Groton Nominates McMahon, Murphy And Formica

In Groton, voters nominated Linda McMahon over Chris Shays as the Republican candidate for senator, Chris Murphy over Susan Bysiewicz as the Democratic candidate for senator and Paul Formica over Daria Novak as the Republican candidate for the congressman in the 2nd District.

The state-wide races followed suit. The Associated Press has declared McMahon, Murphy and Formica the winners of their respective races.

The Groton results are as follows:

Republican Senate Primary

McMahon: 572

Shays: 413

Democratic Senate Primary

Murphy: 601

Bysiewicz: 306

Republican Congress Primary for the 2nd District

Paul Formica: 669

Daria Novak: 268

Republican voter turnout in Groton was 25 percent; Democratic voter turnout was 15 percent.

McMahon and Murphy will face off in November for the right to succeed Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Senate.

With 77% of the precincts reporting at 10 p.m., McMahon was soundly defeating former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays with 76% of the vote. Meanwhile, Murphy cruised by Bysiewicz, the Middletown native and former Secretary of the State, by a comfortable 66% to 34% margin.

In the Fifth Congressional District, Elizabeth Esty emerged on the Democratic side with a convincing 43% to 34% margin (as of 10 p.m.) over the embattled Chris Donovan, once considered the strong frontrunner before a campaign-finance scandal involving several members of his staff, and dark-horse Dan Roberti (23%).

Republicans in the Fifth District went down to the wire, with favorite Andrew Roraback pulling it out with 34% of the vote, followed by Mark Greenberg (28%), Lisa Wilson-Foley (19%) and Justin Bernier (19%) as of 10 p.m.

In the Second Congressional District, East Lyme restaurateur Paul Formica was running away with the Republican primary over Madison’s Daria Novak by about a 2-to-1 ratio, as of 9 p.m. and was declared the winner.