results from Old Lyme show incumbent Senator Richard Blumenthal (D) with 2,583 votes in contrast to Trump-backed Leora Levy (R) with 1,734 votes. The Associated Press has called the race for Blumenthal.

Incumbent Representative in Congress Joe Courtney (D) polled 2,747 votes while challenger Mike France (R) gained 1,537 votes. Courtney is currently leading statewide.

The open race for the 20th District State Senator, created by Paul Formica’s retirement, pitched Republican Jerry Labriola,Jr. against three-time candidate Martha Marx (D). In Old Lyme, Marx gained 2,258 votes to Labriola’s 2,054.The Day reports Marx’s campaign has made the call that Marx has won the contest.

Incumbent State Representative Devin Carney (R-23rd) polled 2,321 votes while challenger Colin Heffernan garnered 2,000 votes. The Day reports that Heffernan has conceded the race to Carney.

UPDATED NOV. 8: We received an email yesterday from Jerry Labriola Jr.’s campaign manager Eddie Aledia stating, “We apologize for not responding to your candidate survey, it got lost in the emails and showed in the spam folder.” Aleida offered, “To send responses to the questions you provided right now,” but we felt obliged to decline that offer in the interests of parity since all the other candidates, who responded, had met our deadline. We appreciate Aleida’s response.

In keeping with a long tradition and in the interests of increasing voter knowledge prior to next week’s critically important mid-term elections, we asked all the candidates, whose districts include Lyme and/or Old Lyme, to send us a brief biography and photo, and answer three questions that we posed to them.

We are disappointed to report that, for the first time we can recall, two of the six candidates did not to respond to our questionnaire. We are, however, pleased to publish the responses for the remaining four.  We would like to express our sincere thanks to the responding candidates both for taking the time to answer our questions and adhering to our strict word limits — 100 words for the bio and 350 words for each response.

The questions were:

1. What is the most serious problem currently facing the state of Connecticut? Why is it the most serious problem? What would you do to help solve the problem?
2. If elected/re-elected, which issues (excluding the one you have described in Q1) would be your primary focus during your term?
3. Why are you running for this position?

The candidates are:

House District #23 (includes Lyme and Old Lyme)

Devin Carney (R – Incumbent)

Colin Heffernan (D)

Senate District #20 (includes Old Lyme)

Jerry Labriola, Jr. (R )

Martha Marx (D)

Senate District #33  (includes Lyme)

Norm Needleman (D – incumbent)

Brandon Goff (R) 

Click on the candidate’s name above to read their biography and responses to our questions.

For the record and again, in keeping with a long tradition, we will not be making any candidate endorsements.