A special election on Dec. 14 to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Rep. Michael DiMassa, D-West Haven, could be the first of four, depending on the outcomes of municipal elections Tuesday.
While DiMassa’s resignation arose from scandal, the three other Democrats would be quitting under happier circumstances — but only if they win elections in Stamford, Westport and New Britain as those communities’ chief elected officials.
Gov. Ned Lamont issued a writ Friday setting the special election for DiMassa’s seat in the 116th House District, which covers portions of West Haven and New Haven.
DiMassa, who also was a city employee, resigned after a federal grand jury returned an indictment accusing him and another city employee of steering more than $636,000 in federal relief money to a company they created in January.
Rep. Caroline Simmons of Stamford and Rep. Bobby Sanchez of New Britain are mayoral nominees. Rep. Jonathan Steinberg of Westport is the nominee for first selectman.
A temporary law passed in May will give every voter in Tuesday’s election access to absentee ballots due to COVID-19 for the second consecutive year — and most likely for the last time unless the Connecticut Constitution is amended.
The law expires after Tuesday.
The Connecticut Constitution allows the legislature to pass laws permitting absentee voting in cases of “absence from the city or town of which they are inhabitants or because of sickness, or physical disability or because the tenets of their religion forbid secular activity.”
Until the temporary law, “sickness” was defined as an individual voter’s sickness, not a general concern about the risk of contracting a virus during a pandemic or the need to stay at home and care for a sick family member.